Saturday, November 15, 2014 –Xi’an

Saturday, November 15, 2014 –Xi’an

After a decent nights sleep, I awoke to hallway chatter an elevator dings, showered, and got ready for a full day of tourism.  At 8:00 am, we headed out on foot for breakfast around the corner.  It was definitely a local’s restaurant with about 4 small tables inside and a couple outside - where breakfast was prepared.  We each had a bowl of hot soy milk with a touch of sugar along with a bowl of soupy noodles covered in a ½” layer of perhaps tofu?  We also each enjoyed a Chinese long John doughnut (I call it that as it was a non-sugary long john w/o any topping).  I believe Winson said the total was 9RMB for the both of us (~$1.50 – doesn't seem possible).

Winson then negotiated a 250RMB fee with a taxi driver for the long ride to and from a tomb outside of the city.  It was about an hour drive out to the country past an innumerable number of 50 story condo complexes under construction. I would guess was passed about 100 of them being built – no kidding! We arrived around 9:15am and paid 70RMB ($12US) each for the tomb grounds admission. There were not too many people there as we began the walk in medium fog and temperatures around 50 degrees. Specifically, the tombs are the Han Lan Ying Tombs. Technically, the Yangling Mausoleum is located at Zhangjiawan Village, near Xi'an city. Here is a link to the location on google maps.  It is a joint tomb of Liu Qi, a notable emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, and his empress, Empress Wang. It was built in the year 153 AD (well, over about a 25 year period around that time). I was told that 300,000 workers tolled for about 28 years to build. The tomb area was then guarded for about 300 years after. The overall tomb area actually encompassed an area about 40 square kilometers!

The tour started with a view of the ruins of one of the 4 gate houses that were located on each of 4 sides of the tomb.  The tomb itself looked like a giant man-made hill, but is now overgrown with trees and bushes.  To the south, we could see a reconstructed gate house complex, but we never had the chance to go over and check it out.  We then made our way down the ramp to the underground museum.  Apparently, on all four sides of the tomb, there are many parallel corridors underground that were filled with items the emperor could use in the afterlife.   The underground tour was really interesting - with glass floors that traversed the underground corridors from above.  I did have a problem at the start, as we were required to wear blue booties to protect the glass floor, however, none were large enough for my shoes, so I actually had to have two overlapping booties per foot - which somehow managed to stay on for the duration of the tour.

Photos do not do this justice, it was an amazing tour over these 2000 year old burial pits that contained many stone dolls, vases, chariots, and animals.

Here is a link the the museum's website.  They have some good photos and historical information as well.

After the tour over the corridors, we entered a medium sized underground museum with various artifacts available for view up close.  Additionally, we went into a side room with a small screen to watch a 30 minute video on the history of this particular emperor.  As the curtain raised, the small screen actually turned out to be a miniature set depicting some scene from ancient times.  Suddenly, some computer generated 3-d people in ancient wardrobe walked out and interacted with the set - it was fantastic - one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The people were filmed, but somehow animated in 3d fashion.  Picture looking at a miniature set in front of you populated with tiny people that appeared to be about 8 " tall or so.  It looked absolutely real.  Amazing.

We had the taxi driver take us across the street to a large rose garden and Gingko tree forest.  It seems the plantings were just a rose and tree farm that the owner realized that they could charge admission.  The trees were maybe 20 feet tall and in neat rows and columns and probably was a square mile or so in size.  Having easy access to walking in the woods in the US made me realize that folks in a giant Chinese city like Xi'an (8 million people) do not regularly get this opportunity.

Located on these grounds was a large museum that further features artifacts and information from the emperor and the tomb.  Many photos later, we were finished.

Google maps location of the museum is here.

Between 11:45am – 12:45pm we rode the taxi back to inside of the walls of Xi'an to the southwest side to a restaurant that Winson said was famous in China for its soup.  Organ soup… Intestines with bread.  We also had cold noodles and vegetables.  For dessert, yogurt in small glass jugs.  Total cost was about $10.  The intestine soup was actually very good, with the exception of the intestines themselves, which had a solid manure finish taste to them.

From there, we walked to the southern gate and bought some sort of snack that looked like small tree twigs for 5RMB.  They tasted like a slightly sour apple, but had some small hard seeds inside that one had to be careful of.  Upon reaching the gate house, we paid 54RMB each to enter wall and tour the gate houses.  Eventually, we made our way on top of the giant wall and walked along the top for a quarter-mile or so.  What a tremendous amount of labor had to have gone into it's construction.

At 3:00pm, we went on one of the mini-taxis for a scary taxi ride to the Shaanxi History Museum that lasted 15 minutes.  It is located here on Google maps.  Although free, we paid 20RMB to avoid the line for free tickets (and also gave us special exhibition pass – for Tang Dynasty exhibit).  I also rented an electronic translator unit for 35RMB - Amazing sights, but VERY crowded.

For my notes:
Quin Dynasty – 2200BC  (Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall, Unification of China)
Han Dynasty– 2000BC (Han Lan Ying Tombs from the morning)
Tang Dynasty - 500AD
Ming Dynasty - 1400AD (rebuilt the Xi'an walls to their current form)

One interesting note from the museum was that they features a special exhibit from the Tang Dynasty.  Apparently, the most elaborate items on display were from two giant vases (also at the museum) that was found during construction in 1976 in Xi’an.  Amazing quality.  We raced through the  museum until it closed at 5pm.  Again, 100's of pictures will cement this terrific memory.

