When I visited Tianjin I went to Ancient Culture Street, which is a self-consciously tourist oriented mall with a mixture of good and bad items, authentic crafts and mass produced kitsch. Beware the plastic and beware the high prices of anything real. Having said that, there are a few shops selling stuff that is as good as you will get around China. I remember one shop with beautiful pieces of carved jade that I longed to buy, but it was too expensive for my budget at the time. Then there were lots of Chinese paper cuts in various sizes and some of the best kites I have seen in shops.
In Ancient Culture Street is the Temple of Matsu. Throughout the Temple were boards giving information about the Goddess. Aside from their claim that the real woman who became an object of worship was a Tianjin resident the story differs little from the general legend of Matsu or Mazu throughout the coasts of East Asia. Generally she is recognized to have been a real woman born in 960 on an island in Fujian province of China. The child is said to have been a silent baby who did not cry for some time after she was born and developed an interest in Buddhism in early childhood. She took instruction in the religion from the age of thirteen and developed powers to predict the weather and perform healing acts. Her particular concern was for the welfare of fishermen and it is said she even walked out on the waves of the sea to rescue people. It is also commonly said that she went up to a mountain and was taken up to heaven when she was 28 years old. The patterns of this story are reflected in religions worldwide and appear in the Christian Bible among others.
For Buddhists, Matsu is a Bodhisattva and for others she is a goddess. The boards in the Tianjin temple tell that an Emperor came to test her holiness during her life and it is true that various Emperors gave their imprimatur to her deity as the centuries progressed. There are variations in the story in different locations but it is remarkable that the dates given for her birth and death are so firm. It is certain that a remarkable woman of saintly character lived on the coast of China from 960 to 988, most likely in Fujian province, and that she was a devout Buddhist recognized in her own lifetime and in her own locality as a person of advanced spiritual knowledge.