10/5 Dalian, China

First impressions as we sailed in to Dalian Harbor: Polluted! Smoke hung in the air like a fog – not very picturesque for sailing in – and this is supposed to be one of the cleanest cities in China! Oy! Dalian is a very young, progressive city – and that was apparent from the hundreds (probably 1000’s actually!) of high rises all over the city. And plenty more being built too, the economy isn’t hurting here that’s for sure.

We arrived in port around 8- not the most scenic place in the world – as a matter of fact, it’s pretty bad. It’s a working port, not a passenger port, and we’re right up against derricks, coal heaps and a dilapidated building. Of course, we’ve been so spoiled with the Japanese and Korean ports and receptions, that Dalian was definitely a huge change! As we docked, there weren’t any line men outside to catch our bow lines – so a man in a suit grabbed the first lead line and then walked it down to one of the tie offs. Pretty odd! But the buses were sure there – all lined up as far as the eye could see. As we waited for clearance, we watched the tour guides (all students) group around in little circles, obviously having quick meetings to make sure everyone had their itinerary and their scripts down pat.

Immigration and clearance went rather smoothly. We had received our passports and health questionnaire the night before – then in the morning, our arrival cards. Custom officials would be conducting a “face to passport” inspection when we got off. Ok! The ship was cleared a little after 9 and we headed down to the gangway, hoping to get out before the tours. Very quick and easy! Walked right out – handed in our passports and arrival cards, Immigration checked the passport picture against our faces – voila! We’re in China!

We headed in the direction of the city through the dilapidated port. You had to be very careful where you walked, it was very rough terrain with cobblestones, railroad tracks and missing bricks. As we headed toward the port exit, we found the free shuttle buses that would take us to the center of the city. They weren’t scheduled to depart until 10am – and we really didn’t want to sit there for 45 minutes waiting. We were trying to get the guides to tell us how to walk to Zhongshan Square – which wasn’t going very well. They spoke enough English to get by, but not enough to tell us how to get to the square. As we were talking to the guides, a Chinese couple from the ship came up and started listening. The guides kept saying we should take a cab. This couple wanted to go to the train station to get on the Tourist bus and asked us if we wanted to share a cab. We agreed – and it turned out to be the best decision we could have ever made!

Raymond and Helen, from San Diego now, originally from Shanghai and then Hong Kong, took us along in their cab – and we ended up taking a tour around Dalian – to Donghai Park to see the Tiger statue, all around Yanwoling Park, past the zoo and back into the city. A 2 hour tour for about $30 each couple! And thank heavens! No one really speaks English, the taxi drivers sure don’t so Raymond and Helen were fabulous translators, negotiating with the cab driver, telling us different things he said. It was fantastic.

We had wanted to go to Donhai park and though we actually might walk. Ha! Good thing we didn’t try – we would have never made it. It was really far, and no public transportation goes there – so we would have been SOL if we had gotten there or gave up trying to get there and wanted a ride back. The ride through the park was beautiful – so much green space! And so many people our walking and enjoying the beautiful day. Out in the park, by the sea, it was quite clear, sunny with a lovely breeze. The breeze blew away the smoke – so the air was pretty clean up there.

We drove though the grounds, and made it to the Tiger statues before the tour buses. The statue was huge and the square around it was filled with visitors, including a huge school group – all dressed the same in white and blue outfits. There were also a couple of vendors flying the coolest kites – a 20 foot series of little tiny kites all strung together. Very neat! There were also food vendors (we didn’t try anything – Raymond said no way – and we followed his lead!), and some fruit vendors where we did get to try a very sour tangerine and Helen bought some odd little fruits that were in a husk. The vendor tried to tell her what they were, but she didn’t understand the dialect – didn’t matter – they were really good – very sweet, almost like a cheese coffee cake (odd I know, but that’s what I thought it tasted like!).

We left the park and headed down past the zoo to another huge square with a large ivory looking column in the center. Only 2 cities in China have these dragon wrapped columns, Dalian and Beijing in Tiananmen Square. All around the base of the column were marble tiles engraved with the Chinese zodiac signs. As we were walking around, we began to see many wedding processions. Today is a special day in China and a fortuitous day to get married apparently! We must have seen 10 of these processions – a lead car, always an SUV with the back hatch open for a videographer to hang out the car and tape the bride and groom in the next car. Sometimes in a limo, sometimes in a convertible, other times just in a normal car – the bride and groom led a procession of wedding participants around the square and through the town. If the car had a sunroof, they would be standing up in the sunroof – or sitting on the back of the convertible. All the cars were decorated –the newly wed couple’s car had a flower bouquet on the front and flowers all over, while the processional cars all had matching bows on the rearview mirrors. The funniest thing was that all the processional cars matched – one wedding party had all black Audi’s, one had all black Mercedes, and so on. It was quite fun watching them all go by!

After the column/wedding square, we made our way back to the center of town – stopping at a bank so we could change money. The line inside the bank was long so we used the ATM (phew! Our card works!!! It was obviously just a Russian thing!) and got 1000 Yuan. Back on the road, it only took a few minutes to get back into the city where the driver dropped us near the Russian Street. A great 2 hour tour for 400 Yuan (about $60 total).

