Opened in 1992, the Reserve lies at the eastern coastline of Tianjin with an area of 15400 hectares. If you walk down underneath a pier or a jetty when the tide is out, you will often find that the pillars which support it are covered with great clusters of mussels, and very often the rocks which are left dry at lowwater are covered with them in just the same way. They fasten themselves down by means of a bundle of very strong threads, and these hold so firmly that, although always beaten upon by waves, the mussels are never torn away.

To the south of Haihe River, indeed, there are four dikes which are only kept standing by means of mussel shells. And the oysters are found in all these areas, congregating together in large numbers so as to form the beds with a total area of 9930 hectares. All of these illustrate the great changes time brings to the world.

Within the boundaries of the ancient shore, the Tianjin Marsh includes a variety of marshes from salt marshes and shallow waters to estuaries, covering a total area of 174,000 hectares with 23,000 hectares of water and 12,000 hectares of reefs.

Some characteristic birds of the marsh are the swan, egret, stork, pelican, wild goose, tern, goshawk and starling, some of which are rare animals.

The Reserve has much of interest to the naturalists, archaeologists and tourists. A ruined wooden boat 700 years old is also a great attraction.