Ok, so first, here's the low down on the commonly seen acronyms and the districts and ports that are included in this huge development area. Later, in the article we will lightly introduce you to each area/district /zone/seaport!

BNAT = Binhai New Area of Tianjin
TEDA = Tianjin Economic Development Area also known as
Tianjin Economic and Technology Development Area
TPFTZ = Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone

The Districts
Tanggu District Hangu District Dagang District

The Ports
Tianjin Port Beijiang Port Nanjiang Port

Binhai New Area of Tianjin (BNAT)
BNAT encompasses Tianjin Port, Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, Tanggu District, Hangu District, Dagang District, and part of Dongli and Jinnan Districts (the Industrial Zone of Lower Reaches of the Haihe River. Along its north boundary is Nanfeng County, Hebei Province; along its south is Huanghua County, Hebei Province.
The overall conception for BNAT is to be developed into a widely-opened modern economic area for the 21 century with Tianjin Port, Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area, and Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone as its framework, with metallurgy and chemical industries as its foundation, with commercial trade, finance and tourism as competitors of development, and with new and expanding industries and export-oriented economy as leading industries.
BNAT's basic 10 year objective is to enable its GDP and foreign currency revenue to account for over 40% of the whole Tianjin

Tianjin Economic Technological Development Area (TEDA)
Created in 1984, and located just 50 km northeast of Tianjin in the Tanggu District is TEDA, a state-level economic zone focused on the establishment of foreign-funded enterprises. It is also conveniently located just 2 km from the Xingang Port of Tianjin and the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone (TPFTZ).
TEDA is basically divided into commercial, light industrial and residential zones.

TEDA has four major pillar industries: electronic communication industry, light industrial foodstuff industry, bio-medicine industry, and machinery manufacturing industry.

Within these major pillars TEDA attracts many other types of industry, such as pharmaceuticals, laboratory chemicals, appliances, cosmetics, famous brand garments, high-quality textiles, specialty plastics, and bio-technology
Some of the many foreign enterprises now operating in TEDA include Motorola, Coca Cola, Heinz, Kraft Foods, AT&T, AST, General Electric Appliance, Honeywell, Yamaha, Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, Goldstar, Nestle of Switzerland, the Chia Tai (CT) Group of Thailand, and Universal Furniture of Singapore, Xidisi, Samsung Electronics, Dingyi Company, SEW, Norhenorde and Shikebicheng, and more, TEDA is only 38 km away from Tianjin International Airport, and the area is bisected by the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Expressway. Beijing is approximately 2 hours away by car. It is linked to five railway trunk lines. .

Most of the buildings are moderate to large 1-3 story single occupancy industrial buildings sprinkled with a few 3-5 story multi-occupancy commercial/light industrial buildings. There is good separation between facilities.

TEDA has three 4-star hotels.

The area boasts complete sports and entertainment facilities, having an 18-hole international golf course, stadium and gymnasium, along with bars and clubs, etc.
Residential housing options consist of villas and apartment buildings, in various styles and grades. And housing costs are cheaper here than in Tianjin.

TEDA enjoys a complete educational system; with a series of educational institutions such as TEDA International School, TEDA Elementary School, TEDA College, etc.

TEDA has two imported goods supermarkets. Although these stores may not have everything, you can generally find your basic imported goods here.

For the future, major efforts shall be devoted to developing high-tech industries in TEDA so as to be built into an export-oriented modern industrial base with modern industries as the basis and with high-tech taking the lead.Basic Transportation for Travel to TEDA from Tianjin
Jin-Jing-Tang Highway: Approx 40-50 minutesÕ drive to TEDA from Tianjin.
Jin-Bin Highway: Runs from west to east, starting at Dongxing flyover on middle ring line of Tianjin City, passing through Hegong and Dongli District, to Hujiayuan of Tanggu District.
Total length: 33.54 km.
Speed Limit: 120 km/hour.
Tang-Jin High Road: a semi-isolated urban high road, 50-60 minutesÕ driving.
Public buses: No.503, 815, 835, 605, 651 buses to downtown area.
Interval: 10-15 minutes

Introduction to TEDA International School (TIS)
Teda International School (TIS) was established in 1995 by the governing body of the Tianjin Economic Development Area to provide world-class education for expatriate children residing in the Tianjin/TEDA region.
TIS is located in the residential section of TEDA -ten minutes from Tanggu and 50 minutes from central Tianjin. Transportation for students from these areas is available.

