Entry #5: Saturday evening dinner and Sunday (pt. 1)

Picking up where I left off, we spent a nearly full day at the office on Saturday and headed back to the hotel just before 5pm. It was our first solo walk, and other than one busy intersection (remember the traffic signals are merely hints - at best) it was a piece of cake. To my surprise, we haven't appeared to stand out in the crowd as much as I had suspected (that would change a bit on Sunday as you will soon learn). After a 30 min break in our respective rooms, we met up and looked for a place to eat. We opted for a Japanese restaurant in the hotel - Mike assured me that he was an expert in Sushi and would be my guide that evening on a path to culinary enlightenment. The waitresses were dressed in what appeared to be authentic red flowery robes and shuffled their feet with their slippers as the walked us to our table. First thing I noticed, is that the table was shorter than me knees, so I had to sit a bit funny to be up at the table. I recognized almost nothing on the menu but did find, to my delight, a Tempura dinner package - which I ordered along w/ a Sprite. Mike went with the standard Sushimee? dinner package.
An assistant soon arrived with my sprite and proceeded to pour it into a glass for me - an uncomfortable two minutes later, he had filled the small glass and scurried on his way - weird.

Shortly thereafter, our courses began to arrive - we had a shared mini sushi appetizer plate, then Mike got his vegetable and sushi plane and I received my tempura plate. They were both very good and I even convinced Mike to try what we agreed must be clear jellyfish out of his plate. His shriveled face told me that Jellyfish isn't his favorite - but it was very good (although I probably would never order an entire dinner of it). The main course of sushi then arrived, and other than being set with a bit too much wasabi (sp?) for my tastes, it was a nice meal. After we finished that, we received a round of hot tea (yes I had to wait until it was nearly room temperature - this has been a slight problem for those who know me as almost all of the tea here is hot). After finishing our tea, we were expecting our check (or maybe some sort of dessert) when another cup arrived - we both were hoping it was pudding or something similar, but it turned out to be some sort of soup that was unfortunately slightly solidified - much like the pudding that we were hoping for. It had a strong smell to it, and Mike's crumpled face soon returned. But after I toughed it out and ate mine, he was compelled to give it a try for himself - one small spoonful later, Mike was done with his meal.
After about 10 minutes, we came to the realization that we had to flag them down - which we did, and soon we were headed to the hotel bar (how could we resist with some female hotel staff dressed in such nice holiday outfits :) ). Two Rum and Coke's later for me (and a whiskey for Mike) we called it a night (must be around 9pm??).
Sunday:
A bright sunny morning had us down in the lobby with Frank and Cindy - our coworkers from Dalian. We went again into 2 taxis (they are small) and headed to what they think is the largest square in China. 10 minutes or so later we arrived at a very large circular roundabout where we got out to see the sights. A large 19.99 meter tower was at it's center signifying the transition of HongKong back to China in (you guessed it) 1999. My limited time now prevents me from describing the square in enough detail to do it justice, but it was very large, beautiful, and over toward the Korean sea, had a huge (300 foot across) cement open book (with the pages facing the sky). On each end, it rose up to about 30 feet in the air, and a scattering of people were walking on all parts. We also climbed up and went to the top edge where I noticed they had planted bushed below to cushion ones fall (as there was no railing at all). The book was apparently created to signify Dalian opening a new page in it's history. In the area there were some small amusement rides for kids, little skateboards with toy ponies on top to ride around and music playing. We fed a group of pigeons and headed off along the shore. Looking back into Dalian, one can't help but be impressed with the incredibly amount of large buildings under construction. Soon, shots ran out (thats right) and we inquired as to what it was (as we heard more the other night). We were told it was fireworks for when a skyscraper is completed. But that sound is quite common. We crossed a pedestrian bridge and came up to a massive castle on a side of a mountain that you will have to see the pictures (hopefully Mike has them posted). Huge. Apparently built just 5 years ago or so. Beautiful.
From there we hopped into a single taxi (I took the front and they squeezed in back) (why not save some money) and went to what they called a "Circuit City". I didn't fully get the pun in the name until got out of the taxi and descended down a subway like entrance...
As we looked across the "store" It seemed to go on for blocks and blocks - then we learned it was something like 4 stories tall - all computers and accessories - UNREAL. The store was, in fact, many many, small shops like at a fair or antique mall (don't ask me how I know that).
I will spare all you non-techies out there the details but we spent an hour an a half walked around in awe. It was then time for lunch where we walked to Cindy's favorite restaurant...