Dalian, the Pearl of North China

Today: free breakfast, me: Chinese style noodles, rice, salt vegetables, broccoli, a dumpling. Ned: western style omelet with bacon, shrimp Baozi and toast. Both of us had REAL coffee ground beans from a machine.

Then, a taxi ride, two 50 minute trips on the light rail, 6 hours of walking, a snickers bar, two bags of wasabi peas, two bottles of water, a misty, rocky beach, two trips on the sightseeing bus at Jinshitan beach.

We toured through a maze of rock formations, and followed trails along the beach. The fog was so thick we couldn't see where the rocks stopped and the water started.

we left our hotel before 10am, and arrived back at 6pm. No dinner yet, I'm exhausted. I've got watermelon juice on my face and my toes ache.

We found an Italian restaurant last night called "Olive Garden" but it's not the chain, and to our amazement the food there was actually good! it wasn't Chinglish, and we had real mozzerella on our pizza. I had a glass of wine and Ned had draft beer. Before our food came the waiter brought us warm rolls that didn't taste sweet, like all Chinese bread. We ordered a Greek salad with real Feta cheese. we were so happy we ate everything so fast.

We haven't eaten any fish yet, and this is supossedly the place to get it good and fresh, but I don't like the way the Chinese smother everything is sauce, and the all the restaurants have their menus in Chinese, so we end up ordering off the pictures, and you know, the pictures can be deceptive.

I think tonight the mozzerella pizza is on both of our minds.

Dalian is weird. There are no bicycles here, and motorcycles are illegal to sell. It's all cars and buses and skyscrapers. Our Tongliao is a different world completely from this city. We already miss the donkey carts and fruit vendors.


It's nice to be in a more modern place though, mozzerella cheese and all.