As we exited the museum, I notice the skies actually cleared to nearly blue as we walked through a nice, modern, and clean tourist area.  I had a Pepsi and as dusk slowly set in we approached a tall Buddhist temple.  From a website reference, "It remains as one of the oldest (built in the 7th century) structures in China, and was originally 60 meters high. Damage in World War II resulted in the reduction of the original ten stories down to seven; however it still remains one of China’s most distinctive and outstanding landmarks. A well preserved ancient building and holy place for Buddhists, Wild Goose Pagoda is said to be the most beautiful building in Xi’an today." (you can see it at night in the background of the fountain show below).  Here it is on Google maps.  Just to the north is a large fountain area where we later saw a show located here on Google maps.

We stopped in a Starbucks at 6pm to rest (and I entered the day’s activities on my tablet).  Eventually, we left and stopped at a KFC where I thought I ordered a chicken sandwich - but it turned out to be a shrimp patty sandwich - pretty tasty - just not what I expected.  By 8:30pm, the fountain area (about 100 yards wide and about 500 yards long) had a automated show with lights and music to boot.  It was again, a great experience.  It was during that show, I reflected on just what an unbelievable day this has been.

Around 9:00pm we walked for about an hour, through the nightclub district, until we finally were able to hail a cab (regular cab this time).  After a 30 minute ride, we were back to the market area by the bell and drum towers at the center of Xi'an.  There we spent another hour wandering the streets enjoying more snacks and enjoying the cloudless 50 degree evening.

Finally, exhausted, we made it back to the hotel around 11:00pm where I fell asleep immediately - ending one of the top 10 best days of my life.  It was that good!

Friday, November 14, 2014 – Off to Xi’an

(NOTE: Thanks for your patience, I am back from China now, recovering from jet lag, and generally getting caught up enough to resume the rest of my posts from the trip.  I will actually get these posted over the next week - I don't promise them to be great, however, I do promise that the Xi'an trip will be much more interesting than the rest of my work days in Dalian!)

Friday, November 14, 2014 – Off to Xi’an

Taxi from work back to hotel 11:40am.  Grabbed clothes and taxi to airport.  There, Winson and I sat down for some lunch at an airport restaurant.  We had Beef and Shrimp dumplings - decent, not great.

At 1:45pm, it was finally time to board.  We hopped on a shuttle bus which took us on the 5 minute ride out the the airplane.  Apparently, to save a few dollars, a number of flights at Dalian, don't have a gate, but instead a parking area out on the tarmac.  Without incident we took off on-time at 2:30pm.  Strangely, as we climbed up and away from Dalian, we circled back over airport (I think because China's only aircraft carrier was out to the west doing trials.  By circling back over the airport, we reached a high enough altitude that we would not be too close to the carrier.  About 45 minutes into the flight we approached the western edge of the Yellow Sea where I did catch a glimpse of something like 75 large container ships moored off the coast.  Lunch on the plane consisted of 2 rolls, a cup of water, and a cup of Pepsi.  Eventually, after a 2.5hr bumpy and cloudy flight, we landed in fairly decent fog around 6pm.  We seemed to taxi forever (it sure appeared we were lost in the fog as I could swear we went in a circle) before arriving at our gate.  The Xi'an airport was large, but appeared desolate as grim light rain began outside.  Winson negotiated taxi into town (130RMB) and began our trip.  During that ride, the country portion ~10 miles) was sparsely traveled but exciting as we u-turned on the hwy to get on an off-ramp that took us to another highway w/o speed limit tracking (which the taxi driver took full advantage of).  Winson said to buckle up, so I reached behind me to grab a seat belt only to find there were none in the back seat.  As we approached the city of Xi'an, traffic rapidly ramped up and after 1.5 hours in extremely heavy traffic (Winson said heaviest he has been in!) we reached the city center.

At the center of the city we were met by a large imposing wall - 50 feet all and 100 feet thick.  This wall, originally built some 1600 years ago, was rebuilt many times, including a major rebuild in the 1400s that is the form the wall is in today.  It runs as a rectangle around the center of the city and is an impressive 15km in length (over 9 miles!).  The taxi took us through one of the few large gates to the wall to the exact center of the city.  Very impressive site, with a variety of very modern shopping plazas as well as architecture from ancient China.  This is the first time I have really experienced the ancient feel of China - it was impressive.  For example, the drum tower is an imposing structure, well let, that was built 600 years ago and was elaborately decorated.  It was there the taxi dropped us off.

This can be found here in Google maps.  Note the corresponding bell tower located about a block to the east on the map at the center of the circle.

We exited the taxi, now around 7:30pm in a light rain and temperatures just under 50 degrees.  With our backpacks, we walked around to an amazing street market for the next 2 hours where I enjoyed grape drink, kabobbs of spicy tofu, crazy candy (hand made toffee, wrapped in white sugary strings), pomegranate drink (it turns out that pomegranate is from this area), dumplings, and miscellaneous meat skewers.

