The Middle Ring Road () is a system of ring roads partly encircling the core of Tianjin. It is inside the Outer Ring Road, and encircles the Inner Ring Road. Originally, the road was not divided and has many traffic lights, but has interchanges at major roads. Today, most segments of the road has been upgraded to expressway standards, with the exception of the section that it shares with the Outer Ring Road in the northeast.
The Middle Ring Road's construction was divided into two stages: western and eastern. The western stage from Qinjian Bridge () to Guanghua Bridge () was completed between 20 January and 20 June 1985. The western part of the system began serving traffic on 1 July 1985. It received the National Quality Engineering Award () in 1986. The western part is .
The eastern part from Guanghua Bridge to Qinjian Bridge was constructed between December 1985 and 20 June 1986. The eastern part of the system began serving traffic on 1 July 1986. It received the National Quality Engineering Award in 1988. The full system is .
Hu Xihua () designed the Zhongshanmen Butterfly Interchange ( part of the system. Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China, and Li Ruihuan, the Mayor of Tianjin praised Hu.