Beijing to Dalian

We've been busy. We're in Dalian now, after a very pleasant overnight train ride, morning hotel check-in, tour of Dalian University of Technology (DUT, where Wei did her Chemistry undergrad), then meeting and eating with friends. I'll have to update later about all of our great times in Beijing. We did a lot of the standard stuff there, such as the Forbidden City, a couple Hutongs, and the Qianmin marketplace, but also found a tango class and milonga on one night. Pretty interesting. My hopes of finding authentic Jade, that I could afford, were unfortunately dashed. Maybe next time after I do some proper research on where to go. Might just have to wait until we travel in the South.

Dalian is freakin' cold and dry, but I suppose no more so than State College, PA, in a good winter. To be sure, Dalian is a complex city, hosting a huge expo hall, noted maritime concerns, and several universities and institutes, including a satellite of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We toured Wei's old campus together, the DUT, starting with the administration building, where Wei, ever the over-achiever, was once the hostess for a big campus-wide DUT 50th anniversary party under the statue of Mao, only to find front doors hanging off their hinges and the inside

pretty much gutted: renovation it seems. As it turned out many buildings are being renovated, or have already been, and many more have simply sprouted up since Wei's time here. Naturally there was then some complaining about being "so old." I've noticed the same sort of thing on the Penn State campus everytime I return to State College, and have probably said pretty much the same thing. But life in Dalian moves on, and so has Wei.

We had lunch with two of her very good friends from back in the day. They both work for the university, as they did when Wei was a student. One woman, Xia Hui, is very much like a big sister to Wei, still seems to be looking out for her today. I ate a big huge snail, or tiny Conch or something, and a big fat sea cucumber, though they weren't on the table yet in the first picture. I expected the snail to be more rubbery, instead, a little chalky. And I had no expectation on the sea cucumber, second picture above, but it was pretty much like eating unflavored gelatin, congealed. The broth it was in, with sweet sticky rice, one piece of broccoli, and a quail egg, contained all the flavor and was quite tasty. Wei tells me that this ensemble is a local delicacy.

Later we got to see Hui's very nice two story unit in university housing, and I was given the honor, I think, of quizing her 12 year old son on one of his English lessons. He's a good kid and, despite deparately and quietly trying to get out of doing his homework so he could go play with friends, mostly gave flawless spellings of the words I read. But I figured by the spelling that they were using British pronunciations, so when we got to "tomato" I threw him a curve ball by pronouncing it the American way. He looked dazed, so we agreed it wasn't fair and gave him the point anyway. :-) I guess he either learned something new, or we completely derailed his lessons from now on.

Continuing our exploration in the arctic North of China, we tried to see Wei's dorm, but, you guessed it, being renovated behind walls of green tarps on scaffolding. So instead we discussed the finer points of dorm food, agreed that it generally sucks both in the East and the West, but were hopeful that the new dining hall pictured above would give new hope to current Dalian students. As we left, we watched a whole park full of crazy kids playing soccer. Four 1/4 court games and one full court game, on artificial turf that Wei said was basically just a dirt field when she was there. They were wearing long-sleeves and leg tights, but did I mention it was about zero Fahrenheit out? Wei's mom would have got the broom out and chased them down to the parka store, that is if my own experience is any guide.

The main event of the evening was pretty standard, and focused, I'm convinced, on making me gain AT LEAST 15 lbs on this trip. But on either side were two firsts on the trip. So the main event was dinner with several old friends in a private room, this time it was Korean BBQ, which was excellent. This came after visiting with Wei's closest roommate from school, which mostly involved letting her 3 year old warm up to us. I think it was three times of burying his face in dad's shirt and starting to cry before he would sit in the same room with us. Of course Wei said he was just scarred by "the big American" but whatever the reason eventually he sat with us for a picture, played race cars with me for a bit, and even let Wei take his hand and walk him down out of the building. I was not so lucky, but I did get a firm hand shake and he said he had fun playing cars with me.

The first new experience was a ride in the illegal cab. We missed out on this in Beijing because they're almost entired of the single-set variety, but here they are three seat and enclosed. Wei's friend insisted we take one of them here because it was just a short drive back to campus and the 8 yuan regular cab (a little over $1) was simply outrageously priced for the distance. And about the three seats, it's not clear the thing would move very far, even downhill, if there were much of a headwind with three people in addition to the driver, especially since the driver seemed to have great difficulty getting into 2nd gear, especially if there was a speed bump thrown into the equation. Anyway from the sound of it the engine was 2-stroke and about 100 CCs, or 100 squirrels, I didn't lift the carriage to check. But I did take care not to let my arm fall behind the seat, since right there was the battery, naturally, corroded and not covered in any way, naturally.

The second new experience was a local coffee shop in China. Wei stopped at a Starbucks in downtown Beijing, but that doesn't really count in my opinion. This place is called the "I-55" after the interstate from Chicago to New Orleans. It seems to be a college-town thing, and is owned by an American who's goal is to introduce the residents of Dalian to coffee culture and variety, as well as any other American culture he could fit on the bookshelves inside the shop. The esspresso was actually quite good, and with the layout, decor, place servings from IKEA, and Christmas music in English, you could really almost forget where you were, if that were your aim...aside from all the signs being written in Chinese. I was happy to read the English version of the China Daily, or People's Daily, which was pretty well written and seemed to have a good mix of simple reporting and critical analysis. Lot's of talk about the 30 year anniversary of the economic reforms.

That pretty much ended the evening, but it's worth noting that her friend who drove us back owns a Ford Mondeo so I asked about it's price and availability. The car seems much better than any Ford I've ever seen in the US. It's the little things (or big picture, depending). Like the window operation buttons. They looked and felt just like you'd find in an Audi or a BMW, slightly rubberized, solid feel, had one-click for manual and "two-clicks for auto" window operations in all four seats. Inside door handles appeared to be metal, or at least were as solid as metal. And the leather and stereo console also seemed of "European car" quality, if that means anything. Every Ford I've ever been in had plastic buttons all around, the same green and orange speedometer, and A/C controls that still look straight out of the 80s. Who knows if it's limitations by contracts with US suppliers for US-made and sold Fords or what, but if it didn't have the Ford name on it, you would never guess. But the price tag was a bit of a surprise also. It was 250,000 yuan, which in today's exchange is about $37,000. It definitely seemed worth it, but Ford may have some work to command that kind of price, even with a car like this, in the US. That or I'm whoefully out of touch with the modern Ford.

Tomorrow it's sleeping in followed by what are said to be real kick-ass foot massages. Then who knows, perhaps the shopping district where Wei spent time as a student, or the gargantuan shell museum that looks like a huge castle on on one of the highest hills. Also wasn't here just 7 or 8 years ago. We did get a great view of the city from it's parking lot this evening.