Eventually, we grabbed a mini-taxi (a 3 wheeled motorcycle with an enclosed seating area in back wrapped in clear plastic) for the 10 minute ride to hotel where we checked in around 9:30pm.  The hotel was located just outside the southeast corner of the city center wall - not in a tourist area.  It is located here in Google maps.

We got adjacent rooms located on the 4th floor - just across from the elevators - boo!  I hate the sound of elevator dings as it comes to the floor - it has messed up a few trips of mine in the past, so I generally avoid it like the plague.  I was too tired to put up a stink, so I opened the door to my room and hoped for the best...

The room was a bit sparse, with flat screen tv and smaller beds and a thin curtain.  The walls were paper thin, both out to the hallway as well as to adjacent rooms.  The flooring was a bit cold and of a laminate type wit a light wood grain pattern.  The floor seemed not quite clean enough to want to be on it barefoot, so a slipped on some of the hotel provided slippers which were about 10 sizes too small.  Luckily, I was soo tired, that the small bed, thin walls, and outside honking didn't interfere with a decent nights sleep.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Sunny and colder.

Lunch w/ test team at a small Japanese restaurant within a few blocks of the office.  At least 3 floors of dining with about 10 tables per floor.  Had a bowl of rice with beef, basic side salad, and a side plate of 3 items: Potato Salad, Kimchee type cabbage, and an orange slice.  Each one about one large spoonful in size (although eaten with chopsticks, of course).

Thursday evening – Dinner with Ryan and Winson.  Walked south from the office to Ryan’s home where we grabbed his car.  His parking spot was located in a back alley type street that is lined with vendors selling miscellaneous items and some food, fruits, and veggies.  After managing to get his car out from among the obstacles, we drove a short ways to a local restaurant featuring seafood.

Food was ordered in standard fashion, picking out the live seafood from aquariums, and pointing out other dishes from photos on the wall and samples on display.  We sat down at our traditional table – circular – with a large lazy Susan in the center.  Dishes were – green veggies, firm pancake type items, some fried oysters (I passed on those to play it safe), and some cooked sea urchins – that I had to try.  It was served in shell, with some scrambled egg mixed in – I doubt many at home would have enjoyed it.  Finally, the main course arrived – the flying crab.  We each had two and they were delicious.  A bit of messy work, but sweeter than any crab back home – no butter needed (or available).

After dinner, we took a short driving tour near my hotel to the newly rebuilt castle.  This high-end hotel (very high end) is built to resemble a fairy tale castle and the scale is immense.  Located about 500’ up the side of a mountain near the sea, this castle has to be 25 stories tall and has to have > 1000 rooms.  We drove up to check it out and was blown away.  My photos and videos could never do it justice.  It would fit right in with the hotels in Vegas – in terms of scale, and grandeur.  We actually walked inside for a few minutes to check it out and was equally impressed with the inside.  The main reception room was at least 100’square, with 50+’ ceilings in back lit intricate stained glass – probably 80’x80’…

Soon, it was time to get back to the hotel so I could pack for my weekend getaway – Xi’An city.  Home of the terracotta warriors!

I know the post have been pretty uneventful - but in posting this (Monday morning, November 17), I can tell you I had an absolutely amazing time in Xi'An - Location of the famous Terracotta Warriors.  This ancient city was a fantastic experience - one of the best of my life.

I do not know if I will have time to publish more posts before my return to Milwaukee (tomorrow, November 18), but, I will certainly add them upon my return.  Plus, if you stop by, I can show you my vast amount of pictures and videos that I took from the weekend.  It was amazing!

See you soon - Dave

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Lunch at Lotus restaurant w/ 4 coworkers – we arrived late – maybe 12:00pm) so food came very slowly.  Some very comfortable dishes for an unadventurous Americans: Sweet & Sour Pork – 1^st time ever in China – awesome – nice and light and not very sweet.  Also Kung Pow Chicken too – pretty good – also beef squares and shrimp (whole and in the shell).  One of the plates featured a fruit from a Ginkgo tree.  I was having a hard time understanding the word, so Winson said, there is a famous song about it and started to sing “Jingle Bells”.  I started to laugh and he realized that he meant to sing a Ginkgo tree song – funny.  He then played a bit of the actual song from his phone for me.  I wonder if I can find the Ginkgo tree song somewhere…

Dinner was at Korean BBQ with 4 of us.  Meats, Squid, Shrimp, mushrooms.  Excellent side plate of chilled red something – turned out to be beef tendons.  The restaurant featured self-serve drinks – this was a first for me in China – it had Coke Sprite, etc., but also about 8 different fruit juices – yum.  Dinner was about $18/person – but nearly unlimited food.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The day started off a bit overcast and developed into some very light sprinkles throughout the day.  Lights winds with a high around 50.  Lunch with about 4 coworkers down the street at a Japanese style restaurant – similar to one of my favorites that was behind our old building downtown.  I had the following: Beef strips with cooked onions over rice.  Side items was a salad with tuna salad topping, fish pudding (yup), fish soup, and some small vegetables.  Pretty tasty – but not as good as the old place.

