One Month in Dalian, China

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May 16th 2007

Published: May 16th 2007

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CoreysTravels

Near downtown Dalian

These are some of the few old buildings left in Dalian. Unfortunately, they may not last long because of the rapid development on all sides of the area.

Route to Dalian and Back After Vietnam I took a series of flights through Bangkok and Shanghai to Dalian, China. This coastal city of 1.5 million is in North Eastern China, close to North Korea. There I stayed at a university and helped conduct research on the same type of device for which I received my graduate degree. I had arranged to be there for one month.

Most of the time I was busy working, typically from 8:30 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m., every day of the week. So, because of that, this blog will be a bit different. The university in which I lived had a very nice campus with many new buildings and nice green spaces. However, some aspects made things a bit annoying for research, such as a lack of a machine shop and an unfamiliar set of materials, including a white insulation blanket which translated to asbestos cloth.

During my stay in Dalian was the Golden Week holiday or referred to as the Labor holiday. I had this time off from work and was able to be a tourist again. Unfortunately, because most people have this week off and there are 1 billion people in China, all long

Russian Street

This street is a touristy historic street with many Russian buildings. Oddly enough, the main thing being sold by the touristy street stalls were binoculars and telescopes.

distance public transportation and famous tourist locations are insanely crowded. Therefore, I could not get a train ticket to Beijing as I had planned and ended up spending a week taking in the touristy sites around Dalian.

Dalian is a very modern and rich town. It is situated on a mountainous peninsula with a number of beaches and plenty of fresh ocean air. It is a major port in northern China and has a great deal of investment, particularly from Japan. Dalian also has a rather interesting and recent history. In ancient times it was little more than a small fishing village. This is followed by Russia taking control in the late 1800s and developing it as a port. There are still many buildings from Russia's colonial era. In the early 1900s, Japan attacked Russia and took control of Dalian and many other areas of China. There are also some buildings from this era in Dalian. At the end of WWII, the land reverted to China.

In the last few years, Dalian has seen a dramatic change, from no sky scrapers in the mid 1990's to the many that can be seen in my photos. Also, the city

A View of Downtown Dalian

This view is from a mountain top overlooking Labor Park (in the foreground) and downtown Dalian.

has made a great effort to make plenty of green space throughout the town. The town is still developing rapidly with massive developments all over town, in some places 20 tall buildings (10 to 20 stories) were being built in a single development. Most of these are apartment buildings.

During the week I had off I traveled around Dalian and north of Dalian to Jin Shi Tan, a beach resort town. While Dalian is a major tourist destination for shopping and beaches, these are Chinese tourists and it rarely sees western tourists. Therefore, I was quite the oddity and because of that I received constant stares and on many occasions, people wanting to practice their English and show me around the town. Overall, everyone in Dalian was extremely nice to me and it was quite an experience. In fact during my month in Dalian I only talked to one other native English speaker. The town itself is filled with massive malls, several under the roads and squares and many walking streets for shopping. The beaches around Dalian are filled with amusement rides including several zip lines and a bungee jump. There is also a large zoo with massive aviary

Interesting Rock Formations

These weathered rocks were semi-excavated out of the surrounding terrain. This is at a touristy beach town called Jinshitan, 45 minutes north of Dalian by train. The entire town is a tourist destination with many beaches, museums, and amusement rides.

and a several chair and gondola lifts over the mountains for the wonderful views.

Anyway, I'm sure this is more than anyone wanted to know about Dalian and it is a definite departure from the previous part of my trip.

After Dalian I spent a few hours in downtown Shanghai before flying to Bangkok. I rode the Maglev train into town, it topped out at 431 km/h and only took 10 to 15 minutes to reach the destination. In Shanghai I took a short walk down The Bund before heading back to the airport. Here in Shanghai I was definitely back on the tourist track with many touts and scams.

Next, Laos.

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