It was very quiet in the cafe this morning for breakfast – maybe 5 other customers total. It was clear and cold again outside, maybe 10 deg. F with a brisk wind. For lunch Winson took us back by the hotel to an underground Hong Kong style restaurant that was connected to the Parkland mall – we just didn’t know that had an underground as well. We had BBQ pork (Asian style), shrimp dumplings, and a steak noodle dish. All were very good.
For dinner, we took a taxi with Winson over near Roosevelt Mall to a small local hot pot restaurant that we were told has extra tasty mushrooms. As we entered, around 6:45pm, I knew this dinner was going to be different – we actually had to wait 30 minutes for a table. This was the first time in any of my visits that I have ever waited in a restaurant in China. Once our table was ready, we proceeded into the seating area where Winson picked out our food for the hot pot. At our table, the waitress brought out a large steel pot filled with a dark soup. It sat on an electric heater that soon brought the broth to a boil. Next, the waitress would add in a couple of bowl s of mushrooms which cooked for about 5 minutes. She then scooped out the mushrooms and divided them between us. On our plate, we also had two small piles of sauces – one mild, one medium. They both went very well with the mushrooms. Course after course of mushrooms were brought out and cooked for us, with the best being the “monkey head”; hard to describe, but very delicious. At some point during the meal, the waitress brought us a glass jar filled with peaches as a thank you for waiting so long for our table – how about that. By 8:30pm, we were all full of mushroom and headed back to the hotel.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
TEMP POST - I AM HOME
It is Wednesday night at 10:30pm and just wanted to post that I am home safe and sound.
Check back tomorrow evening as I will be putting up a couple more posts and some more photos.
Cya!
Check back tomorrow evening as I will be putting up a couple more posts and some more photos.
Cya!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 24 – Taking it easy
I met up with Mike at 12:30pm for a walk over to Parkland Mall for lunch at McDonald’s. I had the Big Mack value meal and this time, remembered to ask for ketchup. Side note: Even at a McDonald’s, I have noticed that all the employees we have seen seem to work hard at their jobs. After lunch, we went to the food market below our hotel for some snacks.
The grocery store was smaller than an average US market, but features aisle’s with English text. The store appears for new, well light, and higher end. It is kind of funny to find staple us items like Ritz crackers and snickers in the “imported items” aisle. I picked up a couple apples, a dried sweet-potato snack, some cashews, and a snickers bar. A bit pricier than elsewhere in Dalian, but not too terrible. We again went back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon.
At 6:00pm, I met Mike for dinner. We walked across the street, no small feat, to a German restaurant in the lower level of the Kempinski hotel (as recommended by our boss, Bob) called the Paulander Brewhaus. Guess what? It was indeed a German style restaurant where they made their own beers. The large downstairs restaurant was paneled in dark wood and served a nice local German beer. I had the weinerschnitzel with a Salad – delicious. The waitresses were even dressed in reasonably German outfits. Other than the Michael Jackson music playing in the background, it was very nice. After my second beer it was about 7:30pm and time to head back. Quite a nice peaceful evening – but I am really looking forward to getting back home. Hopefully time will continue to pass quickly through my Wednesday flight home.
Bonus photo featuring the main road where the hotel (tall building just to the left of the road - ahead a couple of blocks in the dark) and work is located:
The grocery store was smaller than an average US market, but features aisle’s with English text. The store appears for new, well light, and higher end. It is kind of funny to find staple us items like Ritz crackers and snickers in the “imported items” aisle. I picked up a couple apples, a dried sweet-potato snack, some cashews, and a snickers bar. A bit pricier than elsewhere in Dalian, but not too terrible. We again went back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon.
At 6:00pm, I met Mike for dinner. We walked across the street, no small feat, to a German restaurant in the lower level of the Kempinski hotel (as recommended by our boss, Bob) called the Paulander Brewhaus. Guess what? It was indeed a German style restaurant where they made their own beers. The large downstairs restaurant was paneled in dark wood and served a nice local German beer. I had the weinerschnitzel with a Salad – delicious. The waitresses were even dressed in reasonably German outfits. Other than the Michael Jackson music playing in the background, it was very nice. After my second beer it was about 7:30pm and time to head back. Quite a nice peaceful evening – but I am really looking forward to getting back home. Hopefully time will continue to pass quickly through my Wednesday flight home.
Bonus photo featuring the main road where the hotel (tall building just to the left of the road - ahead a couple of blocks in the dark) and work is located:
Saturday, January 23 – The most stores I have ever seen in one day
At 9:30am Mike at I took a walk through the adjacent Parkland Mall. It is, as far as I know, the high end shopping mall of Dalian. The 5 stories, houses about 135 different, mainly boutique fashion stores. From there, we headed over to the New Market Shopping Mall. This is the mall with the multicolored 6 story center atrium that you see here in the photos:
One of the main Department stores was huge. Inside, over by the ping pong paddles, I found some AA rechargeable batteries that I needed for my camera. In order to purchase them, you flag down an attendant (never more than 10 feet away from one – seriously). That person then fills out some forms, takes the price tag off, at which point you take the paper over to another counter. There they stamp it a few times and you make your payment. Then, you go back to the first attendant who then gives you your item. An interesting item of note is that as I was purchasing my batteries, Mike noticed professional transits (for surveying) for sale right behind us (17000RMB - $2500). We then walked around the store through various departments – one was the thermos section – about 6 rows and two attendants – I am not kidding. In another section of the store, there were about 40 sales people just for the watches. Also, maybe 200 large flat screen TVs for sale (all sizes in inches). The prices seemed comparable.
Side note: Sidewalks, buildings, shopping, underground and mall – no real thought for flow – major pinch points in the mall – so small I had to turn sideways to get through – just crazy.
A small tea shop in the middle of the mall:
Food Court Area at New Market:
Eventually, we went back to the Parkland mall to our noodle restaurant for lunch. Mike and I each had my same noodle dish for the other day and a Pepsi. All for 20RMB ($3.00) – not each – that was the total for both of us.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to take a break. At 3:00pm Winson came by to hang out with us for the rest of the day. We took a long walk through the Labor Park (called Laodong Park on Google maps) across the street from the hotel. It is Dalian’s “Central Park” . The park gradually extends up the side of a small mountain, and eventually we reached an observation point (about half way up) for a couple of photos. Since that was the top part of the park, we then headed back down, checking out the small ski/sledding area. The cost was about 10RMB per hour to use. We wound our way back near the hotel and went into the food market again. This time, Winson bought us some meat on a stick. It was little chunks of beef seasoned with a bit of curry perhaps – quite delicious. I bought a couple little packages of dried seafood to snack on in the hotel, and also finally found some durian fruit to try. It was quite pricey at 13RMB for a burger sized piece, but I had to try it. I also picked up a bottle of sprite to wash it down with.
It was too crowded at the market to eat it, so we took a taxi over to the “Roosevelt Mall”
. Built about 7 years ago, it is about 5 stories tall, in the shape of an oval, with a large 3 story glass egg in the middle that currently is home to the Apple Computer store. It was there, near a bathroom, that I was able to try the fresh durian fruit. (The odor was far less than I was expecting, but the texture was a bit worse – it varied in consistency from custard to almost pear – so as you grabbed a chunk to eat, it would half melt in your hands. As for the taste – I think the standard description of “sweaty sock” isn’t too far off – although, it tasted better than I expected, it had this nasty twinge to the flavor that wasn’t all too pleasant. I had a couple of small bites and tossed the rest – mission accomplished. After a short walk through the mall, we went outside to pick up a ride to our seafood restaurant.
It was a madhouse outside (now about 6:00pm), and we had no luck finding a taxi, so we waited for a trolley car. The traffic was so think, that they were running very late, and by chance, we got a taxi. After about 10 minutes we were back at our restaurant (the same one from the night before) for some crab. We got a private dining room, and walked to the other room to make our selections. We ended up each getting a crab, some shrimp, some weird nasty looking pseudo-shrimp/bug type thingy, some conch, and some vegetables. All was delicious, although, the shrimp-type thing was not as easy as shrimp to eat, it had a much thicker armor. From dinner, we took a ride over to Xinghai square to enjoy the lights. A cold walk around the square gave us an opportunity to enjoy not only the very elaborate building lighting, but all of the lighted decorations for the upcoming New Year holidays. By 9:45pm, we were in the taxi headed back for the hotel.
One of the main Department stores was huge. Inside, over by the ping pong paddles, I found some AA rechargeable batteries that I needed for my camera. In order to purchase them, you flag down an attendant (never more than 10 feet away from one – seriously). That person then fills out some forms, takes the price tag off, at which point you take the paper over to another counter. There they stamp it a few times and you make your payment. Then, you go back to the first attendant who then gives you your item. An interesting item of note is that as I was purchasing my batteries, Mike noticed professional transits (for surveying) for sale right behind us (17000RMB - $2500). We then walked around the store through various departments – one was the thermos section – about 6 rows and two attendants – I am not kidding. In another section of the store, there were about 40 sales people just for the watches. Also, maybe 200 large flat screen TVs for sale (all sizes in inches). The prices seemed comparable.
