Advertisement
Published: November 17th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Shenyang
Oh the haze... After our visit to panoramic Heavan Lake at Changbai Shan National Park we caught the train from Baihe to Shenyang (hard seat only). This train ride was quite the experience, seeing live chickens in a plastic bag to a baby boy that almost pee'ed on Mazi's leg. To sum this train ride up we both got really sick with the flu. I guess our immune system wasn't really prepared for a fourteen hour trip with the rustic travellers of Northeast China. It was long and arduous but we killed time by playing cards with a pair of Hong Kong travelers that had also come from Changbai Shan. The train made its way through the forest and followed a shallow river stopping just about every hour at towns along the way.
Finally we made it to Shenyang and its awful air, yuck, at around 7:30pm. This may be too much information but it sets up the next part of the story. We were desperate to wash our clothes! When we queried the hotel at the train station we were hoping to stay at and found out that no laundry service or washing machine was available we decided to keep looking. We
Dalian
Xinghai Square with our good friends Dennis and Jeff marched through noisy hawkers across the street to the next hotel only to get the same answer. Down the street we found another but again no laundry. So after a brief interlude at KFC (It's true that you go to fast food chains most when your travelling). The next hotel we tried, after cabbing it, explained that they didn't even have any water due to construction. Another hour of checking another half dozen hotels exhausted our search efforts. So we went with our tails between our legs back to the train station hotel. Accepting that we would have to wash our unmentionables by hand.
We decided to move on the next day even though we really did not want to be a on a train again after the long ride from Baihe but we did get to visit a museum before hand. The Septermber 18th Museum provided a vivid glimpse into the 14 years of occupation in Northeast China by the Japanese in the earlier part of this century. It provided perspective on the two countries' difficult past and how relations have improved in recent years.
The train to Dalian was 4 hours and thankfully much more comfortable.
Dalian
Track-letes We called our friends Jeff and Dennis (who we met from Changbai Shan) from the train ride and when we arrived in Dalian Jeff and Dennis picked us up from the train station and booked us into a hotel "Super 8" by their university. We really needed to rest after several train rides so we had to take it easy in Dalian. It was really nice hanging out with our local friends. Unfortunately, as the flu set in Mazi hurt her back from a nasty cough. A reagrevation of a previous injury. The injury and the onset of the flu got us both trapped down at the hotel. However, we still managed to go for dinners and walked around the beach by our hotel with Jeff and Dennis. It was too bad that we did not get to tour around Dalian as much as we wanted but it was a nice visit with our new friends. Thanks again to Jeff and Dennis for their hospitality!!
Jeff and Denis helped us negotiate our ferry fare to Yantai. Who would have known that you can get a bed on the ferry with the same price as the seat fare when it
Dalian
Waterfront view for 80 RMB per night. is low season?! The deal comes with a little irritation where we had to meet up with a group of locals 2 hours ahead of boarding to get this great deal. We wouldn't have found this out without our local experts. The 6 hour ferry ride to Yantai was quite interesting. The beds we got were comfortable but we shared a room with 10 other people. The air circulation was not so good and needless to say, it got a little stinky (even for the locals). It definitely reminded Mazi of the train ride we discussed earlier after Chang Bai Shan. With the smoke and feet ordour circulating in the small room, we were both very ready to get off the ferry. The highlight of the ferry was the gorgous mountain scenery surrounding the blue sea and cloudless sky.
Somehow we scored another youth hostel close to a sandy beach which made it nice for us sickos. Mazi's back was still not getting any better but she really wanted to keep going. Didn't have too many plans in Yantai, we just wanted to relax and take it easy and get over the flu and Mazi's sore back. I have
Yantai
Beach in Yantai in the Economic Development Zone near our hostel to say this place was not as nice as Dalian but the beach by our hostel was amazing. The strange thing was that, by the beach a strip of nicely renovated apartments and hotels sat empty with nothing inside. We have started to notice these deserted removated apartments all around China. Still haven't figured out why the building are left empty but it would be nice to be right along the water. Guess we can't complain when our walk to the beach from our hostel was less than 5 mins. The youth hostel was clean but very bare, it felt like we were the only visitors so it did make it quiet for us to rest. We moved on to Qingdao (around a 4 hour bus ride from Yantai) after 4 days in Yantai.
Qingdao is famous for Tsing Tao beer and German buildings from its time as a German concession. It was from here that we realized that Mazi really needed help for her back but we spent four days hoping that she would get better. In the time that we stayed we saw several sights. Mazi stayed near the hostel but she did find a massage clinic,
literally a whole in the wall but very good! Mazi wasn't too concerned about Geoff going to the Tsingtao Brewery to sample fresh as you can get ale. The brewery museum and viewing platform for the bottle assembly line were cool sights and the beer at the end was even better. Geoff also went to a nearby hill park called Observatory Park and snapped a few shots of the city. Some other attractions were the market street nearby to our hostel which served all kinds of fruit and nuts, fish and seafood, fresh meat, baked goods, fresh chinese food, and assorted dried goods that would even make Kent Babin proud! We did get out to walk around the waterfront and see some of the historic buildings. At the hostel we spent an easy Halloween night enjoying some pretty decent Pizza, beer and mango slush with Malibu (Mazi enjoyed very much !!). On November 2nd we decided it would be best to end our trip. After a few phone calls to travel agencies we were able to catch an 8:15 flight from Qingdao to Shenzhen the next day, it was just an hour bus back to Hong Kong (with a pit
stop at customs). Luckily we got Mazi some treatment the same day.
Since then we have been resting in Hong Kong. Mazi has been seeing physiotherapy and receiving acupuncture treatments. A little frustrated but slowly healing Mazi is dreaming about her next destination once she has fully recovered. We expect to be in Hong Kong for at least another two weeks
Advertisement
Tot: 0.139s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0657s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kent
non-member comment
Oh, the memories...
Seeing those pics of Qingdao brings back so many memories. Hope you were able to get some good fish.