Tanggu Old Boat

My Chinese limited to 你好 and whatever I could manage to look up in my pocket Mandarin dictionary, on New Years of 2004-2005 I headed to the port of 塘沽 in hopes of seeing old boats.

Initially I was disappointed, finding only an abandoned amusement park, ice fishing, and an extremely shallow coast that you could drive on...

But I came across a wonderful female taxi driver who somehow managed to decipher my repeated instructions for “old boat”.

At the port, I met a captain who, after much haggling, agreed to take me out on his ship..

Our breakfast was grilled/reheated dumplings and bai jiu..