After getting out of work a bit late, dinner was again with Winson at a newly redecorated small restaurant near the office.  We had squid with peanuts and hot Chinese peppers, black mushroom with green pepper, mushroom soup, and the main course:  A whole fish (baked and lightly fried) covered with tofu and hot Chinese peppers.  All pretty tasty.  Afterwards, a short stop at a Starbucks for some more work until 7:30pm when a taxi was finally available to take me back to the hotel.  This is pretty standard evening for Winson, where he eats near the office, then hangs out at the Starbucks until a bit later when traffic has died down.

More observations – It is really nice to eat out in Dalian – there are an amazing number of restaurants – from the very small, to the unbelievably large - spanning 4 stories or more and seating of probably 500+.  One thing is common – there is ALWAYS a table available to sit down immediately – even at peak times.  It must be torture for the Chinese to come to the US and be told to wait an hour (or more) for a table – and then get slow service.  Tonight, for instance, was a very fancy decorated restaurant with maybe 15 small tables.  At peak, it was half full – but since labor cost is small here, they are still very profitable.  The food was even reasonably priced costing about $43 for the two of us.  I estimate a similar meal in the US, if you could even find one that offered this – would have easily been $100 – but they just do not have dishes like this anywhere that I know of – at least not in the same ballpark of quality.  In the US, when you think of Chinese food, I picture less than top quality, with Americanized versions of dishes that don’t even exist here.  Best yet, you never have to wait more than 5 minutes for your first dishes to arrive.  Remember every meal here (except the Japanese lunch today) is many plates of food – all shared.  I really enjoy this style.

Another miscellaneous observation – I just realized that some of the walls in my hotel room are movable!  Two perpendicular walls slide to close off the shower/sink area.  Another wall slides to close the walk-in closet – cool.  Finally, I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but the Chinese seem very determined to choose the perfect table at a restaurant to sit at.  It seems that no matter the restaurant, there is always a discussion back and forth with the staff to find the best table available – I suppose they can since there are always so many tables available.  Back at home, we are usually just happy that there is a table at all.  By the way, Tuesday evening marks my half-way point on the trip.  It sure is going by fast – just a bit too busy so far!

Monday, November 10, 2014

- sorry for the delay - solid meetings at work all week...

Monday, November 10, 2014

At breakfast in the hotel, the dining room manager made his daily stop at my table to see if there was anything that I needed.  I talked about the fantastic buffet that I had last night there – particularly the seafood.  He thanked me and stated that he would be sure to bring me a delicious Vietnamese lobster tail for me to try the next time I choose to dine in – how nice!  I’ll tell you this, if the hotel wasn’t grand enough on its own, the service here is simply the best I have ever received.  From the moment I exit the elevator near the lobby, no less than 5 workers greet me, some by first name.  Kind of nice to be one of the first from our company to do an extended stay here – as they are really taking care of me here.  I really do feel fortunate to get to experience this. 

For lunch, three of us ate in the software park facility at a newer restaurant.  Of note were the cool bamboo cups – they can’t last all that long, but are pretty neat.  The food was standard faire with beef slices and beef lung.  Other bowls were pork chunks (w/ plenty of fat), cabbage like leaves, and another place of green veggies – all fairly tasty.

After work, we took a cab to the Wanda mall near Winson’s home where we went up to the 3^rd level where maybe 40 restaurants were located (yup – it’s a big mall, and less than one year old too).  The menu looked more like a small book, with no less than 50 full color pages of a wide variety of foods.  This place had an interesting twist in that they put a large hourglass on our table after we ordered and Winson explained that if the food was not delivered in time, it would be 50% off.  Needless to say, the food was promptly delivered and no discount was earned.  For dinner, we started with some spicy stomach and believe it or not, the meal got better was we went along.  The next item to arrive was a hot and sour soup – very close to US style, although a bit tastier – my son Adam would have eaten the entire bowl.  Next was another large soup bowl – this time absolutely loaded on top with very hot spices (I recognized them from previous dinners).  I was all set to say that I would be unable to even try the soup as it would have killed me on the spot – but, just then, the waiter came by and carefully scooped out all of the hot spices as it was explained that is standard for this dish at this restaurant.  He loaded my place with what was buried in the soup – some sort of white material, but I couldn’t be sure what.  Winson explained that it was just a white fish.  I gave it and go, and while at the upper end of my personal spice/heat limit, the fish was actually quite delicious.  Finally, the plate that I picked out arrived – actually in a small wooden bucket – it was shrimp coated in some cooked syrup with various spices.  The flavor ended up being a very nice BBQ taste, with the only possible downsides being you eat the shrimp whole (except the very end of the tail) – shell and all.  Of course, the entire head of the shrimp was there too – the tastiest part, actually – no kidding!  This was actually one of the very best meals of my trip so far.