Side note: Sidewalks, buildings, shopping, underground and mall – no real thought for flow – major pinch points in the mall – so small I had to turn sideways to get through – just crazy.
A small tea shop in the middle of the mall:
Food Court Area at New Market:
Eventually, we went back to the Parkland mall to our noodle restaurant for lunch. Mike and I each had my same noodle dish for the other day and a Pepsi. All for 20RMB ($3.00) – not each – that was the total for both of us.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to take a break. At 3:00pm Winson came by to hang out with us for the rest of the day. We took a long walk through the Labor Park (called Laodong Park on Google maps) across the street from the hotel. It is Dalian’s “Central Park” . The park gradually extends up the side of a small mountain, and eventually we reached an observation point (about half way up) for a couple of photos. Since that was the top part of the park, we then headed back down, checking out the small ski/sledding area. The cost was about 10RMB per hour to use. We wound our way back near the hotel and went into the food market again. This time, Winson bought us some meat on a stick. It was little chunks of beef seasoned with a bit of curry perhaps – quite delicious. I bought a couple little packages of dried seafood to snack on in the hotel, and also finally found some durian fruit to try. It was quite pricey at 13RMB for a burger sized piece, but I had to try it. I also picked up a bottle of sprite to wash it down with.
It was too crowded at the market to eat it, so we took a taxi over to the “Roosevelt Mall”
. Built about 7 years ago, it is about 5 stories tall, in the shape of an oval, with a large 3 story glass egg in the middle that currently is home to the Apple Computer store. It was there, near a bathroom, that I was able to try the fresh durian fruit. (The odor was far less than I was expecting, but the texture was a bit worse – it varied in consistency from custard to almost pear – so as you grabbed a chunk to eat, it would half melt in your hands. As for the taste – I think the standard description of “sweaty sock” isn’t too far off – although, it tasted better than I expected, it had this nasty twinge to the flavor that wasn’t all too pleasant. I had a couple of small bites and tossed the rest – mission accomplished. After a short walk through the mall, we went outside to pick up a ride to our seafood restaurant.
It was a madhouse outside (now about 6:00pm), and we had no luck finding a taxi, so we waited for a trolley car. The traffic was so think, that they were running very late, and by chance, we got a taxi. After about 10 minutes we were back at our restaurant (the same one from the night before) for some crab. We got a private dining room, and walked to the other room to make our selections. We ended up each getting a crab, some shrimp, some weird nasty looking pseudo-shrimp/bug type thingy, some conch, and some vegetables. All was delicious, although, the shrimp-type thing was not as easy as shrimp to eat, it had a much thicker armor. From dinner, we took a ride over to Xinghai square to enjoy the lights. A cold walk around the square gave us an opportunity to enjoy not only the very elaborate building lighting, but all of the lighted decorations for the upcoming New Year holidays. By 9:45pm, we were in the taxi headed back for the hotel.
Friday, January 22 - TGIF
For lunch, Mike and I went with a friend from work, Christine, over to a Hong Kong Style restaurant in a newer shopping place by our hotel. It was very nice inside, with a very western-style layout. We had the following: chicken w/ bones – lightly fried, with a very slight BBQ flavor – not too bad, but a bit difficult to eat with chopsticks. We also had sweet and sour fish, fried rice, and a pastry filled with durian fruit. All of which was excellent. The durian fruit, if you do not know, is notorious throughout Asia as having the consistency of custard and the flavor of sweaty socks. However, as a filling for a pastry, it didn’t stand out – in fact you would have just thought it to be a sweet custard filling. Please note that I will later in my visit find real durian fruit and report on it.
After a full day of work, we had dinner w/ one of Mikes teams around 6:00pm – the Seafood restaurant by Xinghai sq. (same one Winson took me to on Sunday). There, I tried the sea urchin – raw – very hard spiny shell, with an orange interior that was a bit firmer than oyster and a crisp taste of the sea – delicious! There we also enjoyed a variety of other fish, vegetables, cabbage, and dumplings. One of my acquaintances from a past visit was in the group and remembered from a previous visit what my other friend Mike taught him for a toast – “Punish it!”.
By 8:30pm, dinner was over and we were back at the hotel.
After a full day of work, we had dinner w/ one of Mikes teams around 6:00pm – the Seafood restaurant by Xinghai sq. (same one Winson took me to on Sunday). There, I tried the sea urchin – raw – very hard spiny shell, with an orange interior that was a bit firmer than oyster and a crisp taste of the sea – delicious! There we also enjoyed a variety of other fish, vegetables, cabbage, and dumplings. One of my acquaintances from a past visit was in the group and remembered from a previous visit what my other friend Mike taught him for a toast – “Punish it!”.
By 8:30pm, dinner was over and we were back at the hotel.
Thursday, January 21 – Less than a week left
The day was very clear (one of the clearest I ever remember here), and continued very cold. The high was around 5F with windy conditions. Mike informed me that he had yet another poor night’s rest, so he will be in for another tough day. For lunch, Winson and I walked us to the Parkland Mall adjacent to our hotel. It has a very striking glass exterior going up about 6 floors or so. I have been in the mall a few times before, as it is very clean, new, and western, with stores like North Face, etc. Also in this mall are some western eateries, like McDonald’s, Starbucks, Hagen Daz, and Dairy Queen. We wound our way up to the fifth floor or so over to the food court area where we ate at one of Winson’s favorite noodle restaurants. It was sit-down service, with a small menu of about 20 different noodle plates. They were all around 10-15RMB and came with a free Pepsi. I went with an egg/onion/tomato noodle bowl that was crazy good. The noodles were made from scratch and were very wide, a bit thicker than normal, and way tastier than normal. It may be my favorite bowl of noodles that I have ever had – all for $2.75 US (w/ the soda). The bowl was even too big for me to finish.
The Atrium of the Parland Mall:
After a busy day in the office, I finally left work around 6:00pm, relaxed in the hotel for a bit, and then checked in with Mike around 6:30pm. We decided to head over to the Pizza Hut for dinner. Since it was still bitterly cold out, I suggested we attempt to navigate the maze of underground shops where it was toasty warm. We kind of made up our own path through the labyrinth of corridors and shops until I guessed that we were close to our destination (about 5 blocks away). Surprisingly, we came out at exactly the entrance to Pizza Hut – Mike was stunned (I attempted to hold my cool, somewhat pretending to have known just where to have gone).
At Pizza Hut, I ordered my berry fruit drink, a coke, fried calamari (yeah, at Pizza Hut). Mike and I split a medium sized sausage pizza. It had pineapple (yippee), red peppers, meat, and in the edge crust, a definitely Asian type of sausage (didn’t hate it, but just a bit off for me).
After dinner we walked to the indoor food market behind the hotel that Winson had showed me on Sunday. There, I splurged and purchased Mike and I each a stick of those candy apples in sugar paper. Mike really liked it as well. We wandered around the large grocery store, checking out the food. It was the size of a supermarket, with main areas grouped as follows: fresh fruits and vegetables, tons of butcher counters (with everything from chicken’s feet, to cuts of beef, to piles of lungs – you name it), cookies, candies, liquor, and dried and prepackaged dried seafood. There was also a really fancy deli area in the middle of the store that sold very fancy looking boxes of exotic foods. Checking the price on the small boxes (size of a cigar-box) we confirmed they must be exotic – between 3000RMB and 6000RMB ($500-800). No wonder it was so nice in that deli area (with special guards to boot). I will have to take some pictures of this market. Anyway, it was about 8:15pm, so we called it a night.
The Atrium of the Parland Mall:
After a busy day in the office, I finally left work around 6:00pm, relaxed in the hotel for a bit, and then checked in with Mike around 6:30pm. We decided to head over to the Pizza Hut for dinner. Since it was still bitterly cold out, I suggested we attempt to navigate the maze of underground shops where it was toasty warm. We kind of made up our own path through the labyrinth of corridors and shops until I guessed that we were close to our destination (about 5 blocks away). Surprisingly, we came out at exactly the entrance to Pizza Hut – Mike was stunned (I attempted to hold my cool, somewhat pretending to have known just where to have gone).
At Pizza Hut, I ordered my berry fruit drink, a coke, fried calamari (yeah, at Pizza Hut). Mike and I split a medium sized sausage pizza. It had pineapple (yippee), red peppers, meat, and in the edge crust, a definitely Asian type of sausage (didn’t hate it, but just a bit off for me).
