Back to China

    Our first stop on the cross Pacific trip was Dalian China. It was only an overnight sail so after running around for a few days, we had to get up and go almost immediately the next morning. We should comment that the Chinese custom and immigration people were well prepared and we had no delay at getting ashore.
   The Princess line does not go into Dalian very ofter so they were bending over backwards to make our stay as good as possible. The only problem was that it was still the may 1st holiday break and that people were everywhere. The bus tour that we took started with a trip down the

Russian street. This is a left over from the Russian occupation of the area in the pat. Then we stopped at a small plaza where a "folk show" was being put on for the local celebrations. It was probably the best part of the day. The drummers and dancers were very good even though some were a bit long in the tooth! We stayed for about 30 minutes and we were slow to leave.
The next stop was at the polar aquarium for a look at polar animals and to see the dolphin and whale show. We were suppose to have reserved seats but there were so many people that when we got in there were 5000 people seated; another 1000 or so (give or take a few) crowded 10-15 deep standing in the upper aisle. The decision was made to go to an earlier show so we were given some time to view the exhibits. That is what we did, then we wee sitting on the patio overlooking the parking lot when the buses started to pull out. We did need to have an ice cream! In any case we hustled down to the bus and the tour guide was frantic because we were 1. late and 2 lost. Apparently she changed the instructions after we left. The whole bus clapped.
The next portion was a drive down a scenic coastal highway but since we were late, we could not stop for photos. we were the last group to arrive at a very nice coastal hotel for a great Chinese (what else) style lunch. The head of the tour company (or tourist bureau) was very distraught and keep calling us "distinguished guests" and say let us make this up to you! All I could think of he needed Princess to come back! In any case he gave us a choice of either going back to the show or shopping. By then most people on the 8 buses wanted to go shopping (which turned out to be very disappointing). We chose the show - we paid for that and we wanted to see it. When we arrived there were 4,950 people jammed into their seats and about 50 empty front row seats for us! VIP all the way. The show was very well done and we figured that we got the best of the people on that tour. Cheers!
P.S. Loved the the posts from Dave; Remo and Leo! Will try to upload some photos if they will allow it.