Walking through the mall we stopped in a Chinese book-type store and some interesting memorabilia was acquired.  We then went through the equivalent of a Super-Walmart and headed to the grocery section to have me pick up some snacks for the hotel.  It is there that it really hit me…  This mall, just one of many huge and brand new malls in Dalian, are of a caliber that we just do not see any more in the US.  It is actually beginning to remind me of Singapore – things are brand new, surprisingly high quality, with an excitement and energy in the air that we are simply lacking back home – sorry all – you just have to see this place to really believe it.  Sure, the majority of the city is not this nice, but that is true of most places in the world.  The point is, there is a fabulous wealth growing in this city – and, of course the country.  What I see here is a hunger in everyone to do their best knowing there is a personal reward for doing so – weather it be wealth and even health.  While the young dominate the mall scene, the older are out in huge numbers exercising, almost constantly – either walking up the hiking trail that I tackled over the weekend, or swimming in the sea at sunrise outside my hotel – this place is not for the sedentary.  I am noticing the large numbers of high end cars – not just high end car dealers – the marina full of yachts, the expensive condos going up everywhere.  Anyway, I picked up some dried fruit, and some almond snacks and left the gleaming mall to take a taxi back to the hotel.

One out of place note with regards to exercise that I must mention…  With the large number of old folks out and about exercising, I noticed an interesting thing; that is, I fairly regularly see the over 60 group on walking trails doing something peculiar – walking BACKWARDS.  Strange, but true, it seems that they are attempting to preserve their body by walking backwards to wear different parts.  Weird.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Today, we planned a hike for the morning and the weather could not have been nicer.  About 50 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  

Here are two views from my hotel - the one of the water is from my room, and other other is from the elevator on my floor facing Xinghai Square (the largest square in Asia)...  (Remember to click on the photos for full view)

We headed to the east past the new fabulous Castle hotel (formerly the amazing shell museum that was torn down a rebuilt over the last three years).  Past that, along the winding coastal road, we gradually wound our way up the 300m (1000 foot).  After a total of 1.5 hours of walking, and a close encounter with about 4 deer, we made it to the top for a break and some picture taking.  Here is the view from the top (my hotel is the tallest building at the center of the photo) - long walk indeed:

We then headed down and after another 1.5 hours of walking ended up back near Xinghai Square at a Korean restaurant – a North Korean restaurant to be exact.  After ordering the food from the lobby, we headed upstairs to a large empty dining room where 5 young (~18) North Korean girls in bright pink classical dresses were practicing some music/dancing, but as we arrived, they seemed to scatter to the back.  Winson explained that he thinks they are brought in for about a 1 year stint in Dalian where they receive daily allegiance training from a government appointed chaperon – quite sad.  Our attendant seated us at a table near the stage and our food slowly arrived.  Lunch consisted of small slices of beef, some wheat dish where the pieces resembled cooked carrots, and some dried fish (that looked like strips of dried apricots.  There were also triangles of spicy wheat (like a pizza slice) that while tasty, the heat slowly built where I could only handle one piece.  I should mention, you would take the slices of meat, and place them in a cabbage wrap with some veggies and your choice of some sauces.  There was also a tasty seafood soup, as well as a cold rice noodle soup that I enjoyed as well.  During our meal, the girls performed a few songs of seemingly classical Korean style.  The meal was very tasty as I really enjoy Korean food – and this being North Korean, was also a first for Winson.

We then walked back past the hotel and then proceed along the beach for another mile or so west past the mansions near the hotel, to some nautical buildings.  One a large coral aquarium, another a giant penguin exhibit, and yet another that features sharks, whales, etc.  Winson informed me they are about $20 US for each building.  Eventually, we passed a marina (that featured a couple of new 70 foot yachts) and a large tower for bungee jumping out over the sea.  Since we had now been walking for about 5 hours including a small mountain climb, we took a cab back toward the hotel and stopped at a high end shopping area.  At this portion of town are yacht dealers, a Ferrari dealership, Maserati dealership, Harley Davidson store, and even a Lamborghini dealer that my son will surely enjoy seeing pictures from.

We then returned to the hotel for a drink and discussed work for a couple of hours before having dinner at the hotel.  That ended up being quite the treat.  In short, it was easily the best dinner buffet that I had ever experienced (and, as it turned out, the most expensive at $45/person).  All of your standard items were there with chef’s cooking lamb, steak skewers, sushi chefs preparing food for that section, tempura, noodles, and some of the most fantastic desserts to be seen (as tasted).  One thing of note was the tiger crab – which looked like a sand crab crossed with a small lobster.  It tasted like a 50/50 mix of shrimp and crab – tasty – but a ton of work for small pieces of food.  The lamb was insane, and, for the first bit of sweet that I have tasted since flying over the north pole 5 days earlier, a fantastic mango pudding.  Judging by the quality of everything that I tried, the Tiramisu was bound to be good – however, Lisa will have to try it for herself – if I can ever convince her to join me here.

Afterwards, I called it a night and returned to my room to write down my blog notes of the weekend.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Saturday, November 8, 2014

After another fantastic breakfast buffet (which is actually $32 US if not already included with my room rate) I met Winson in the lobby for a light day to explore.  We took a taxi to an area more to the north (east of the airport) where there is a very large street market going on.  Tons and tons of traffic and tons and tons of people milling about as we arrived.  So crowded and hectic in fact, that Winson forgot his backpack in the taxi.  No good, just as it drove off I realized he didn't have it.  (UPDATE: On Sunday, the hotel called and reported that the taxi driver had returned his backpack - wow!)  As we fought through the crowds along the streets, I saw what was essentially a giant street rummage sale that went on for a good number of blocks.  Everything was here – from old toys, trinkets, clothes, roots, spices, tobacco leaves, animal paws, shoes, jewelry to flowers, aquarium supplies, and pet birds.  In fact, after a couple of hours of wandering the streets, Winson took me inside some large dilapidated buildings in the center of the blocks of sales.  One building was tons of small 10’x10’ aquarium and fish shops.  Another building was just plants, and yet another was furniture.  I almost forgot to mention some of the food vendors – kind of rough looking street food, and one vendor was busy butchering a goat with the blood pile, head, and legs nearby on the street.  I did not try any!