After dinner we walked to the indoor food market behind the hotel that Winson had showed me on Sunday. There, I splurged and purchased Mike and I each a stick of those candy apples in sugar paper. Mike really liked it as well. We wandered around the large grocery store, checking out the food. It was the size of a supermarket, with main areas grouped as follows: fresh fruits and vegetables, tons of butcher counters (with everything from chicken’s feet, to cuts of beef, to piles of lungs – you name it), cookies, candies, liquor, and dried and prepackaged dried seafood. There was also a really fancy deli area in the middle of the store that sold very fancy looking boxes of exotic foods. Checking the price on the small boxes (size of a cigar-box) we confirmed they must be exotic – between 3000RMB and 6000RMB ($500-800). No wonder it was so nice in that deli area (with special guards to boot). I will have to take some pictures of this market. Anyway, it was about 8:15pm, so we called it a night.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday, January 20 – Mike Miller’s First Day in the office
I Met Mike at 8:15am in the lobby for his first breakfast here in Dalian. My first question to him was, “How did you sleep last night?” This is because no matter how tired you may be, the fact that nighttime here is the middle of the day back home, makes falling asleep difficult (at least for me). He replied that he fell asleep around 10:30pm and awoke in the pre-dawn morning feeling like he just had a solid, interrupted nights sleep. He rolled over to look at the alarm clock and realized that it was only midnight (10am back home). From there the standard jet-lagged sleep occurred, with him stating that he thought he woke up about every hour. He will have a fun afternoon/evening to be sure.
As we left the hotel for the walk to the office, we were immediately hit with a fierce, biting, ice-filled wind. Wow – It was cold and blowing gusts to 40mph (my best guess). I briefly thought about trying to flag down a taxi, but didn’t want Mike to get spoiled, so, both of us being from Wisconsin, felt capable of doing the walk. It was very slippery out there, and the gusts seemed to settle down as we got away from our hotel, but it sure was cold. By 9:00am, we were in the office safe and sound.
For lunch, I took two people from the office and Mike to the Japanese restaurant behind work again – it is called “Uminosato” (the rough translation is “Simple Japanese restaurant offering a pleasant variety of mainly seafood dishes and just the right amount of atmosphere for a pleasant lunch every time” (I made that up – duh!). I had the fish, again, while Mike went with the shrimp tempura.
(lunch pictures coming soon)
For dinner, the group that Mike is working with on his visit took us to the Szechwan (spicy) restaurant about 1 block east of the office. We sat down at our large round table in our private dining room around 5:45pm, and began to pick out our dishes. I shot a couple of pictures of the menu and the food:
P.S. That small plate to the left of the raw plate is eel!
Please pay particular attention to the very large plate of sashimi on ice. Actually, pay really good attention to large shrimp on it. The plate was placed on the table and spun over to Mike and I for first choice. As it got over to our side, I thought I saw a piece of food fall off, no, make that JUMP off of the plate! It was the shrimp. OMG. (yeah, that’s right, I typed OMG – it fits). The shrimp was still alive and kicking (and jumping). I think it actually surprised everyone at the table. I looked around and asked who would try this, and nobody moved, finally, one of the ladies grabbed it, tore it in half, and ate the tail. My rule over here is if you try it, I will too, so I next grabbed one. In my hands I could very easily feel it move, surprisingly strongly, in fact. I then pulled the tail off (yup still moving, but at least silent), peeled the tail quickly and ate it. As I bit into the tail, it definitely recoiled in my mouth – wow. After eating it I became slightly nervous about going back to raw seafood after my encounter with bad oysters here a couple of years ago. Because of that, I am writing this story as soon as I got back to my hotel room – just in case things go badly tonight.
Dinner was terrific, with a few other surprise dishes as well – stomach (pretty spicy, and a little texture problem, but not horrible), and another episode of pig knuckles. Didn’t care for that, again. I had a couple of small glasses of a local beer (sorry, forgot the name), had a bunch of laughs, and with Mike Miller now completely silent and in a daze, we wrapped up dinner (about 7:45pm). After a brisk walk back to the hotel, I sat down to write this blog, and that was the night. Cross your fingers that the next entry is not me saying I was sick!
(NOTE: From Thursday morning - all was fine - whew!)
As we left the hotel for the walk to the office, we were immediately hit with a fierce, biting, ice-filled wind. Wow – It was cold and blowing gusts to 40mph (my best guess). I briefly thought about trying to flag down a taxi, but didn’t want Mike to get spoiled, so, both of us being from Wisconsin, felt capable of doing the walk. It was very slippery out there, and the gusts seemed to settle down as we got away from our hotel, but it sure was cold. By 9:00am, we were in the office safe and sound.
For lunch, I took two people from the office and Mike to the Japanese restaurant behind work again – it is called “Uminosato” (the rough translation is “Simple Japanese restaurant offering a pleasant variety of mainly seafood dishes and just the right amount of atmosphere for a pleasant lunch every time” (I made that up – duh!). I had the fish, again, while Mike went with the shrimp tempura.
(lunch pictures coming soon)
For dinner, the group that Mike is working with on his visit took us to the Szechwan (spicy) restaurant about 1 block east of the office. We sat down at our large round table in our private dining room around 5:45pm, and began to pick out our dishes. I shot a couple of pictures of the menu and the food:
P.S. That small plate to the left of the raw plate is eel!
Please pay particular attention to the very large plate of sashimi on ice. Actually, pay really good attention to large shrimp on it. The plate was placed on the table and spun over to Mike and I for first choice. As it got over to our side, I thought I saw a piece of food fall off, no, make that JUMP off of the plate! It was the shrimp. OMG. (yeah, that’s right, I typed OMG – it fits). The shrimp was still alive and kicking (and jumping). I think it actually surprised everyone at the table. I looked around and asked who would try this, and nobody moved, finally, one of the ladies grabbed it, tore it in half, and ate the tail. My rule over here is if you try it, I will too, so I next grabbed one. In my hands I could very easily feel it move, surprisingly strongly, in fact. I then pulled the tail off (yup still moving, but at least silent), peeled the tail quickly and ate it. As I bit into the tail, it definitely recoiled in my mouth – wow. After eating it I became slightly nervous about going back to raw seafood after my encounter with bad oysters here a couple of years ago. Because of that, I am writing this story as soon as I got back to my hotel room – just in case things go badly tonight.
Dinner was terrific, with a few other surprise dishes as well – stomach (pretty spicy, and a little texture problem, but not horrible), and another episode of pig knuckles. Didn’t care for that, again. I had a couple of small glasses of a local beer (sorry, forgot the name), had a bunch of laughs, and with Mike Miller now completely silent and in a daze, we wrapped up dinner (about 7:45pm). After a brisk walk back to the hotel, I sat down to write this blog, and that was the night. Cross your fingers that the next entry is not me saying I was sick!
(NOTE: From Thursday morning - all was fine - whew!)
Photo Sampler #3 (Sunday, Jan. 17)
Winson and I at a Korean BBQ for Lunch:
Here we are riding the old trolly:
Another picture from the park:
At the street market in the morning:
A view of the resort at the coast on BinHai Rd.
Cya!
Here we are riding the old trolly:
Another picture from the park:
At the street market in the morning:
A view of the resort at the coast on BinHai Rd.
Cya!
Photo Sampler #2 (Sun. Jan 17)
Photo from BinHai Rd.:
Underground Wal-mart store:
The stand where Winson bought me the sugar apple snack:
Take care Everyone!
Underground Wal-mart store:
The stand where Winson bought me the sugar apple snack:
Take care Everyone!
Tuesday, January 19
Standard morning in the office (Located here & called the Senmao Building), but for lunch, Winson and I did something crazy. We walked over to a Pizza Hut (actually the one way over behind my hotel at a place called “Victory Square” – see here). The interior was very large (about 3 times the size of the largest Pizza Hut back in the States. It was all very new, and decorated to a level considerably above the norm. It had a very western-feel – like a nice steak place. The menu had the same offerings as the US, with a number of additions – frosted fruit drinks, and a strange mix of Chinese dishes on noodles. We went, of course, for the greatest pizza – the Hawaiian (pineapple and Canadian bacon). I also chose it to be deep dish style. It tasted just like a pizza back in the states, and for a 12” pizza that we split, the cost was comparable to home – about $10. Winson had a meeting to get back to, so we took a taxi back to the office.
The afternoon was uneventful, with me returning to the hotel around 6:00pm to await my friend Mike’s arrival. He finally made it to the hotel around 8:00pm with a similar sleeping experience to my first trip – too excited the night before to sleep well, and didn’t sleep much on the plane. He was pretty wiped out, but agreed to a quick dinner in the hotel. We each had the tuna sandwich with a sprite and called it a night.
*** PLEASE NOTE: I have just discovered that when you switch to/from map/satellite view on Google maps, it shifts the position slightly, so try and look at the roads to get yourself squared up properly on the maps ***
The afternoon was uneventful, with me returning to the hotel around 6:00pm to await my friend Mike’s arrival. He finally made it to the hotel around 8:00pm with a similar sleeping experience to my first trip – too excited the night before to sleep well, and didn’t sleep much on the plane. He was pretty wiped out, but agreed to a quick dinner in the hotel. We each had the tuna sandwich with a sprite and called it a night.
*** PLEASE NOTE: I have just discovered that when you switch to/from map/satellite view on Google maps, it shifts the position slightly, so try and look at the roads to get yourself squared up properly on the maps ***
Monday, January 18 - Back to the office...