TIS campus is comprised of four modern, climate-controlled buildings housing general classrooms; physics, biology and chemistry labs; computer lab; library/media center; ESOL classrooms; full-sized gymnasium and two cafeterias. The campus grounds are a park-like setting that includes a playground, a football field, and a three hundred-meter collegiate-style track.

TIS is a member of and is accredited with WASC. Also a member of the Association of Chinese and Mongolian International Schools (ACAMIS) and participates in intramural sports and cultural activities regularly through this organization.

TIS offers a complete curriculum program from Pre-k-11. Each class normally has 10-15 students, at most 18, depending on the grade level. Most students are Korean and Taiwanese, a few Japanese, North Americans, and Europeans. English proficiency of many students is not very high when they arrive and the school has ESL pull-out program to assist them until they are ready for the mainstream. Many students, because of their parentsÕ expatriate background, learn quickly and have good study habits.

The school presently has a small library of around 10,000 volumes. Our library is rapidly expanding its inventory and services for students and faculty.

All classrooms are supplied with a computer for teacher and student use. Most have a good supply of educational software installed. We also have 3 computer labs with 84 computers in or around the school. All computers are fully networked with the school's internal network, the internet and printers and CD ROMS.

The school has a first aid room where minor problems can be dealt with but students are sent to the hospital for serious problems. The school sits on the same city block as the TEDA hospital.

The government of TEDA heavily subsidizes all school fees so that foreigners investing in TEDA may receive a high standard of international education at a reasonable price. The following tuition amounts should be paid in US currency:

Textbooks, workbooks and sports uniform are included.
Lunch fees are calculated at a daily rate of 15 RMB and paid on a monthly basis for the regular program only.
To learn more about this fine school, checkout their website: www.tedainternationalschool.net

Now on to the ports and districts...
Beijiang Port
This port will be used for ocean shipping transportation of containers, break-bulk cargo, and international passengers.

Nanjiang Port
This port is to be used for bulk cargo and liquid transportation. Construction of deepwater channels and deepwater berths will be further facilitated, and a large-scale, specialized, and informatized port construction and management will be further advanced.

Tianjin Port
As a big, comprehensive international trade port in North China and driving force for Tianjin's economic growth, Tianjin Port is planned to be developed into a modern, multifunctional, and principal international hub of foreign trade seaport with advanced facilities, scientific management, complete functions, and leading efficiency.

Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone (TPFTZ)
Established in May 1991, TPFTZ is located approximately 50 km northeast of Tianjin, in the Tanggu District, and 2km from the Xingang Port of Tianjin and TEDA.

TPFTZ is the second largest of the 13 Free Trade Zones in China.

TPFTZ has a large 4-story trade show/exhibit center. Foreign companies are welcome to exhibit their products with no time limitations and no import taxes unless goods are physically imported in large quantities.

Also available are 100% foreign owned "production" facilities that receive imported components, perform incidental assembly, and shipping to overseas locations without the necessity to pay import/export taxes. For the most part, trading, not processing companies, are encouraged here. Companies with significant amounts of hazardous chemicals are actively discouraged.

TPFTZ boasts its own water supply department and environmental protection department. The Public Security Bureau has a Fire Prevention Section. They have designated area of 5 km2 approved for further development.

