大连，青岛，北京的旅游--Trip to Dalian, Qingdao and Beijing

In the middle of October we had a week of Fall break after our Mid-term finals which gave me a chance to do a little traveling around NE China. Four other CET students and I traveled to Dalian, Qingdao and Beijing. It was a very interesting adventure and I learned a lot about how to travel around China. This will be a good experience for me during Christmas vacation when I have about two months in between terms.

So we hoped on train to Dalian a few hours after our exams were done set off for Dalian. Dalian is several hundred miles SW of Harbin and the train took about 10 hours of so. Dalian was not too exciting, not many cultural attractions or other things to do. We went to the city square (which was actually a circle), hiked up the local mountain, visited a park, etc. We only stayed for one night and it was definitely enough for me. Here are some pics:

This first picture is a KFC in Dalian, a very strange looking KFC at that. KFC (or kendiji, which literally means Kentucky) and McDonalds (maidanglao) are probably the most popular American restaurants in China. They taste pretty much the same as in America and are a good retreat when you just cannot handle China anymore. KFC and McDonalds compared to normal Chinese restaurants are a lot more expensive, about the same price as in America. Also at night and on weekends they are usually packed with young people; not really the same as in the States. This other picture is a child playing with pigeons in the public square.

One of the weird things I noticed when I first arrived in Dalian was that there were tons of brides all over the place. Several caravans of wedding entourages passed us as we were walking down one of the main streets of the city. If I had to guess I would say that a lot of people chose this day to get married because it was the 18th. 8 is the most lucky number in Chinese culture, not sure why. That is why the Olympics started on 8/8/08, an incredibly lucky day. On the other hand, 4 is the worst number because 4 (si) sounds the sames as the word for death (also si but a different tone). In one of our hotels, they did not have a 4th floor, similar to how some buildings dont have a 13th floor in America. Although this bride happens to be wearing the traditional white dress, we say many others in blue, green and red dresses, very interesting to see.

This other picture is on top of the largest hill in Dalian. When we hiked up there we saw they had this sweet slide all the way down. It was super fun! It felt like being in a bobsled and it went super fast. Id say it was probably the most fun thing we did the entire week.

At the bottom of the hill was a little amusement park that we walked through. I thought these giant bubbles on the water were very cool. I have never seen them in America. It would be really fun to be inside one and walk around a lake or something. The other picture is Luke banging a giant gong.

This picture of me on the right is inside an aquarium in Dalian. Apparently this is the largest underwater viewing tunnel in the world, but I think I would doubt that. All the attractions said they were the worlds greatest, biggest, tallest, etc. something.

After staying in Dalian for a night we bought a plane ticket through out hotel and flew to Qingdao the next day. I think arranging travel plans compared to the US is a lot more difficult, and not because of the language barrier. In the US, you can do everything online and pay using a credit card....very easy. But credit cards are still very rare in China so you have to make a lot of phone calls, visit places in person, etc. But it was not that big of a deal.

Qingdao was absolutely beautiful. It was a former German concession city back earlier last century and so is very western and modern. Also, the weather was very warm so it was nice to be able to wear just a short sleeve shirt for a change. Our hotel was a 5 star hotel and extremely nice. When we got into a taxi to the hotel from the airport, our taxi driver said about out hotel, "oh that place is very expensive, I know a cheaper one." He actually drove to some other hotel despite the fact that we told him what hotel we wanted to go to. This is very common in China. Chinese people always really going out of their way to help you in any way they can. I think it is very interesting but sometimes a little annoying.

Despite the fact that the hotel was 5 star it was actually pretty cheap. A nice room for two people with an ocean view cost about $30 a night per person, not too bad.

Buying sweet sunglasses at a market and visiting the local brewery.

At this brewery they had a "beer room." It appeared level but was really lopsided so it was easy to lose your balance. Here is Luke having some fun with it.

So after a few days in Qingdao we got on a train to Beijing. Beijing is obviously a must to see in China because there are just so many cultural attractions. We had three days so we decided to see the Olympic buildings, Summer Palace, Great Wall and Temple of Heaven. Beijing was a lot colder than Qingdao so we had to put the jackets and winter hats back on.

Here is the Birds Nest, the place where Usain Bolt took over Track and Field during the Olympics. This building was incredible. The architecture was unlike anything I had seen before. Even amidst the pollution, which is evident in the picture, it was quite a sight.

I put these two pictures of Randy and Katherine on here posing with other people because this was a very common occurence. It was very common for people to come up to us and ask to take a picture with them like we were a celebrities or something, especially Randy. My guess is Chinese people do not see a whole lot of black people so Randy was defintely popular. We kept calling him Kebi, the Chinese name for Kobe Bryant.

Being a foreigner in a place like Beijing is not uncommon because they are all over the place. But the places we went to had a lot of other Chinese people from all the country who dont see foreigners too often. So my guess is these people were the ones who were intrigued to see some non-Asian people.

Next we went to the Summer Palace, the centuries old summer getaway for China's Emperors. Western powers destroyed large portions of it on two different occassions, once in 1860 during the Opium War and in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion. This is something that still shapes a large part of China's cultural identity and outlook on the rest of world. It also an example of the progress it has made as a country over the last century. In the past, foreign powers could easily come in and do all sorts of damage which the Chinese were defenseless to stop. This is contrasted with today, where China is becoming a world power and seems to have a bright future.

Here is a license plate I saw in Beijing. Who would have thought?

Finally we made it to 长城(changcheng: the Great Wall). This was the highlight of the trip for me. I had seen another part of the Great wall in Dandong but it was not a major section. The one outside of Beijing is stunning, stretching as far as you can see and completely full of people. I can only imagine what it is like during the peak summer months.

Hiking the Great Wall, quite a thrill.

So that pretty much sums up the trip. We hopped on plane after three days and made it back to Harbin. We had planned at first not to speak English during the week but we slowly started to change...i think it was inevitable. So it was nice to be able to clearly understand and communicate with one another for a change. And it was good to get some experience of traveling in China. I feel like I will be fine on my own when the time comes here next month.