After the standard breakfast, I walked over to the office this morning at 9:00am after a very good (9 hours) night’s sleep. Today was quite foggy and just about freezing, which made the stone sidewalks very slippery.
At 11:45am, went out to lunch with some development teams – 8 of us, I think. We walked to a nearby Szechwan (which to me, means Spicy Hot) restaurant. We were seated in a private dining room on the 2nd floor overlooking the street with my seat facing the door, per the custom. If I recall properly, we ordered: Spicy (Szechwan whole fish in a large bowl, green beans, hot potato noodle soup, lamb pieces, spicy beef, spicy shrimp, cooked mushroom slices, and something like a mini-potato that tasted a bit like a cocktail onion (which I love). Returned to the office for the afternoon of a couple of meetings and coordinating my remaining time here in the office with others. I do have a pretty sweet office the my visit, the main development meeting room for the two groups. It is a very nice computer meeting table that seats about 10. I feel bad taking their only meeting room nearby, but there are no other places to site and be near my teams – oh well. Also, I am still getting my customary bottled water and Coca-Cola set aside for visitors.
I left work around 5:30pm, finished up my book (hooray), and ordered spaghetti for room service. The spaghetti was delicious, with a couple of sides of garlic toast. I then dug up some flight simulator links for Winson and called it a night.
At 11:45am, went out to lunch with some development teams – 8 of us, I think. We walked to a nearby Szechwan (which to me, means Spicy Hot) restaurant. We were seated in a private dining room on the 2nd floor overlooking the street with my seat facing the door, per the custom. If I recall properly, we ordered: Spicy (Szechwan whole fish in a large bowl, green beans, hot potato noodle soup, lamb pieces, spicy beef, spicy shrimp, cooked mushroom slices, and something like a mini-potato that tasted a bit like a cocktail onion (which I love). Returned to the office for the afternoon of a couple of meetings and coordinating my remaining time here in the office with others. I do have a pretty sweet office the my visit, the main development meeting room for the two groups. It is a very nice computer meeting table that seats about 10. I feel bad taking their only meeting room nearby, but there are no other places to site and be near my teams – oh well. Also, I am still getting my customary bottled water and Coca-Cola set aside for visitors.
I left work around 5:30pm, finished up my book (hooray), and ordered spaghetti for room service. The spaghetti was delicious, with a couple of sides of garlic toast. I then dug up some flight simulator links for Winson and called it a night.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Photo sampler #1
The first photo is from my brief visit to Shanghai (Jan 10-12):
The next three are of the food court in a mall near my Shanghai hotel where I was brave enough to order a lunch on Tuesday, January 12. It was tasty!
The last two are from Sunday, January 17 when I was at a local market just before we went to the nearby parks:
Enjoy!
The next three are of the food court in a mall near my Shanghai hotel where I was brave enough to order a lunch on Tuesday, January 12. It was tasty!
The last two are from Sunday, January 17 when I was at a local market just before we went to the nearby parks:
Enjoy!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday, January 17 – Winson Tour of Dalian
The day started off with me waking up around 7:00am and heading down for my breakfast around 8:30. I again was met w/ Kenny G – starting to get a bit old. Had my normal breakfast of orange, apple, and tomato juice. I also had my standard frosted flakes and a cup of yogurt.At 10:00am Winson picked me up at my hotel (Swisshotel) to begin our tour (NEW FEATURE ALERT - Click on that Swisshotel link into your browser to see where I was - Once in google maps, you can switch between satellite and map view - give it a try). We first headed east to a local market- misc. shopping and lots of fish, fruits, and nuts. From there, a short but cold walk over to a park (Dalian Botanical Garden). Nice little set of rolling hills and well groomed plantings. I was told it is quite spectacular in the spring/summer. Nestled in the middle, away from the noise of the city, was a small lake frozen over covered with people skating. Hiked up the trail to the back part of the park and saw exercise classes going on. We walked a couple of blocks over to another park (called Children’s Park) along a wide frozen river with more skaters.
From there, we hopped on a taxi and headed over to a Korean town where we ate at, you guessed it, a Korean restaurant. It was a small little local place where we had the standard Korean appetizers which consisted of about a dozen different small bowls of food – spiced cabbage, salted minnows, some different pickled vegetables, sprouts, etc - all very delicious – Korean food is definitely one of my favorites. Winson ordered for me a picked out a seafood soup. It was ok – but I really love the appetizers – which we continued to eat throughout or meal. The lunch for the two of us came to 60RMB (~$10). From there, we took a 100 year old electric trolley to the east toward the coast. Most of the trolleys are very modern and new, but we waited extra to get one of the old ones. They were original on the outside and restored very nicely on the inside. The ride smoothness was similar to a wooden roller-coaster – very cool. The old brass manual controls were effortlessly handled by the driver. One brief delay as a taxi had crashed trying to do a u-turn and blocked our path. After a couple of minutes, the car was moved and we were back on our way. Once we reached the end of the line for the trolley, another taxi ride to the east brought us to the fanciest resort in Dalian - Banchuidao.
It was a sprawling golf course/resort on the rugged and rocky Eastern Coastline of Dalian. The actual property was solidly gated off, but we had many beautiful views into it (I took a bunch of photos – still figuring out the best way to post). Along the Binhai East Road, we followed a newly constructed wooden deck sidewalk about 2.5 miles up and down valleys along the coast where we were consistently 100 – 300 feet above the rocky coast. The air temperature was about 35 and luckily sunny with no wind. After a couple of hours we wrapped around the southern-most point in Dalian and were nearing civilization (Binhai Golf Driving Range on the google map).
From there, we hopped on a taxi and headed over to a Korean town where we ate at, you guessed it, a Korean restaurant. It was a small little local place where we had the standard Korean appetizers which consisted of about a dozen different small bowls of food – spiced cabbage, salted minnows, some different pickled vegetables, sprouts, etc - all very delicious – Korean food is definitely one of my favorites. Winson ordered for me a picked out a seafood soup. It was ok – but I really love the appetizers – which we continued to eat throughout or meal. The lunch for the two of us came to 60RMB (~$10). From there, we took a 100 year old electric trolley to the east toward the coast. Most of the trolleys are very modern and new, but we waited extra to get one of the old ones. They were original on the outside and restored very nicely on the inside. The ride smoothness was similar to a wooden roller-coaster – very cool. The old brass manual controls were effortlessly handled by the driver. One brief delay as a taxi had crashed trying to do a u-turn and blocked our path. After a couple of minutes, the car was moved and we were back on our way. Once we reached the end of the line for the trolley, another taxi ride to the east brought us to the fanciest resort in Dalian - Banchuidao.It was a sprawling golf course/resort on the rugged and rocky Eastern Coastline of Dalian. The actual property was solidly gated off, but we had many beautiful views into it (I took a bunch of photos – still figuring out the best way to post). Along the Binhai East Road, we followed a newly constructed wooden deck sidewalk about 2.5 miles up and down valleys along the coast where we were consistently 100 – 300 feet above the rocky coast. The air temperature was about 35 and luckily sunny with no wind. After a couple of hours we wrapped around the southern-most point in Dalian and were nearing civilization (Binhai Golf Driving Range on the google map).
From there, we took a 30 minute taxi ride along the coast and then headed over to taxi over to Olympic Park to check out the underground Wal-Mart (PACKED!) and the Circuit City store I visited on my previous visits. We took a taxi back to the hotel where checked out a great food market that I never knew was next to the hotel. We talked a bit of flight simulator (as Winson is admitted flight simmer) and then headed over near Xinghai Square () for a seafood dinner. Since it was rush hour, we took a bus (1 RMB ea.). We dined at a fancier restaurant where we picked out our dinners – a couple of flying crabs (expensive – 188RMB ea. - as the season is now over), jellyfish, oysters, and shrimp. Delicious. There was absolutely outstanding egg rho in the crab – firmer than regular crab meat, but tastes infused with rich flavor – wow. I believe the total was about $60 or so. He flagged down a taxi for me and I got back to the hotel around 8:00pm.
What a day.
What a day.
Saturday, January 16 - A day to relax
Nothing of note from Thursday and Friday, so I reume entries with Saturday...
I started the day off with my standard breakfast in the hotel café around 8:45am. Around 9:30am, I took a cold walk around outside around the shopping area behind the hotel. It looked like things were not really open yet, as the street vendors were busy unwrapping the tarps from their tables, so I returned to the hotel room for a bit. I finally got to read some of a book that I have been carrying around for a couple of years waiting for the chance to read. At 11:30am, I headed out again for some shopping.