Failing to find a taxi, we hopped on a bus to head back south for lunch.  This time, one of Winson’s favorites – river fish hot pot.  Not my personal favorite.  There we dined on an endless supply of wafer thin sliced river fish (about 4” x 4” slices).  You grab the raw sliced fish and drop them into a boiling fish stew.  After only 3-5 seconds, you pull the fish slice out, dip in one of a couple sauces and then consume (the sauces are identical to Yummy-Yum and Yucki-Yuck found at Hibachi restaurants).  The fish are a bit slimy and have a slight taste of mud – again not my favorite.  We also had one plate of raw lamb that also was similarly dipped in the broth – that was actually ok – although you have to be a fan of thin strips of meat cooked in a fish broth to really enjoy it.  We then took a 30 minute taxi ride to the south west end of Dalian – past the software park to the “Hi Tech Zone” of Dalian – where Winson lives.  He actually had the driver drop us off on a side street where Winson had a surprise for me.  We walked on a short narrow path through some woods towards the coast and after passing over a crest in the path, we came up a very nice view of the Yellow Sea – at low tide.  We walked down some rather rough wooden steps down to the beach – not sandy, but natural Dalian beach – small well weathered rocks.  The “beach” ran for a few hundred yards, winding around the coast at an average width of about 30 yards.  On the land side, some 100’ tall multilayered rock – something resembling granite – but with very interesting heaves.  In the water, at low tide, a good number of folks were out amongst the rocky bottom looking for clams or crabs.  There were also a number of other folks standing around that Winson presumed were fisherman guarding there spots just off shore.  Oh yes, we watched a mom grab her kid just as is slipped on the rocks and into the water.  No harm done – but I could easily picture that being my son!

We then took a ten minute walk back to the crowds of the city to head to Winsons’s condo.  He lives in a complex of about 20 main buildings.  Each I think supporting about 12 units each across 6 stories tall.  The space between the main buildings was a nice green space with the sidewalk weaving leisurely back and forth with plenty of trees.  As we reached his building, we entered and climbed the 5 stories to his unit.  No elevators here, you walk it – just like Lenard and Sheldon do (if you are a fan of Big Bang Theory).  Inside, was a bachelor’s dream…  Big screen TV, spare bedroom converted into computer room with aquarium (and a bed).  Another bedroom was converted into a home theater and electronics project room.  He even moved the wall in his kitchen to make the theater room larger.  The kitchen actually had an interior sliding glass door to block it off from the rest of the house.  Much like our kitchens, except, the fridge/freezer was a bit smaller.  His two bathrooms and master bedroom rounded out his condo.  It was around 1100 sq. ft. I would estimate, and about as clean as you would expect from a single guy.  We hung out there for the bulk of the afternoon and had a great time.  In fact, in his theater he showed me some of a video called “David Attenborough's series -  Life” – absolutely amazing – I will definitely watch this in its entirety when I get home.  Another coworker then stopped by with his 3 year old son to go to dinner.  Our coworker drove us the 30 minutes back to downtown where we enjoyed a Peking Duck, and some various standard Chinese dishes.  It should be noted that the little boy got to enjoy his very first Coke ever, and I can imagine was quite wired until about midnight.  After dinner, they dropped me back at the hotel and I called it a night.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Friday, November 7, 2014

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After a decent nights sleep, made it into work via the taxi w/o incident.

At lunch, we had a long walk on a sunny crisp day to a small dumpling restaurant near the center of three different universities.  Inside, there were only about 10 small tables and was populated with a young crowd.  As we waited for our dumplings, we could watch them prepare them thru glass to the kitchen.  Within 5-10 minutes, our order was brought to us - 8 dumplings with a side shrimp dumpling soup.  They were extremely hot and tasted like meatball with some sauce inside.  Very difficult to eat with chopsticks as you have to hold them carefully by the top and tilt them away from you as you bite them else the hot juice inside will burn your mouth. The restaurant became full during our time there and when we went outside, the takeout line was long.  Total cost – 38 Yuan – About $6.  A very delicious lunch that would not intimidate any visitor, other than the chopstick skills required.

After work, we walked south east and dined at a small sushi restaurant.  There we had a variety of sushi and sushi-mi along with a sushi roll of some sort.  It was decent, but not quite as good as Meiji in Waukesha.  Additionally, we ordered a lightly grilled whole mackerel as well as another large sardine.  Both extremely tasty – never had anything like that yet in China.  Had to be very careful of the bones in the large sardine.

