When you go on a tour to see the sites remember the license plate of your bus because thats how you know which is yours. Get a tour only to the places you want to see. If you get the '5 places tour' then you're going to end up at fascinating places like shoe markets, mineral exhibits, or which ever locations you guide has cut deals with.

Da Zha Lan Street is near Tiananment Square and it's side streets are packed with markets. There are hotels everywhere in the area so you can stay right on the street. The prices are great and you can find everything you could hope for. Its older style China and the area is around 500-600 years old. If you like shopping its the place to go. The shops start closing down around 23:00 or so so you are given lots of time to browse. The peddlers usually ask around 200%-400% rather than the 600-1200% at the more famous markets. I've described it in more detail in my Bejing Travel Report.

Tianjin zoo has quite a collection of animals. Hippos, Rhinos, a giraffe, tigers, bears, reptiles, monkeys, osterichs, raindeer, yaks, zebra, tonnes of birds and more. If you haven't seen hippos or rhinos up close they are really big.

The zoo is located near Hua Cheng hotel. Chinese for zoo is dong wu yuan, give that to your taxi cab driver. The zoo costs 20RMB or 30RMB to enter. The 30RMB lets you see more. We paid 20RMB and saw almost everything. Once you've paid you'll still be asked to pay further to see certain animals. The reptiles cost 20RMB to see. The circus show is 4RMB and to see the majority of the birds you have to pay a fee to enter the large bird sanctuary part.

On a sadder note they have a bear cub which they force to ride a bike and do other tricks for people. It looks so horrible, the poor thing is skinny and has chains on it and moans as its doing its paces. Its cruel and horrid to see but other than that the zoo is cool.

They have a water park beside the zoo with carnival rides. I didn't bother going in. All I know is you can't go on the ferris wheel, its closed permanently due to a fatality.

The tombs of the Qing Dynasty are amazing. The tombs themselves are underground and built of beautiful stone and are original and unaltered. The tombs have coffins of the kings/queens and concubines in them but nothing more. Above each tomb is a palace. The palaces are in great condition and most have been restored to some degree. The landscape has other awesome temples and palaces to behold too. The queen who built the summer palace in Beijing rests in a tomb here.
The Qing tombs are located in Ji Xian of Tianjin.