For about two hours, I walked around outside trying to hit every side street that had shops on it. The shops were a collection of electronics stands, souvenir (please pronounceas “soooveniers, nahvilties, and paaahrtyt triks” – side note to my sister Laurie: I realize that you may be the only one to get that, but thinking of everyone else trying to say that out loud sure made me laugh ) trinkets, gloves, shoes, purses, and cell phones. There were, of course, a number of food vendors on the street serving up various quick cooked snacks. I located a street vendor selling cheap earphones and bought some for about $3.50 (small “Sony” over-the ear type). I needed these to listen to music in the office – as I broke my headphones getting it out of my work bag on the flight over – damn. I then finally built up the nerve to order some my fried mystery meat on a stick. I am hoping it was some sort of chicken – it didn’t taste too bad. I also caved in a decided to go into a McDonald’s and had a Big Mack Value meal. There was no ketchup (I later learned that I should have asked), so it was pretty bland. It cost 18 RMB (about $2.65). I ate in the small restaurant that seemed to only have crowded seating for about 30. I then went back to the hotel to settle in for some lazy book reading around 2:00pm.
By 7:30pm, after many hours of reading and a good hour of a nap, I ventured down to the café for some dinner. This time I had Indonesian steak and shrimp skewers (80RMB) w/ rice. I also ordered a bowl of my newly found favorite soup Russian Borsch (beef and beet) soup (40RMB). The soup was good, the skewers, not so much. I had just tried Borsch soup about a month ago at a great little soup place in the 3rd ward in Milwaukee called “Soup’s On – thanks to Dave Levine for taking me there).
How is that for a dull but restful Saturday? I needed my strength for Sunday…
I started the day off with my standard breakfast in the hotel café around 8:45am. Around 9:30am, I took a cold walk around outside around the shopping area behind the hotel. It looked like things were not really open yet, as the street vendors were busy unwrapping the tarps from their tables, so I returned to the hotel room for a bit. I finally got to read some of a book that I have been carrying around for a couple of years waiting for the chance to read. At 11:30am, I headed out again for some shopping.
For about two hours, I walked around outside trying to hit every side street that had shops on it. The shops were a collection of electronics stands, souvenir (please pronounceas “soooveniers, nahvilties, and paaahrtyt triks” – side note to my sister Laurie: I realize that you may be the only one to get that, but thinking of everyone else trying to say that out loud sure made me laugh ) trinkets, gloves, shoes, purses, and cell phones. There were, of course, a number of food vendors on the street serving up various quick cooked snacks. I located a street vendor selling cheap earphones and bought some for about $3.50 (small “Sony” over-the ear type). I needed these to listen to music in the office – as I broke my headphones getting it out of my work bag on the flight over – damn. I then finally built up the nerve to order some my fried mystery meat on a stick. I am hoping it was some sort of chicken – it didn’t taste too bad. I also caved in a decided to go into a McDonald’s and had a Big Mack Value meal. There was no ketchup (I later learned that I should have asked), so it was pretty bland. It cost 18 RMB (about $2.65). I ate in the small restaurant that seemed to only have crowded seating for about 30. I then went back to the hotel to settle in for some lazy book reading around 2:00pm.
By 7:30pm, after many hours of reading and a good hour of a nap, I ventured down to the café for some dinner. This time I had Indonesian steak and shrimp skewers (80RMB) w/ rice. I also ordered a bowl of my newly found favorite soup Russian Borsch (beef and beet) soup (40RMB). The soup was good, the skewers, not so much. I had just tried Borsch soup about a month ago at a great little soup place in the 3rd ward in Milwaukee called “Soup’s On – thanks to Dave Levine for taking me there).
How is that for a dull but restful Saturday? I needed my strength for Sunday…
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 13 - First Day in Dalian
I woke up at 7:00am after a good nights’ sleep. Although I only received about 6.5 hours of sleep, it was pretty solid. I showered and headed down to the buffet breakfast that I am now quite familiar with. I had tons of juices, mini pancakes (w/ peach toppings), sausage, a bowl of peaches, and a pastry w/ kiwi on it. The familiar breakfast got me to thinking that nothing had seemed to change in the hotel at all since my last visit – about a year and a half earlier. I mean the breakfast was exactly the same; my room was exactly the same, still the old tube TV in the room (although the picture seems much clearer than last time). After just staying in the brand new hotel in Shanghai, the Swisshotel, while nice, suddenly feels a bit dated. For Mike Fuchs, if you are reading this, the hotel rooms still smell the same, kind of a stale pollution that I had forgotten.
I then headed out into the sunny, cold morning to walk over to work. It was about -10 deg. C out as I made the routine 5 block walk to work. A couple of things, however, had changed outside. First, I saw cleaning crews out picking out garbage (I actually noticed a large number in Shanghai), so it seemed a bit cleaner outside. Also, one of my favorite restaurants was now a shell of a building that is either being torn down, or was just gutted to its frame (later in the office I learned that my restaurant moved, so it is not gone). One final surprise met me on the way – At a particularly busy and dangerous 5 way intersection (I was told later in the day, it is Dalian’s busiest), which was always a challenge to cross (because traffic lights are treated so optionally), they built an underground pedestrian tunnel to get me to the other side – hooray.
In the office I met up with my main contact, Winson, who gave me the updated tour and introduced me to some new people as well. I worked in my office until about 11:30am, when we took our lunch break. Can anyone guess where they took me? You faithful readers would know that the Japanese restaurant behind our building is the favorite around here, so four of us headed over there. I had a new dish (same as Winson) a baked fish w/ sushi - absolutely delicious. Carol and the other guy had the eel, which I also remember being very, very good. Damn – I just remembered that I was going to take dinner pictures - will have to take a picture next time – sorry about that.
Around the office, things had changed a bit since my last visit. Many of the people have moved locations in the building. Rockwell has floors 20, 22, and 23. So, it’s a bit confusing to where everyone is now after having it in my head for the last year that they are somewhere else. A few Nintendo Wii’s are setup in break areas, and every floor has a nice sized flat screen TV.By about 4:30pm I was getting pretty tired so, I decided to head back to the hotel for a quiet evening.
At the hotel, I ordered my standard room service meal here – the California burger (cheeseburger, w/ onions rings and bacon on top) and the tasty tomato basil soup. I polished the whole thing off with a can of Coke.
I then headed out into the sunny, cold morning to walk over to work. It was about -10 deg. C out as I made the routine 5 block walk to work. A couple of things, however, had changed outside. First, I saw cleaning crews out picking out garbage (I actually noticed a large number in Shanghai), so it seemed a bit cleaner outside. Also, one of my favorite restaurants was now a shell of a building that is either being torn down, or was just gutted to its frame (later in the office I learned that my restaurant moved, so it is not gone). One final surprise met me on the way – At a particularly busy and dangerous 5 way intersection (I was told later in the day, it is Dalian’s busiest), which was always a challenge to cross (because traffic lights are treated so optionally), they built an underground pedestrian tunnel to get me to the other side – hooray.
In the office I met up with my main contact, Winson, who gave me the updated tour and introduced me to some new people as well. I worked in my office until about 11:30am, when we took our lunch break. Can anyone guess where they took me? You faithful readers would know that the Japanese restaurant behind our building is the favorite around here, so four of us headed over there. I had a new dish (same as Winson) a baked fish w/ sushi - absolutely delicious. Carol and the other guy had the eel, which I also remember being very, very good. Damn – I just remembered that I was going to take dinner pictures - will have to take a picture next time – sorry about that.
Around the office, things had changed a bit since my last visit. Many of the people have moved locations in the building. Rockwell has floors 20, 22, and 23. So, it’s a bit confusing to where everyone is now after having it in my head for the last year that they are somewhere else. A few Nintendo Wii’s are setup in break areas, and every floor has a nice sized flat screen TV.By about 4:30pm I was getting pretty tired so, I decided to head back to the hotel for a quiet evening.
At the hotel, I ordered my standard room service meal here – the California burger (cheeseburger, w/ onions rings and bacon on top) and the tasty tomato basil soup. I polished the whole thing off with a can of Coke.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, Jan. 12 - Last Day in Shanghai
I woke up around 4:00am after a broken night’s sleep. I think I was up for about 45 minutes before finally falling back asleep until 8:45am. I got up, took a shower, and had my standard breakfast in the hotel. I then returned to my room and worked on my blog entries until about 11:30am.
I then packed up everything for checkout and was going to go downstairs to walk over to the shopping area, when I noticed that my hotel pen had exploded in my jacket pocket and got all over my rented cellphone (as well as my jacket pocket). I took it down to the front desk where they promptly cleaned off the phone and took my jacket for immediate cleaning. They also are going to let me check out at 5:00pm (when my driver will take me back to the airport for my flight to Dalian. While they cleaned my outer shell from my jacket, I walked a couple of blocks to the shopping area. I strolled around a bunch of computer stores and then went to the mall. It was about 5-6 stories tall, but only had about 20 stores per floor. Some of the stores were KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King. I proceeded to the basement level to check out the food court. Pretty interesting sites and I even ordered a beef on fried rice plate. When I went to pay, the cook said no and walked me over to a place where I need to purchase a food court card and then you pay off that debit card. He was very nice about it, and after getting that sorted out, handed the order to another chef who cooked up everything fresh (and even made the fried rice from scratch). The whole plate was served on a large leaf and came with egg drop soup – all for 18 RMB (about $2.25). It was very tasty and I picked up a can of Coke to wash it all down. I walked around a bit more and made my way back to the hotel around 3:00pm, picked up my cleaned jacket (mostly got the stain out), and went back to my room and rested until 4:45 when I checked out.
