Dandong, Dalian, Yantai, Qingdao

Yantai and Qingdao

Yantai

We arrived at 3am and checked into a hotel with no hot water. The front desk told me the hot water would be ready on Friday, two days after we'd left - Sweet! When I plugged my camera battery charger into the wall, the electricity went out.

The hotel room was an appropriate metaphor for the city. It was clean and quaint, but there wasn't much to see so we visited the coastline and took some funny pictures before having lunch near the Yellow Sea. It was refreshing to breath the ocean air instead of the smog-ridden stuff in Shanghai that gives me grey boogers.


Qingdao

Churches - We visited a Protestant Church, which was built by the Germans in 1908, and a Catholic Church, St. Michael's, which was finished in 1934. The inside had ornate pictures of Jesus and St. Teresa along with confessionals which gave new meaning to the term "open." This is only the second Catholic Church I've seen in my limited China travels.

Brewery - Qingdao is the most popular beer in China. The brand was started here by the Germans in 1903. We checked out the hops bins, mixed it up with some of the mannequins, and drank beer at the end of the tour. Good times.

Naval Museum - consisted of a Chinese-made submarine that was put into service in the 1970s but retired a few years ago and is now being worked on (see pics). We also checked out Russian-made naval ships and aircraft, which were sold to the Chinese many years ago. From what I understand, the airplane designs are similar to American designs because the Russians copied us.

Lighthouse - At the end of a narrow pier, there's a lighthouse overlooking Qingdao Bay and the Yellow Sea. Pieces of it were under construction, but we climbed to the top and made our way into the open air for a few minutes and shot a quick video. Then we walked to a nearby park and drank 40s of Qingdao (Marconi-style).

Zhan Bridge and Huilian Pavilion - The bridge isn't actually a bridge. Instead, it's a long narrow pier that extends into Qingdao Bay. It reminded me of being down the Jersey shore as a kid. There were lots of people out for a casual stroll, playing cards, selling nick-knacks, and asking Americans to have their picture taken with them.

Northeast China Pics

I'm about to post pics from last week's trip with Norm. Here are some highlights:

Dandong

• The airport was so small we doubled-back after landing in order to make our way to the terminal.
• Ate dinner at a North Korean restuarant a few blocks from the border - the waitresses were a little taken back when they saw us, but we stayed here a few hours and chatted with them. Some of them spoke about as much Mandarin as I do.
• Climbed the Great Wall at Tiger Mountain on Tuesday morning
• Museum to Commemorate US Aggression in the Korean War - the building was a fascinating collection of propaganda and one-sidedness, it even went as far as to not mention Russian involvement in the war (which was quite substantial). I left here feeling prouder than ever to be an American.

Dalian

• Known as "China's most livable city," we were here for only a couple hours between bus/boat travels, but I got a good feel from the city and would like to return sometime.
• We ate seafood at the docks and caught a 6 hour overnight boat to Yantai, which is across the Yellow Sea

More on Yantai and Qingdao later....

Clip from the Wall

This is where we were:

http://english.dandong.gov.cn/

Norm returns to America

As we speak, Norm is sitting at Pudong airport awaiting his flight back to Atlanta. It was a fun visit that saw us cover five cities in nine days: Dalian, Yantai, Dandong, Qingdao, and of course...Shanghai. My favorite part of the trip was somewhere between entertaining the waitresses at a North Korean restaurant, seeing the Great Wall, crossing a foot bridge ala Indiana Jones, climbing to the top of a lighthouse in Qingdqao, singing karaoke, or the six-hour boat ride from to Yantai.

2nd video from the Dunhuang Sand Dunes

This is another short video from the Dunhuang Sand Mountains near the Gobi Desert on March 22.

Don't lean back in your chair!

Rachel and I were walking around Lanzhou when we found this restaurant located next to a cliff. It's popular in the summertime, but I imagine you'd have to be pretty desperate for a seat to end up here.

Tripping Again

I hope I do not run into this guy on this trip. We were not so lucky in Gansu province.

Norm arrives from Atlanta in a few hours. We'll spend the weekend in Shanghai, before flying to Dandong on Monday. Dandong is in northeast China, on the border with North Korea. It boasts the easternmost section of the Great Wall. From there, we will take a bus to Dalian, which is further south in the same province (Liaoning). I've heard that Dalian is a beautiful city and we'll probably spend a night there. From Dalian, we'll take a three hour boat ride (across the Yellow Sea) to Yantai and a three hour train to Qingdao, home of China's most famous beer.

Jiayuguan Street Market

This video is nothing special, but it gives a brief glimpse into an alley street market in a typical Chinese town.

If you can read this, be thankful

Even I get confused when I see foreigners in China. I look at them like, “Hey, what are you doing here?” So, I can imagine what the some of the Chinese think when they see us, especially the older ones who’ve seen their city and country drastically change over the last 30 years. From speaking with my students, it seems that some feel as if they’re losing their culture.

My buddy Justin is 26 and has lived here his whole life. He told me Shanghainese (the language) will face a crisis in the next generation because of the prevalence of Mandarin here. Right now, about 13 million people speak Shanghainese. However, as more and more Shanghainese people move away and/or marry people from other parts of the country, this number will dwindle.

So, they can see foreigners and assimilate us to their identity slip. Sometimes, this breeds resentment like it does back home when a foreigner can’t put a solid English sentence together. I always figured that English was one of the most useful languages to know. And after living here for a few months, I feel very fortunate to be able to speak it (and South Philly dialect).

I mean, English is not the world’s universal language, but it’s the closest thing we have to it. For instance, 90% of the signs here are in Chinese, but the other 10% are in some from of Chinglish or English. Not knowing Chinese makes getting around difficult, but without knowing English or Chinese, it’s almost impossible.