大象传媒

"What's Tianjin famous for?" we asked our local driver as we flew along the highway between Beijing and the coastal city to the east of China's capital.

"Lazy people and good restaurants," replied Tony.

That may well be the case, indeed the pace of life is definitely slower in Tianjin than Beijing and we enjoyed a decent lunch but the city has more to boast about than leisurely lunches.

It is also the birthplace of , Britain's 1924 400m Olympic Champion who was immortalised in David Putnam's film "".

It's a wonderful movie but it ends without telling the even more remarkable story of Liddell's life after the Paris Olympics.

A devout Christian, he returned to China to serve as a missionary and died in 1945 in a Japanese internment camp.

We found the street where he spent the first five years of his life and while I'm sure it has changed a great deal since 1902, there are still more bicycles than cars on the roads and many beautiful old colonial buildings now often used as local government offices.

The Chinese have erected a plaque at the Liddell home at 38 Chongqing Dao (formerly Cambridge Road) and it is a site of special architectural and historic importance.

Known in the East as Li Airui, the Chinese have claimed Liddell as one of their own and he is revered as their first true Olympic Champion.

But they also recognise his actions after the Japanese invasion in 1937 and his remains lie in the Mausoleum of Martyrs at Shih-Chia-Chuang where China honours those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the liberation of China from the Japanese.

After a white knuckle drive round the back streets of the old European district of the city we eventually found 17 Middle school, formerly the Angle/Chinese Mission school where the missionary went on to teach after his Olympic triumph.

Tony, our driver and translator, introduced me to the school's caretaker who showed us round the school and proudly showed off a wall panel that celebrates Liddell's life. The children are still taught about the Scottish missionary who became an Olympic champion and a national hero.

Our evening was spent watching China launch their campaign for Olympic domination.

Two days before the opening ceremony, the pool matches of the women's football began and 40,000 people packed into the Tianjin stadium to watch . The Chinese scored in only the sixth minute and the place erupted!

The chanting and flag waving didn't ease until the full-time whistle and judging by the crowd's reaction when Sweden equalised just before half-time, there weren't too many Swedes in the ground.

Han Duan was the heroine of the night, scoring the winning goal and giving us a lovely interview after the match: "We fight for every game, we fight for every Gold," she said.

We have been warned.