I hopped into my limo for the ride back to the airport. This time, traffic in the city was much worse, and since it was still light out, I got a much better sense of the size of Shanghai – I think over twice the size of Chicago with seemingly 10x the number of skyscrapers. The ride back was again harrowing and as we got close to the airport, traffic lessened somewhat and I noticed he had gotten up to 160km/hr. When we reached the airport, I figured that I could now relax and just await my 8:30pm flight to Dalian. That didn’t happen as I checked in, I was told that my China Southern flight was canceled and they said to go to the other terminal and check in on a China Eastern flight scheduled for 9:45pm. The other terminal ended up being about a mile tunnel walk. After finding the China Eastern service desk, they couldn’t pull up my info because China Southern never checked me in, after about 15 minutes they found an e-ticket number they could use, but then told me the flight was full and I would be on standby. Damn! They directed me to the standby counter where the hard working attendant told me it was not full and he got me an exit row seat and checked my luggage. Hooray.
So, I now attempted to call the Swisshotel in Dalian to let them know of my new later flight since they were supposed to pick me up at the airport. I recalled from my prior visits to Dalian that the staff does not speak English well, so I knew that it was going to be a challenge. They first couldn’t find my reservation and then after finding it told me there was no reservation for a driver made. So, I tried to call my contact at the Dalian office that set it all up, but she was gone for the day (as it was now 7:30pm). So, here I sit at the airport waiting to board my flight hoping that I will have ground transportation if/when I get to Dalian (now scheduled for about 11:45pm).
Please note: At this point you are actually traveling forward in time – no really, at the same rate as normal, but it is now in the future from when you started to read this note – cool! (Sidebar discussion point: As we move forward in time are we moving forward in time or is time moving forward – maybe a lunchtime topic for when I return). Anyway, I am finishing up yesterdays entry from my office here in Dalian. I won’t spoil the fun of this morning for you yet, but I will fill you in on how I finally got to Dalian.
Last I had checked in, I was sitting in the airport in Shanghai awaiting a possible flight to Dalian. The loooong two hour wait finally was over and they announced boarding of the flight (I am guessing, cause it was all in Chinese). I made my way up through the crowd and walked outside into the 0 deg. C air and boarded a bus. The bus took us out to the plane which was a fair distance from the building. It looked just like an old crappy film model plane from the movie "Airplane" (w/o the Autopilot :) ) (I would also accept “Airport ’77" or the sequel "Airport ’78"). Yikes. As we left the bus in the dark and proceeded up the uncovered stairs, I had the thought of giving a Richard Nixon wave, just before entering the plane, but I figured the humor might be lost on the passengers (as I was the ONLY non-Chinese). We packed in on the old Airbus, and listened to the safety presentations on the video screens. The first time through in Chinese, but the second time through in English, just for me! I did note that every announcement was actually duplicated in English, and I am sure I was the only one understanding them. The flight was a bit bumpy, but otherwise unnoteworthy, except to say I had two small cups of Sprite.
We landed in Dalian about 11:40pm and after deplaning, waited a LONG time for our luggage, and mine was the 3rd to the last piece to come out. I then staggered over to the exit where I hoped I would still see my driver. To my surprise, he was still waiting for me (since 8pm). He said he watched 3 other flights from Shanghai get in and no Dave – this was the last one. We went out to the small minivan in the dark and very cold Dalian night (it was about 5 deg. F). I knew that at least traffic wouldn’t be bad, but was ready for the 20 minutes of terror nonetheless. Funny thing, however, as this guy was the pokiest driver in China. Man – he even stopped at all of the red lights. I eventually ended up back at the hotel, checked in, and immediately fell asleep.
I then packed up everything for checkout and was going to go downstairs to walk over to the shopping area, when I noticed that my hotel pen had exploded in my jacket pocket and got all over my rented cellphone (as well as my jacket pocket). I took it down to the front desk where they promptly cleaned off the phone and took my jacket for immediate cleaning. They also are going to let me check out at 5:00pm (when my driver will take me back to the airport for my flight to Dalian. While they cleaned my outer shell from my jacket, I walked a couple of blocks to the shopping area. I strolled around a bunch of computer stores and then went to the mall. It was about 5-6 stories tall, but only had about 20 stores per floor. Some of the stores were KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King. I proceeded to the basement level to check out the food court. Pretty interesting sites and I even ordered a beef on fried rice plate. When I went to pay, the cook said no and walked me over to a place where I need to purchase a food court card and then you pay off that debit card. He was very nice about it, and after getting that sorted out, handed the order to another chef who cooked up everything fresh (and even made the fried rice from scratch). The whole plate was served on a large leaf and came with egg drop soup – all for 18 RMB (about $2.25). It was very tasty and I picked up a can of Coke to wash it all down. I walked around a bit more and made my way back to the hotel around 3:00pm, picked up my cleaned jacket (mostly got the stain out), and went back to my room and rested until 4:45 when I checked out.
I hopped into my limo for the ride back to the airport. This time, traffic in the city was much worse, and since it was still light out, I got a much better sense of the size of Shanghai – I think over twice the size of Chicago with seemingly 10x the number of skyscrapers. The ride back was again harrowing and as we got close to the airport, traffic lessened somewhat and I noticed he had gotten up to 160km/hr. When we reached the airport, I figured that I could now relax and just await my 8:30pm flight to Dalian. That didn’t happen as I checked in, I was told that my China Southern flight was canceled and they said to go to the other terminal and check in on a China Eastern flight scheduled for 9:45pm. The other terminal ended up being about a mile tunnel walk. After finding the China Eastern service desk, they couldn’t pull up my info because China Southern never checked me in, after about 15 minutes they found an e-ticket number they could use, but then told me the flight was full and I would be on standby. Damn! They directed me to the standby counter where the hard working attendant told me it was not full and he got me an exit row seat and checked my luggage. Hooray.
So, I now attempted to call the Swisshotel in Dalian to let them know of my new later flight since they were supposed to pick me up at the airport. I recalled from my prior visits to Dalian that the staff does not speak English well, so I knew that it was going to be a challenge. They first couldn’t find my reservation and then after finding it told me there was no reservation for a driver made. So, I tried to call my contact at the Dalian office that set it all up, but she was gone for the day (as it was now 7:30pm). So, here I sit at the airport waiting to board my flight hoping that I will have ground transportation if/when I get to Dalian (now scheduled for about 11:45pm).
Please note: At this point you are actually traveling forward in time – no really, at the same rate as normal, but it is now in the future from when you started to read this note – cool! (Sidebar discussion point: As we move forward in time are we moving forward in time or is time moving forward – maybe a lunchtime topic for when I return). Anyway, I am finishing up yesterdays entry from my office here in Dalian. I won’t spoil the fun of this morning for you yet, but I will fill you in on how I finally got to Dalian.
Last I had checked in, I was sitting in the airport in Shanghai awaiting a possible flight to Dalian. The loooong two hour wait finally was over and they announced boarding of the flight (I am guessing, cause it was all in Chinese). I made my way up through the crowd and walked outside into the 0 deg. C air and boarded a bus. The bus took us out to the plane which was a fair distance from the building. It looked just like an old crappy film model plane from the movie "Airplane" (w/o the Autopilot :) ) (I would also accept “Airport ’77" or the sequel "Airport ’78"). Yikes. As we left the bus in the dark and proceeded up the uncovered stairs, I had the thought of giving a Richard Nixon wave, just before entering the plane, but I figured the humor might be lost on the passengers (as I was the ONLY non-Chinese). We packed in on the old Airbus, and listened to the safety presentations on the video screens. The first time through in Chinese, but the second time through in English, just for me! I did note that every announcement was actually duplicated in English, and I am sure I was the only one understanding them. The flight was a bit bumpy, but otherwise unnoteworthy, except to say I had two small cups of Sprite.
We landed in Dalian about 11:40pm and after deplaning, waited a LONG time for our luggage, and mine was the 3rd to the last piece to come out. I then staggered over to the exit where I hoped I would still see my driver. To my surprise, he was still waiting for me (since 8pm). He said he watched 3 other flights from Shanghai get in and no Dave – this was the last one. We went out to the small minivan in the dark and very cold Dalian night (it was about 5 deg. F). I knew that at least traffic wouldn’t be bad, but was ready for the 20 minutes of terror nonetheless. Funny thing, however, as this guy was the pokiest driver in China. Man – he even stopped at all of the red lights. I eventually ended up back at the hotel, checked in, and immediately fell asleep.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday in Shanghai
I woke up about 8:00am Monday morning (6pm Sunday evening back home) and booted up the computer to check on the Packer game – which was now in the second half. Enough said.