Multifunctional Port Economic Zone at Lower Reaches of the Haihe River
Priority is given to make this zone into a port industry base. Research will be conducted to build a second downstream lock, straighten and dredge the channel, restore and increase current berth capacity, and enlarge traffic of inland river quays; to perfect land infrastructure, build a regional, large trade-fair market community, and spur on development of warehousing, transportation, processing and other industries, along the river banks so as to form a framework of multifunctional port economic zone

Dagang District
Projected to be a modern petrol-chemical base centered on petrol chemicals, along with development of export-oriented economy and newly developed industries. Dagang is to take an active role in creating conditions for enlarged petrol-chemical production, accepting products from Lower Reaches of the Haihe River, rendering better coordination and cooperation, enhancing its market capacity of petrol-chemical products, and fostering development of multiple natures of district-affiliate economy. Greater efforts shall be exerted to construct its infrastructure. Guangang Forestry Park and Guxie Lake Wetland Natural Reserve Area will be developed and constructed to facilitate development of other industries.

Hangu District
Projected to have a chemical industrial base such as marine-chemical industry, mingled with petrol-chemical and fine-chemical industries, with competitive development of other industries and technological advancement. Importance will be attached to the construction of chemical industrial area centered by basic and fine-chemical industries and an industrial zone centered by rural back-bone enterprises; to be basically built into a three-efficient model district in aquaculture, grape and greenhouse vegetable plantation.

Tanggu District
This is a fairly newly opened modern seaport, and shall serve as an comprehensive service function of BNAT. The district shall expand into other industries such as: commerce and trade, finance, traveling, and warehousing. The economy of Tanggu is export-oriented, open to the world, with newly developed industries. Tanggu plans to construct and improve its urban infrastructure such as development of road traffic framework, municipal public facilities.

Tourism spots
National Seashore Travel Area...located in Tanggu District, a 4A grade travel spot On the basis of "Tianjin Old Seashore Marsh Natural Protective AreaÓ and Dagang Daxie Lake Marsh to build a Nature museum in Qili Sea, Ninghe County.
Dongli Lake Hot Spring Village..Which consists of Dongli Plants Garden, Golf Course, and many other places.
JifuÓ Martial Theme Park, which covers 7 sq km with total investment RMB5 billion. It's the biggest sea sight in North China.

Dagu Emplacement Theme Garden...to rebuild the Hai, Wei, Zhen, Men and Gao five emplacements in Dagukou.
TEDA Plant Garden...a pyramid-type Hi-technology travel fairyland that perhaps the most important of its kind in North China
Imported Good Market...for many years, it's well-known as the "must"Õ tourism spot for those who come to Tanggu. There are more than 2,000 stalls in it and the goods are ranging from watch, bag, MP3, antique and many others. If you hope to buy a world-famous product but not to pay munch money, you must to visit this market and do find your own favor.
Jinnan Culture Village...which consists of Strange Stone Park, Gegu Medicine Temple and you may appreciate Gegu folk performance.

Finally, by the Year 2010É..this whole area expects its GDP will have run up to or exceeded the scale and total amount of central districts of Tianjin; to be built into a high-tech group of industries and a large-scale industrial base with capacity of strong international competition; export will have taken up over 60% of that of Tianjin and total value and amount of import and export will have taken up approximately 1/8 of the whole country; to form a first-class infrastructure system for a modern international port city along with its comprehensive functions; social undertakings such as science, technology, and education will have achieved overall development; people's standard of living will have become more prosperous; progress of culture and ideology and material civilization will have been more harmoniously developed.

If you come across some difficulties when you live or invest in TEDA; or you have some ideas and suggestions for the environment and management of TEDA; or you are troubled by some governmental red tape, please inform:

Mailbox of the Chairman of the TEDA Administrative Committee: zrxx@teda.gov.cn.
24-hour government service hotline: 2520 1111
Fax (TEDA Administrative Commission Office): 2532 8173

We hope this sheds a little more light on this rapidly changing and growing area just outside Tianjin and that you are moved to travel there and check it out for yourself! In addition to all this, Tanggu has huge covered streetmarket shopping that is definitely worth a trip!