Ashore in Dalian

Along Russian Street

            After the over night sail from Tianjin, we arrived early this morning in Dalian. The effects of the climb to the top of the Great Wall seems to be lingering more than I expected! Dalian is the third largest port in China and an area that has seen many different cultures occupy the region. There is a Japanese influence from an occupation and a very strong past Russian Influence. A port shuttle was provided to the Friendship store (where else?) located in the main square of the city. The city itself was redesigned by the Russians. It has a series of large hexagonal squares with wide avenues connecting them. The city has a very nice modern feel to it. It was a very nice place to walk around. It did have its share of street venders but nothing like Shanghai or Viet Nam. We had 2 basic objectives for the day and managed to finish one of them.

Farmer's Market

      Our first destination was Russia Street. It is so named because all the buildings were built during the Russian occupation. It looked like what you would see in St Petersburg. Most of the buildings have been refurbished and are very neat looking. They are now occupied by upscale businesses. Along the street were many vendors all selling the same items. We could not figure out why there were so many binoculars for sale. They were everywhere. As we wandered, we found the farmer's market. It was your typical market selling fruits vegetables, meats and bakery products in a very run down area just off Russia Street. They knew that we were not going to buy anything so it was nice just to walk through without people constantly trying to get your attention. We ended up buying some very tasty almond cookies.

Upscale Shopping

      We then headed to the upscale pedestrian area to see what was in there. More street vendors but not packed and overflowing. We were not looking for anything special so we just did the wander thing on our way to the second planned location. First we did find Friendship Square, one of those places that reminds you of Zhongshan Square, the largest in the city. We wanted to get to People's Square because they have Chinese Kite flying at that park. We went as far as the Princess map outlines but the destination was beyond the map. We even asked some students at an English Language School to help us out but not having a map did not help. Later we stopped at a Tourist Information Booth (English spoken here) but they said that they only have maps in Chinese. Go figure on that one! So we wandered back to Victory Square where we found a huge shopping complex associated with a department store. We started at the top and came across Tom's World, a full floor amusement arcade. It was jammed with kids!

      As we made our way back down we passed the camera section. I can now admit that I lost my

Tom"s World

camera case with my extra cards and battery somewhere in Shanghai! Am I glad I can download the photos we take every night. Anyway I wanted to get a case for convenience and we found one. The Chinese girl did not speak English but if you ask the price, they use a calculator and show you the numbers. I think it was cheaper and of better quality than the one I had from Blacks. I could not find a 'Made in China” tag on it. Since we had some money left over, I now have a new bag.

       From there it was a stop at a KFC for a soft serve (about $0.60 each) before heading back to the Friendship store. We decided to have a look inside. Many people from the ship were in that store as it was the main drop

Victory Square

point for the tours – the so called shopping free time. They had plenty of staff but I did not see one Chinese shopper there. The prices were outrageous! Judy tried on a basic collapsible sun hat. They wanted nearly $70.00 for it. No way was not exactly what Judy said! We were back at the ship in time for afternoon tea. We are currently in the Yellow Sea headed back to Busan tomorrow where we will simple take the shuttle in walk around and pick up some more wine!