I then took a shower and it was there that I learned something new. The hotel shower, in addition, to the hand-held shower head, has an overhead rainfall head. It is just after making that discovery, that a life lesson presented itself. When you press the button to switch to the overhead rainfall shower head, it is best to step to the side and let the cold water clear first. Please, do not forget this. Again, enough said.
Normally, my stomach is not up for much more than a bowl of cereal for breakfast, I don’t know why, but I just cannot each much for breakfast. However, one of the great things about being in China is that my stomach is still on US time, and therefore, thinks its dinner time. It is here that I can have a nice large breakfast, that I wish I could have back home. The MoMo Café features your standard nice hotel breakfast, with all of the normal selection we are used to, plus some Asian dishes – which I didn’t try.
After breakfast, I called Jeff and we agreed to meet at his subway stop where we would do some shopping and have lunch. I was a bit nervous to head out into the unknown alone, but in the spirit of adventure, I headed out into the cold 35 degrees rain. The new subway station (actually really new - it just opened on Dec. 31) was about 4 blocks away, and I found it without incident. Proceeding downstairs, I went to the automated kiosk and purchased my RFID card for my subway ticket. It was 4RMB (about $0.60) for a one-way ticket. I got on the subway (I had to duck entering it), and made the uneventful 20 minute ride to Jeff’s stop. There he saw me and jumped on.
We went a few more stops before heading out into a shopping market underground. The vendors are sure excited to see someone from the West as they aggressively try to get you to check out there goods. After an hour or two of shopping, we again took the subway over to downtown Shanghai to eat lunch at the Shanghai World Financial Center (Google that building – it was awesome). From our subway stop, it was a 45 minute walk through busy streets (yes, through some streets – some sidewalks were closed due to construction) heavy traffic, snow, wind, and rain, we finally made it to the SWFC building. The building is quite new, impressive, but shrouded in fog. We occasionally were able to see the top as we approached, but not often. We had lunch in a Hyatt restaurant on the 91st floor. We had some dough crisps w/ peanut sauce to snack on until our food arrived. I ordered the BBQ ribs/clear veggies/pork dumpling wrap appetizer and a fish of the day. Jeff had tasty beef bits in a stone bowl.After lunch, we walked around looking for a way to the observation deck, but found it was 150RMB each ($25) and you couldn’t see out that day because of the weather. We walked back to the subway, Jeff exited at his spot, and I made it back to my hotel around 3:00pm uneventfully.
At 6:30pm, Jeff and his girlfriend met me in the lobby and we went across the street to a hotpot restaurant. This was clearly a locals-only place, and it had been there awhile. We enjoyed a standard hot-pot dinner and I was able to try a few new things. The first one was pig knuckles. It was 100% of the stuff that Lisa detests – bone, bone marrow, connective tissue, and misc. gristle. The locals aggressively go at it and pick them clean – complete with using a straw to get the marrow out. I had one – the bits of meat were ok, but the rest wasn’t too terrific to me. The second item arrived last to our table. It was a plate of about 8 very slimy little fish with the heads just cut off (as in about 10 seconds earlier). They were each about 5 inches long, and did I mention slimy. They all got plopped into the hotpot and what caught my eye is that they started wiggling when they hit the water – Hello! After a couple of minutes in the boiling soup, they were ready. I, of course, grabbed one and told myself it was just like sardines. They actually did end up tasting like sardines without the sauce. They were a bit bigger and I could definitely felt the spinal cord crunch as I ate it. After polishing that one off, I decided that I was full. I walked back to the hotel and got to bed around 10:30pm.
I then took a shower and it was there that I learned something new. The hotel shower, in addition, to the hand-held shower head, has an overhead rainfall head. It is just after making that discovery, that a life lesson presented itself. When you press the button to switch to the overhead rainfall shower head, it is best to step to the side and let the cold water clear first. Please, do not forget this. Again, enough said.
Normally, my stomach is not up for much more than a bowl of cereal for breakfast, I don’t know why, but I just cannot each much for breakfast. However, one of the great things about being in China is that my stomach is still on US time, and therefore, thinks its dinner time. It is here that I can have a nice large breakfast, that I wish I could have back home. The MoMo Café features your standard nice hotel breakfast, with all of the normal selection we are used to, plus some Asian dishes – which I didn’t try.
After breakfast, I called Jeff and we agreed to meet at his subway stop where we would do some shopping and have lunch. I was a bit nervous to head out into the unknown alone, but in the spirit of adventure, I headed out into the cold 35 degrees rain. The new subway station (actually really new - it just opened on Dec. 31) was about 4 blocks away, and I found it without incident. Proceeding downstairs, I went to the automated kiosk and purchased my RFID card for my subway ticket. It was 4RMB (about $0.60) for a one-way ticket. I got on the subway (I had to duck entering it), and made the uneventful 20 minute ride to Jeff’s stop. There he saw me and jumped on.
We went a few more stops before heading out into a shopping market underground. The vendors are sure excited to see someone from the West as they aggressively try to get you to check out there goods. After an hour or two of shopping, we again took the subway over to downtown Shanghai to eat lunch at the Shanghai World Financial Center (Google that building – it was awesome). From our subway stop, it was a 45 minute walk through busy streets (yes, through some streets – some sidewalks were closed due to construction) heavy traffic, snow, wind, and rain, we finally made it to the SWFC building. The building is quite new, impressive, but shrouded in fog. We occasionally were able to see the top as we approached, but not often. We had lunch in a Hyatt restaurant on the 91st floor. We had some dough crisps w/ peanut sauce to snack on until our food arrived. I ordered the BBQ ribs/clear veggies/pork dumpling wrap appetizer and a fish of the day. Jeff had tasty beef bits in a stone bowl.After lunch, we walked around looking for a way to the observation deck, but found it was 150RMB each ($25) and you couldn’t see out that day because of the weather. We walked back to the subway, Jeff exited at his spot, and I made it back to my hotel around 3:00pm uneventfully.
At 6:30pm, Jeff and his girlfriend met me in the lobby and we went across the street to a hotpot restaurant. This was clearly a locals-only place, and it had been there awhile. We enjoyed a standard hot-pot dinner and I was able to try a few new things. The first one was pig knuckles. It was 100% of the stuff that Lisa detests – bone, bone marrow, connective tissue, and misc. gristle. The locals aggressively go at it and pick them clean – complete with using a straw to get the marrow out. I had one – the bits of meat were ok, but the rest wasn’t too terrific to me. The second item arrived last to our table. It was a plate of about 8 very slimy little fish with the heads just cut off (as in about 10 seconds earlier). They were each about 5 inches long, and did I mention slimy. They all got plopped into the hotpot and what caught my eye is that they started wiggling when they hit the water – Hello! After a couple of minutes in the boiling soup, they were ready. I, of course, grabbed one and told myself it was just like sardines. They actually did end up tasting like sardines without the sauce. They were a bit bigger and I could definitely felt the spinal cord crunch as I ate it. After polishing that one off, I decided that I was full. I walked back to the hotel and got to bed around 10:30pm.
Shanghai arrival and first night
After deplaning, I headed over to immigration. This time, there was an extra stop to hand in your health declaration card. If you declare that you are, or even look sick, they take you to a quarantine/examination area. I was feeling a bit tired, but fine. I then made my way over to the main immigration line, which was filling up fast. There were about 200 people ahead of me, but behind me, the line quickly grew with about 500 or more people getting there after me. By 4:00pm, I was through and had my luggage.
At this point, I left the secure area of the airport where I needed to find my driver who would be holding up a sign with my name. I was not prepared for the swarm of people there, all holding signs with names. There were so many people, in fact, that the exit path zig-zagged around and around, so that all of the people with signs could be seen. I eventually found mine, and was whisked over to a waiting area until my car pulled up. Normally, the cars I have been driven around in over here haven’t been the greatest, this time, however, I would be making up for that as the large brand new black Mercedes pulled up. Sweet! I climbed into the back where ultra soft leather seats and some bottled water awaited me. The driver didn’t speak English, but between the beautiful car, the CRAZY driving, and the scenery, I had enough to keep me occupied for the hour drive to my hotel – the Courtyard Marriott. Even rain and fog doesn’t keep the driver under control, as I was actually nervous that the car I was in would get scratched (or totaled!) Did I mention how nice the car was – man! Shanghai has many more modern and Western cars than Dalian, and the large city actually looked pretty nice (through the fog/rain). The roads were heavily tree-lined, and I didn’t notice too much blight on my route, in fact, there was a ton of new construction and beautification efforts going on. I have since learned that the 2010 World Expo will be here this summer – and they are aggressively “cleaning up”).