The cabbie dropped us off near the Russian culture area – a street  full of Russian homes and buildings from when Russia occupied the area. We headed in that direction with Raymond and Helen – passing street vendors with an assortment of food and wares, including roasted sweet potatoes - obviously a staple here in Dalian.  We left Raymond and Helen when they topped to look at Russian fur hats. It turned out to be a touristy little area where there were shops and tents full of vendors trying to sell us all sorts of Russian and Chinese junk. I did end up getting a great watch for about $7 – it’s a Badus, whatever that may be – and the girl was making a big deal out of it! Looked at all the junk there – tried to find some pretty china dolls, but they were all too big to bring back or not that pretty at all. Prices were reasonable enough, but there was no way we could get some of those things back with us – not a chance!

We ran into a British couple from the ship who told us about a farmer’s market around the corner (it was listed on the maps we had, but talk about bad maps – these things were terrible to use try to navigate) – so we followed their directions and were dropped into another world – the world of the normal Chinese – not much different from the Ukraine’s or any other more third world type country. Here were stall after stall of vegetables, meats, seafood, you name it, all in a back alley type setting with little kids running around and ramshackle little cubes (almost like pre-fab guard houses – you know that type of size, with Plexiglas for windows and that sliding little partition?) that served as restaurants. Yeah, we’re eating there! Ha! But the sights and sounds were just amazingly incredible, especially so as you looked up to see the huge, towering skyscrapers rising above us, that signify the booming economy of this cosmopolitan city. Does everyone shop like this? Or is it, as with everywhere, a very visible sign of the have and have nots? Don’t know…and have no one to really ask….it’s that language thing again!

Leaving the Russian street, we once again took our lives in our hands crossing the streets. These drivers are crazy and will not stop for anything – you have to walk, stand still and then run like hell to get across the street with your life. I’ve never been so happy to see underpass crossing in my life – and here – as in Japan and even Vladivostock – they aren’t even that creepy as they all have malls and shops down there – not just the standard stinking concrete toilet-smelling spaces you would expect.

We tried consulting our map to get us back to someplace close the shuttle stop, but really didn’t have much luck. We just picked the biggest road we saw and walked up it looking for Zhongshan Square. We also aimed toward a building the Brit couple said was close to the shuttle stop. This proved the right move as we came across a street market with goods and street food. Don’t know if it was usual, or because of the Chinese Holiday (which is ending today) but the vendors went on for blocks in a (thankfully) pedestrian only section of town.

We headed first for the food area and were rewarded with our first sighting of icky street food. Yes – here they are! The scorpions on a stick! (No Steven I did not eat one! And there weren’t any rats either!!!) And just about every other creepy crawler you can imagine – roasted centipedes, beetle bugs, snakes, lizards, small             alligators – all ready to go for the hungry taker. There was also a huge vat of something with a gigantic bone sticking out of it – guess it was adding flavor – and not unlike how we would make stock, but it looked so awful and gigantic and just out of place! There were also huge octopus being grilled fresh as you ordered. These actually looked good, but we were a little squeamish of eating street food in China. We know we’ll be doing it in Thailand, but for some unknown not entirely rationale reason, we’re more comfortable with Thailand. So, needless to say, we just street food “shopped” and took pictures. No buying there.

After the street food, we scoped out a grocery type store for our liquid supplies and then went on further up the street to find the shuttle stop. Once we had our bearings, we walked off the beaten path (well, not really, it’s a huge city, there is no “off the path” anywhere really), found a monster Chinese department store – gorgeous, but totally expensive. We can’t figure out how anyone affords to shop there – the average wage here is pathetically low. Out of the store and onto the streets once again, we headed for Victory square just for something to do. Stumbled on yet another food market – this time one narrow alley where there was a cross between farmer’s stalls and street food vendors. Cooking and grilling and serving everything imaginable (or not imaginable! We have no idea what any of this stuff is – and we’re not sampling) – people crowding the alley trying to get food and supplies – there was so much activity and so much of it fast walking/talking/pushing – we couldn’t even stop for pictures. We’d be run over at best.

Out of that melee we ended up on Victory square by using a pedestrian cross under that ended up being one of those underground shopping malls that went on forever and was teeming with people. And they are all young people. There is no one older in sight. It’s really weird, like old people don’t exist. But that’s the appearance here – we’re the oldest people (well us, and the other ancients off the ship) out here.

We decided we were hungry and stopped at a place called Amici’s Coffee. It’s a chain, but had picture menus and some English. Plus it had opened windows and doors and you could sit both inside and out. We sat and ordered 2 beers, an octopus salad and fried shrimp with cheese. Turned out to be great food and less than $10. The prices here are incredible (department store notwithstanding). Beer is like 30 cents. Coke is 40 cents. Clothes not in the department store are a joke. It’s incredible what they can produce for so little.

Wandered back toward the shuttle stop – dodging crazy drivers and an immense number of pedestrians wandering about on this Holiday Sunday. Stopped back at the grocery store for our liquid supplies – even picked up a “Great Wall of China” bottle of white wine for $3US. The girl in the store kept shaking her head and pointing to the red wine, so I have no hope that this wine will be any good, but how could I refuse? We’ll see!

Back on the shuttle, back on the boat, back to the norm. Exercise, dinner, wander around a non-happening ship, then to bed!