MICE CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

by Dr. Zuzana Adamson

The fourth-largest Chinese city has around 14 million inhabitants and was one of the destinations of our post-tour after the ITB Shanghai exhibition, organised for B2B media and buyers. It is famous for traditional Chinese medicine, the discovery of which was on the itinerary of this trip. TIANJIN is located in northern China by the sea, with the Haihe River flowing through it, and it is an important industrial centre; its name means “Heavenly Ford.” Another point of interest is that it hosts an assembly plant for Airbus A320 commercial aircraft.

In this amazing city where modernity mixes with tradition, you can find a plethora of famous luxury hotel brands at very affordable prices. The Astor Hotel offers 5-star luxury accommodation right in the city centre, located by the river, where we practised tai chi in the morning. The interiors of the Astor Hotel and its 152 elegant rooms evoke the atmosphere of a classic Victorian style.

The Buckingham Ballroom offers 730 square metres of space for conferences and MICE events, while the award-winning gentlemen’s club, O’Hara Bar, is known for its excellent whisky, wine selection, and live music performances with an English atmosphere.

Yan Yuan Hotel is another outstanding 5-star hotel that has a user rating of 9.5/10. The Presidential Suite covers an area of 120 square metres, while the suites are 60 square metres. The excellent location of the hotel, surrounded by greenery and gardens, provides a quiet luxury sanctuary near major sights and tourist attractions. The hotel features an indoor pool and two restaurants.

When in Tianjin, you should definitely not miss its local marketplace with a wide variety of specialities.

There you will get to know typical delicacies, people, and vendors from Tianjin, who are very friendly, enjoy taking photos with Europeans, and always approach you with a smile for a joint photo. The omnipresent motorbikes are everywhere, some of which are literally cute.

The Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is one of the oldest and most prestigious. In addition to a student campus, it also includes a botanical garden and a museum. We visited the university hospital, a pharmacy where specific herbal mixtures are mixed,

scientific workplaces with modern technologies, and diagnostic centres.

The Second International Cultural Festival of Traditional Chinese Medicine was taking place on campus, where students from different countries exhibited their own inventions at their booths. For example, two friendly girls had a special card game with pictures of massage points, which they play with classmates while learning. J. A. Comenius would be delighted by such an approach.

Inside the university facilities, we were surprised by a lot of creative, illustrative teaching aids. We were able to consult various health questions with the students or have our health status and vitality analysed.

China has been actively focusing on medical tourism recently, aiming to attract an international clientele to its hospitals and centres, which provide medicinal plants and special treatment methods using modern technologies, offering tailor-made health diagnostic devices as well as processes designed to bring harmony. This university, including its students, made a truly excellent impression on us.

The Tasly Great Health Centre was founded in 1994; it is another healthcare enterprise with the latest technology and the flagship of the Tasly Holding Group pharmaceutical corporation. It is not a classic hospital, but a large technological, production, and healthcare complex. Tasly developed the world’s first high-speed production line for herbal drop pills and set standards for digitising the quality of herbal products. It is the base for integrating European and Chinese procedures. Our international group found the guided tour of these places, the introduction to Chinese medicine, and modern technologies in the field of health, very interesting.

For foreign visitors, businesspeople, and tourists, an evening cruise on the Haihe River is a wonderful experience, during which you can admire the architecture offering a unique mix of European colonial styles and futuristic Chinese design. Colourfully illuminated buildings, landmarks (including a European-style Catholic church), and a giant wheel dominating the city – you can see the entire panorama beautifully from the boat – and you won’t miss the fact that the bridges are inspired by Italy and Europe.

We found an Italian quarter built in Tuscan and Renaissance style here, as well as buildings of the former British and French concession zones in a variety of Western styles (Gothic, Art Nouveau, Renaissance, and Art Deco). Next to them stand modern skyscrapers including the iconic Goldin Finance 117 building, which ranks among the tallest structures in the world.

The futuristic structure of the Binhai Library by the Dutch studio MVRDV is dominated by a giant luminous sphere with cascading shelves resembling a human eye. The colourful illumination of the buildings shines into the night. However, these are not static exhibitions, but entire movies projected onto the buildings, for example, scenes of underwater life. Local residents like to sit by the river, which is lined with promenades and restaurants, or tables with seating where they bring their own specialities. It is the living centre of the city, pulsing with a cosmopolitan spirit.

From TIANJIN, it is about three hours by bus to the Great Wall of China, so an optional excursion is offered for MICE delegates. In addition to the professional programme, they can enjoy a unique experience of the monumental wall, which spans a total of about 21,000 km. And on the way, you can sing karaoke and dance, which Chinese people love.