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Height 203
Description. I am too lazy to type. By this time I think I've tried all variation of Ce Suo (washroom/restroom) along the various roads, highways and attractions. They range from behind a bush, a hole in the ground with 4 walls, a sliding channel lined with heavy plastic with 4 walls, a bigger room with a gutter separated by walls, turkish squat toilet, and all the way to 5***** self-flushing urinals with soap dispensers and running water. Do bring your own hand sanitizer and toilet paper!
Before I tell you about my day I think some history of Lushun is in order. Lushun literally means "smooth journey". It was/is called "Lion Mouth" because of its difficult access. It is situated in the southern most tip in the 3 NE provinces and had long been a strategic location for military operations. In 1882, the Qing Dynasty established a fleet of modern warships named the "North Sea Fleet", and built a naval base here at Lushun. Unfortunately, the then Empress Dowager Cixi diverted funds for building the navy to build Yiheyuan or Summer Palace in 1895 for her 60th birthday. Without modern ships and equipment, in 1894 during the Sino-Japanese war, the Japanese decimated the North Sea Fleet,
landed in Lushun and massacred 18, 300 people. Only 36 survived the four-day Slaughter. After the war the Qing court ceded the Liaoning Peninsula and Taiwan to Japan by treaty. The history then got a bit complex and I refer you to any reputable source, either in print on online. Basically Russia "leased" Lushun and Dalian from China in 1898 and in 1904 Japanese forces launched a attack against Russian squadron in Lushun Port and a war broke out between the two, with Japan winning at the end. Japan occupied the region from 1905 until the end of WWII in 1945. A treaty allowed Russian administration of the area from 1945-1955 after WWII, when it was finally returned to China. Now Lushun port is one of the 5 largest navy ports in the world and the Chinese northern fleet - largest in Chinese Navy - is stationed here.
Lushun is only partially open to foreigners because of its sensitive military nature. Only Height 203 and Shuishiying are open to foreign tourists. Special permission from local police is needed for certain areas. Russians may go to visit the Cemetery of Soviet Martyrs.
Today is another long drive to Lushun
Height 203
Baiyu Tower and Dalian (big surprise!). The first place we visited was Height 203 in Lushun. The highland is 203m in elevation and was named in 1904 by Japanese army during the Russo-Japanese War. It was initially occupied by the Russian but Japanese wanted it badly and would take it at any cost because the Lushun Port is within the range of its 280mm canon of 5.8km. The casualties were high on both sides: 17,000 Japanese and 6,000 Russian. For the lazy people you can get a ride up on a jiaozi or sedanchair carried by two people. On top of the hill stands 2 old Russian howizters, a cannon with a 210-mm-diameter barrel originally bought by the Qing Dynasty from the Krupp Arsenal Germany. Baiyu Tower, the most eye-catching object on the hill, was built after the Russo-Japanese War by the Japanese to commemorate the 20, 000 Japanese war causalities. The 66.8-m-high tower took a shape of a candle offering a sacrifice to the souls of the deceased and on the other side it resembled a bullet which symbolized the military force of Japan. More than 20,000 Chinese workers were forced to built the monument; many died during its construction.
The next stop was the infamous Lushun Japanese-Russian Prison. It was nicknamed Auschwitz of the East by some. Originally constructed by the Russian Czar in 1902 with 93 cells, later expanded to +200 cells by the Japanese in 1904. In addition to the prison cells, on-site factories, there was a torture chamber and hanging room. After a prisoner was hanged (hung?) the body was stuffed into a bucket, with the body in a fetal position with the head facing down, symboling bowing down to Japanese Imperialism. Some said after the flesh had decomposed the skeletons were used to study bone anatomy.
We stopped by a pearl store before going to supper. I learned a bit about pearls here. The pearls produced here were from clams raised in seawater vs. from southern China raised in freshwater. Apparently the difference is that seawater pearls are all pearl from inside to outside whereas freshwater pearls usually have a little plastic bead on the inside. The clam coats any foreign body with the pearly stuff, which eventually forms the pearls as we know it. There are 3 colours - white, pink and black, and increasing price in that order too. In order to
tell what's real, you can rub two pearls together. They should feel gritty and have scratch marks. The resultant powder should be white regardless of the colour of the pearl. You can also try to bite it with your teeth with similar results. (You may not want to do this because you may end up buying it regardless!) They also come in various shapes and sizes, not perfectly uniform. Fakes feel smooth and uniform. Ladies, it's time to check your pearls! :-)
Tonight we went to a all-you-can-eat hotpot place in Dailian. The concept sounded great but being a seaport most of the stuff was seafood. I normally like seafood, but not so much crustaceans because they are too much hassle. Unfortunately for me it was mostly shellfish, crustaceans (some live crabs) and live loaches. I ate a lot of precooked vegetables that night.
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