After dinner, we fought the growing crowd and eventually got on bus 901 for the 10 minute crowded ride to a massage place.  This was a different one that I went to on my last trip, but had faith in Winson.  It started like my last one, with a 15 minute hot foot soak in some sort of hot colored water.  That, of course, felt excellent, but things began to deteriorate after that.  The foot message started off OK, but the strong man that did my massage almost managed to push his knuckles clean through the bottom of my feet – or so it seemed.  Some parts were pleasant, but generally a painful experience.  He then moved up to my legs, which was actually very nice, except for some reason, I could not stand him to massage near my kneecaps – so I had to tell Winson to instruct him to skip that particular area.  Now, about an hour in, the real pain began…  He had me roll onto my stomach so he could work my back and shoulders.  I had hinted about just a foot massage earlier to Winson, but now wish I had been a bit more forceful as the second hour of the message was almost straight torture (think Jack Bauer type torture).  Just way too much force for me.  So, while I loved the foot message, I am not a huge fan of anything above the knees.  At 9:00pm, we grabbed a taxi so Winson could take me back to the hotel. 

Returning to my room, I immediately took an Aleve and hoped for the best...

Thursday, November 6, 2014 - First full Day in Dalian

I awoke on Thursday at 7:45am out of a dead sleep to a sunny morning in Dalian.  I started the day with a welcomed shower which I could have used the night before, but I was way too tired.  Entering the glass walled shower room (about 8’ x 8’) I first checked the shower head height.  I was a bit disappointed to see that it was just over 6 feet – so kind of a pain for me.  On the plus side, the shower head was very oversized and featured a removable shower head.  It was then I realized I would be just fine – that was because I noticed this shower featured a large overhead shower head as well.  I began the shower without incident and part way through remembered to turn on the above shower head as well.  It was just about that moment that I learned an important lesson:  That is, there is a bit of water sitting in the system and it came out quite cold – On the plus side, I was now wide awake. 

After getting ready, I ventured down to the dining room where the all-important breakfast buffet took place.  It did not disappoint – with full international selections and fresh squeezed juices.  I think they had a dozen chefs working to keep everything going.  The dining area presented a nice view of the bay as well giving a decent view of the multi-year bridge project across the bay.  I would guess the bridge to be well over a mile long and is a double decker design with a large suspension portion in the center (the center reminds me of the golden gate bridge).  Very interesting to see it being built – they are currently lifting up the roadway sections to the center suspension portion.

For lunch, a standard Chinese meal in a restaurant about 10 minutes away by walking.  Of note, on the way back was a sidewalk sale that was held ON the railroad tracks.  I was told the train only comes through once a week and that the sales just go on during lunch break during the week.  It was just small scale items like socks, paper notebooks, etc.

After work, we drove to the far north-east side of Dalian for a vegetarian Chinese dinner.  Absolutely amazing to see the changes from my last trip two years ago.  I could see about 30 skyscrapers (> 30 stories) under construction with a new one being the largest one in Dalian – must be 80 stories tall.  Also spotted a new shopping center under construction that is double the size of the next largest mall.  As we neared the coast, we drove by about two miles of reclaimed sea that is now bustling with new construction.  In this area was a new convention center that was in the shape of a set of crashing waves – very cool.  I have to go back during the day to take some pictures.  It was immense.

The restaurant was located on the 3^rd floor of a standalone shopping center.  This new construction also featured a rarity in Dalian – an actual parking lot (5 Yuan to park – about $0.75).  The restaurant only had about 15 tables, but was very new and featured excellent foods like fried tofu in the shape of a fish, etc.  It was quite tasty and an excellent choice for a new visitor to China who is squeamish about trying the foods here.  It was a bit pricey ($50 for 3 of us) but delicious and they did a very nice job of presenting the various dishes.  In this mall, I am noticing a trend that I read was on the rise in China – Wine.  There were a couple of stores selling wine and even this restaurant had a large 10’ and 30’ long lighted display of wines for purchase.  They seemed to be in the $35/bottle range – which is expensive here.

I got back to the hotel around 7:30pm and edited the blogs and prepared for a 10pm-11pm conference calls with the US.  After the call, I went right to sleep and awoke on Friday at 7:00am.  So far, so good on the jet lag and sleep!

I promise to get some pics posted soon!

Tuesday, November 4 – Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - Full Narrative

After walking Adam to the bus stop on Tuesday morning at 7:50am, I drove my rented white Kia something Hybrid down to O'Hare for my 12:00pm departure to Beijing.  The Kia was a sporty 4 seater that I enjoyed, although the acceleration was a bit delayed in kicking in.  The drive took 1hr and 30 minutes and I checked in uneventfully.  I had time for about 1 hour in the United lounge where I made some final phone calls.  The snacks in the lounge were quite sparse.  Just some nuts and simple cookies.  Quite a drop-off from what I remember from just a few years ago.

I boarded the plane at about 11:30am and found my seat – not before catching a good look at the 8 first class seats in the front.  Very nice setup in the 747 as the cockpit is on the second floor, so those lucky to be in first class have the first row at the actual front of the plane – pretty neat.  I can’t complain about my seat – Business class with a lie-flat seat and 17” TV monitor.  For you China blog veterans out there you will be happy to read here that the TV never left the GPS page for the entire flight – although I could see the person next to me could choose between a ton of shows – but none could compete with the GPS channel.