After checking in, I got up to my room and took a couple pictures (which I will post w/in a day or so). It was now about 5:15pm local time, and I called a friend/coworker of mine, Jeff, that works here in Shanghai to come and meet me for dinner. At about 6pm, we met in the hotel lobby bar and after a couple of Heinekin’s , took a taxi to a Szechuan (spicy) restaurant. We got out in a steady 40 degree rain in the dark and he soon realized that we were dropped off in the wrong spot. We trudged a couple of blocks in the dark and eventually found the restaurant. The main floor had standard western style seating and no lazy susan. We ordered some Jasmine tea, a crispy fish (squirrel-shaped mandarin fish – google some pics), some vegetables, and some HOT chicken (rated 2 peppers – but absolutely my upper limit for hot). This was way hotter than anything I have ever had in Dalian – wow. After a couple of Tiger beers, I was getting tired so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. It seems that taxi driver didn’t know my hotel (it just opened a couple of months ago) and Jeff was frantically yelling out left turn, right turn, and u-turn. I finally made it back, said goodbye to Jeff, and headed up to bed. After about 30 minutes, I finally fell asleep around 10:30pm (8:30am Sunday, CST). What a long day.
At this point, I left the secure area of the airport where I needed to find my driver who would be holding up a sign with my name. I was not prepared for the swarm of people there, all holding signs with names. There were so many people, in fact, that the exit path zig-zagged around and around, so that all of the people with signs could be seen. I eventually found mine, and was whisked over to a waiting area until my car pulled up. Normally, the cars I have been driven around in over here haven’t been the greatest, this time, however, I would be making up for that as the large brand new black Mercedes pulled up. Sweet! I climbed into the back where ultra soft leather seats and some bottled water awaited me. The driver didn’t speak English, but between the beautiful car, the CRAZY driving, and the scenery, I had enough to keep me occupied for the hour drive to my hotel – the Courtyard Marriott. Even rain and fog doesn’t keep the driver under control, as I was actually nervous that the car I was in would get scratched (or totaled!) Did I mention how nice the car was – man! Shanghai has many more modern and Western cars than Dalian, and the large city actually looked pretty nice (through the fog/rain). The roads were heavily tree-lined, and I didn’t notice too much blight on my route, in fact, there was a ton of new construction and beautification efforts going on. I have since learned that the 2010 World Expo will be here this summer – and they are aggressively “cleaning up”).
After checking in, I got up to my room and took a couple pictures (which I will post w/in a day or so). It was now about 5:15pm local time, and I called a friend/coworker of mine, Jeff, that works here in Shanghai to come and meet me for dinner. At about 6pm, we met in the hotel lobby bar and after a couple of Heinekin’s , took a taxi to a Szechuan (spicy) restaurant. We got out in a steady 40 degree rain in the dark and he soon realized that we were dropped off in the wrong spot. We trudged a couple of blocks in the dark and eventually found the restaurant. The main floor had standard western style seating and no lazy susan. We ordered some Jasmine tea, a crispy fish (squirrel-shaped mandarin fish – google some pics), some vegetables, and some HOT chicken (rated 2 peppers – but absolutely my upper limit for hot). This was way hotter than anything I have ever had in Dalian – wow. After a couple of Tiger beers, I was getting tired so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. It seems that taxi driver didn’t know my hotel (it just opened a couple of months ago) and Jeff was frantically yelling out left turn, right turn, and u-turn. I finally made it back, said goodbye to Jeff, and headed up to bed. After about 30 minutes, I finally fell asleep around 10:30pm (8:30am Sunday, CST). What a long day.
I'm here - sorry for the late post
Actually, it is a sunny Tuesday morning in Shanghai as I write this post and i have finally found a way to get these posts online. It seems that I cannot even compose my new blogs via the normal means here, so I had to route through a remote computer froom back home. In any case, I should now be able to consistently post my entries. So, let's start with Saturday, January 9th, where I was at O'Hare airport checking in for my flight to Shanghai...
After a normal check-in at 8:45am, I proceeded to the AA Admiral's Club to awaiting boarding of my flight. On arrival there, I showed my ticket to the attendant so they would announce when my flight was boarding. Walking through the lounge over to my seat, I noticed some familiar colored boxes scattered about. They were, in fact, some good boardgames - Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, etc. Very nice, except this time I am traveling alone - oh well. I grabbed a tuna salad sandwich and a coke and relaxed. Soon it was 10:00am and time to board the plane. I found my window seat and settled in.
My biggest fear for the flight is that I had heard that due to security concerns, the had disabled the map display showing our current position, time to arrival, etc. I was relieved to find it still available. Soon we were airborne headed due north over the arctic circle. About an hour into the flight, we were over a snow-covered Lambeau Field, where I remembered that I would be unable to watch the upcoming playoff game vs. the Cardinals. At that point I took a mental note that the GPS display informed me we were a short 7000 miles (& 13.5 hours) from our destination - ugh.
After a serving of warm towels (not very tasty) the stewardesses took our lunch order. I would be having warmed nuts, a salad, Beef Fillet w/ foyot sauce, and some ice cream. Browsing through my video unit, I saw that all of the movies were bad, but they did have about 20 episodes of the Big Bang Theory that Lisa and I watch regularly.
After finishing my lunch, it was about 1:15pm CST and I tried to sleep. I got about 2 hours of good sleep, followed by another 3 hours of broken sleep. At 6:30pm CST, I gave up tried too sleep and was served a plate of Asian noodles with shrimp along with a bowl of fruit. At 7:00 I got up to stretch my legs for about a half hour I noticed we were now north of where there is sunlight in the winter and returned to my seat.
At 8pm CST (11am Sunday, Shanghai time) we were flying south over Siberia where the outside air temperature was -88F (yup, that's cold - even for 35,0000 feet). As we proceeded south, we again returned to daylight. Now we had 2500 miles to go (about 5 hours). When the clouds broke, I could see Siberia, and it looked exactly like you would expect in January. In fact, all the way down to Beijing, it looked like a ton of snow had fallen.
At 1:30pm China time (11:30pm CST), while over Beijing, we were served a light snack of deep-dish pizza and I had a Sprite. One hour and 45 minutes to goo!
Finally, at 3:15pm China time (1:15am CST), we landed in heavy fog and substantial rain in Shanghai where it was about 42 degrees.
After a normal check-in at 8:45am, I proceeded to the AA Admiral's Club to awaiting boarding of my flight. On arrival there, I showed my ticket to the attendant so they would announce when my flight was boarding. Walking through the lounge over to my seat, I noticed some familiar colored boxes scattered about. They were, in fact, some good boardgames - Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, etc. Very nice, except this time I am traveling alone - oh well. I grabbed a tuna salad sandwich and a coke and relaxed. Soon it was 10:00am and time to board the plane. I found my window seat and settled in.
My biggest fear for the flight is that I had heard that due to security concerns, the had disabled the map display showing our current position, time to arrival, etc. I was relieved to find it still available. Soon we were airborne headed due north over the arctic circle. About an hour into the flight, we were over a snow-covered Lambeau Field, where I remembered that I would be unable to watch the upcoming playoff game vs. the Cardinals. At that point I took a mental note that the GPS display informed me we were a short 7000 miles (& 13.5 hours) from our destination - ugh.
After a serving of warm towels (not very tasty) the stewardesses took our lunch order. I would be having warmed nuts, a salad, Beef Fillet w/ foyot sauce, and some ice cream. Browsing through my video unit, I saw that all of the movies were bad, but they did have about 20 episodes of the Big Bang Theory that Lisa and I watch regularly.
After finishing my lunch, it was about 1:15pm CST and I tried to sleep. I got about 2 hours of good sleep, followed by another 3 hours of broken sleep. At 6:30pm CST, I gave up tried too sleep and was served a plate of Asian noodles with shrimp along with a bowl of fruit. At 7:00 I got up to stretch my legs for about a half hour I noticed we were now north of where there is sunlight in the winter and returned to my seat.
At 8pm CST (11am Sunday, Shanghai time) we were flying south over Siberia where the outside air temperature was -88F (yup, that's cold - even for 35,0000 feet). As we proceeded south, we again returned to daylight. Now we had 2500 miles to go (about 5 hours). When the clouds broke, I could see Siberia, and it looked exactly like you would expect in January. In fact, all the way down to Beijing, it looked like a ton of snow had fallen.
At 1:30pm China time (11:30pm CST), while over Beijing, we were served a light snack of deep-dish pizza and I had a Sprite. One hour and 45 minutes to goo!
Finally, at 3:15pm China time (1:15am CST), we landed in heavy fog and substantial rain in Shanghai where it was about 42 degrees.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Intro to the 2010 Trip
Welcome back loyal readers! It's been awhile, but a new trip awaits! On Saturday, January 9, 2010, I will leave Chicago's O'Hare airport @ 11:00am on an American Airlines 777 and head to Shanghai. I should arrive at 3:00pm on Sunday, January 10. For this trip, I will be staying in Shanghai for a couple of nights to see the city with my friend, Jeff, who works in the RA office there. On the evening of January 12, I will take the 1.75 hour flight from Shanghai to Dalian China where I will be working from the office. I should have some interesting posts, once I recover from jet lag! Talk to you soon from China!
I almost forgot, if you are really bored on Saturday (I mean REALLY bored), you can monitor my flight using the following link: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL289
I almost forgot, if you are really bored on Saturday (I mean REALLY bored), you can monitor my flight using the following link: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL289
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