Tianjin – Siminka's View

We had to book our return flights from China before we even knew our exact plans. We went with the cheapest option for our departure date, which turned out to be a flight to Seoul with a nearly day-long layover in Tianjin. This gave us one last chance to experience the domestic departures zone at Chongqing airport. Four members of the Seyd clan passed the time in the ever-present massage chairs.

When it was time to board, the locals just had to scan their faces, but they physically checked our family’s tickets. Everything went smoothly and quickly, and we took off exactly on time.

As we exited the Tianjin airport, we were swarmed by taxi drivers. We just gestured that we weren’t interested. Johnny tried to order a Didi, but the app was struggling to pinpoint our location. A man from the group of drivers offered to help. I remembered him and was surprised Johnny was even engaging with him, but I stayed out of it. The guy was intentionally confusing us and even had the audacity to tap Johnny’s phone to try and cancel the Didi order. Luckily, a confirmation was required. He then offered to drive us for the same price. That was the last straw for Johnny, who told him to leave us alone and walked away. The jerk actually followed us! Johnny had to tell him off again, and we moved further away. Once we were at a safe distance, the guy yelled “F*** you!” at us. We just ignored it. We reached the spot where he’d sent us, only to find out we were in the wrong place. A young airport worker helped us out using a translator app. Eventually, we stepped out from under the airport roof, the app finally got a GPS signal, and we found a taxi. The problem was, we’d only managed to order one. Leo’s iPhone app wasn’t working right, and I couldn’t order because I’d given my Chinese SIM card to Johnny since he’d run out of data. Our driver offered to help and arranged a second taxi for us. Our place wasn’t far—about a 15-minute drive. Our large 7-seater cost about $7. The second, regular taxi was agreed upon for $4. Johnny paid via Alipay, entered the amount, and hit send. But when the notification came through, instead of 35 yuan, it showed 341 yuan—about $40! Luckily, Johnny noticed immediately before the driver could pull away. And thank goodness our first driver was there too, because the scammer couldn’t really argue. He just made the excuse that Johnny must have typed it in wrong. He claimed he couldn’t refund it through the app, so he handed over the difference in cash. Johnny was worried the bills might be counterfeit, so he took a photo of the license plate just in case we had to involve the police. Just what we needed at the very end of our trip.

Fortunately, the money was real, and we used it to pay for our accommodation. This time, we’d booked the apartment in advance but had to pay on-site. We paid part in cash and part through the app, which was a convenient way to get rid of the unwanted cash.

The apartment was nice, spacious, and clean—almost a shame we were only there to sleep. However, it was far from the city center. There wasn’t much around; the only real advantage was its proximity to the airport.

Despite being exhausted from the early start, we decided we didn’t want to spend our last hours in China cooped up in the apartment. We walked toward the metro, passing a local Talent Park with a lake, a running track, and a very relaxed vibe. It felt almost like being back in central Slovakia. We reached the metro station only to find out it was still under construction. We had to take a taxi to a working station and then rode into the center of Tianjin.

The city was pleasant. It felt like being in a European resort or maybe Dubai, but with better food. After our experience in Chongqing, this city of 14 million felt surprisingly quiet and uncrowded.

We tried some street food—finally, no mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns! At one stall, we had a repeat of the taxi incident. Johnny paid for the food, and somehow over 200 yuan was added to the total. He caught it, and they returned the money—well, the 200 yuan, anyway; they ignored the extra few cents.

Lesson learned: Always check your payment notifications immediately. And only order taxis through the app.

We walked through the city center in the evening, ducked into a mall where Johnny wanted to look at car showrooms, and once the kids started complaining about their tired legs, we headed home to sleep.