As for the flight, it took off on time at 12:05pm and I had a coke and a bowl of mixed nuts at 1:30pm – this was followed by lunch service shortly thereafter as we entered Canada on the polar route to China (due to headwinds).  For lunch, I had a very tasty salmon with mustard sauce, salad, and some sort of fish on vegetables.  For dessert, a plate of cheese and crackers with an ice cream sundae – although I ordered mine extra plain;  Just the vanilla ice cream.

By 5:00pm Central time, I took a break to stand in a galley area and spoke with the lady who sat next to me.  She works in the patio furniture business and travels to China 5-6 times per year.  By 5:30pm we were approaching the North Pole and had traveled 2900 miles with about 3800 miles yet remaining (and 7 hours and 30 minutes left in the flight).  It was pitch dark outside and I decided it was finally time to attempt some sleep.  I struggled for about 5 hours to sleep and got about 2 hours of actual sleep.  Details are sketchy, but at midnight (US time) (2:15pm China) I peeked outside and saw sunny skies and a brown barren land of Russia.  About 30 minutes later I had my breakfast of scrambled eggs, fruit, yogurt and a pastry.

We landed to a sunny Beijing at 3:15pm China time – as scheduled.  Went through immigration, got my luggage, then customs, finally caught the 15 minute shuttle to the other terminal.  There I noticed an earlier flight to Dalian, but it was sold out.  So, I waited for my flight to leave at 7:50pm.  Long story short, after a delay and gate change, I found myself in line waiting to board the plane...  45 minutes later I was on board (not sure why they had us stand in line so long).  It was during that time in line, I realized that I was getting extremely tired and had not eaten or had a drink since my breakfast – now 5 earlier.  We pushed back around 9:00pm and sat and held for an eternity before taking off around 9:45pm.  On board the Airbus 321, I was lucky to have an open seat next to me to spread out a bit.  Seems like they always give me an adjacent open seat on my domestic flights in China.  On the short flight I had a meal of beef with rice and a bottled.  Not great, but I was so tired and hungry, it did the trick.

We landed in a foggy Dalian around 10:30pm and my hotel shuttle driver was waiting for me at the airport.  The 20 minute ride in the van ended with us pulling up to the new hotel in Dalian – a Grand Hyatt and it was both real and magnificent.  3 people from the hotel met me outside and escorted me to the front desk where another 2 people had my paperwork out and ready for me to sign.  Two people then walked me to my room on the 21 floor and gave me a brief tour.  I’ll save the description for another day (I have a night meeting to call into), but the room is terrific with a view of the water, with large shower room and walk-in closet.  In fact I learned that the hotel had just opened in September 2014.

I unpacked and fell asleep about 12:15am to a surprisingly good night’s sleep…

November 6, 2014 - I have arrived safely...

Just a quick update to let you know I have arrived in Dalian, China - slightly behind schedule...

To begin the journey, I started the drive down to the O'Hare airport at 8:00am on Tuesday, November 4.

My layover in Bejing was a bit longer as my flight out to Dalian was delayed.

I finally arrived in my hotel around 11:15pm China Time (US 9:15am) and got to bed by 12:15am  (US 10:15am).  So just over 24 hours from my house to the hotel.  7:30am and was in the office by 9:00am.

I have my notes written down, but have been too busy to enter them on the computer, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for a real post (w/ photos!)

Take care everyone.

- Dave

Breaking News: China - 2014 Edition!

Sunday, November 1, 2014

I can't believe more than two years have gone by since my last trip to China.  However, as a great relief to my roughly six followers, I am happy to report that I am once again returning to China and plan on blogging about the experience.

I will be leaving on Tuesday, November 4 2014, on a 747 out of O'Hare at roughly 1:00pm in the afternoon.  I will be changing planes in Beijing (China) and will arrive in Dalian, China on Wednesday, November 5 at 9:15pm (local) time (that is 7:15am Central US Time).

I will again be traveling alone, and have forgotten most of my Chinese, but should be able to do OK, since this is now my fifth trip to China.  I am expecting to stay for roughly two weeks.
Per my blogs, I see that I have made previous trips in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012.  It is always interesting to see the change and growth in China - I am even planning at staying at a brand new hotel there - should be fun.

Stay tuned, and either Wednesday or Thursday, I should be able to start publishing accounts of my travels once again.

Take care everyone!

Wednesday, April 4,2012 - The Journey Home

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - The Journey Home:

So, returning to my blog for the first time in 2 years, I see I had notes on my trip home that I never published.  Of course, so much time has gone by I have no detail to add, but here is the post for official records...

7:45 breakfast

arrived at airport on taxi via harbor view of the carrier at 9:30am

Checked in for flight at 10:25 - very large group showed up at 10:15 - bummer

Departed on time at 11:55am

Coach lunch of pork, rice, lettuce, with sweet bread, roll, and water, and Pepsi

Arrived in Shanghai around 1:45pm, long walk to terminal two

Sat in lounge - coke, and some food until 3:15pm

Plane left Shanghai via runway 18R about 4:05pm

5:30pm dusk, appetizer of salmon, beef, salad, and a roll

At that time I was near Osaka, Japan and for dinner I had a Filet, mashed potatoes, and greens

Not much sleep

Arrived in Chicago at 4:00pm on time

Home at 7:00pm