The Dalian International Beer Festival Part 1

Every year Dalian hosts an International Beer festival in Xinghai Square. It was great timing for us to arrive just a few weeks before it began. Sarah and I went over the second night to check it out. The festival lasts for two weeks and is a maze of beer tents with non-stop entertainment and more food than you could ever imagine. This is the entrance from our side of the square.

As you can see, meat on a stick, is a popular favorite. The food is mostly what is referred to as xiǎochī - literally "little eats" or snack/street food. Mostly, it is quite delicious but can also border on the bizarre.  As you can see, the festival is as much about food as it is beer. 

Seems like everyone wanted to shake my hand or otherwise be my friend. These friendly people were bent on offering me food and drink and many photo ops. The Chinese genuinely like Americans and are so friendly towards us. Also, as you will see in future posts, Chinese seem to really enjoy having their picture taken with foreigners. This night was no exception.

Dāndōng

It seems it is a rite of passage for newly arrived expats to Dàlián to make a trip North up the peninsula to visit the city of Dāndōng. I think this is mostly because after a week or two of settling in, everyone gets a little restless and this is the first easy journey outside of Dàlián and into a bit of the country side. Plus, there is the allure of peering over the Yalu river into North Korea. The other added bonus was that you can also visit the most far Eastern end of the Great Wall - how could you pass that up? Given that, about nine of us that had recently (plus 4 of our drivers) arrived decided to make the 4 hour trip North to check it out.


Along the way, we made a pit stop at a rest area. This is a view of the Dōngběi country side from behind the rest area:



Just inside the city, there is a huge monument to the Korean war. It's too big to get a decent picture that captures what it looks like but this is a picture overlooking the city from atop of the structure.



Here's a man having a bit of a rest (xiūxi)

Along the Yalu river that borders North Korea, there is the "Broken Bridge" that crosses over to Korea. Apparently, it was bombed by the U.S in 1950. The bombed out bridge still remains and so is a bit of a tourist attraction.



View of the Broken Bridge from the China side looking over to North Korea. Obviously, we could not go over to the other side.
Another Monument to the war. I think there were some slogans about American Imperialist. As might be expected, The Chinese and the Koreans have a slightly different perspective of the war than we do.

After lunch, we headed up to the Hushan (Tiger Mountain) section of the Great Wall. This section has been reconstructed so it looks newer than what you might find outside of Běijīng (but that will be another trip).

Here's the whole group that made the trip (sans Scott who took the photo). Overall, an excellent excursion and fun trip into Northern China.

For more information about Dandong check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandong

Some random images of Dalian

Dà​lián​ is located in Liáo​níng​ Province which is in North Eastern part of China (dōng​běi​).  Dà​lián​ is out on the tip of the peninsula - right on the sea. The following are just a few of pictures we have taken of the city.

Victory Plaza - a huge, multi-level underground shopping mall. It is so big, we feared that we would never find our way out and would not be able to ask for help!

Along the sea in Xinghai Square:

View of the Xinghai Guobao from Xinghai Square. This is where we live.

Shopping Mall

Some ladies playing majiong on the street. This is a very common scene all over China.

Outdoor food vendors:

Having a rest in Zhongshan Square:

Our new home...

Our first few days in China were spent getting registered with the local police, the apartment walk-through with Santa Fe and our landlord, and otherwise getting acclimated to our new environment. While we spent the first few nights in the Shangri-la Hotel, it was nice to finally move into the apartment where we have lots of extra space and do not have to live out of suitcases.


The apartment is owned by a private landlord. Everything is coordinated throughout including the furniture, wall coverings, and the built-in cabinetry.

Here's a brief tour of our new place:

The Living Room
Dining Room

View of Dining Area from the Kitchen

Some views out of the windows:

Looking out from the Kitchen:

Xinghai Square

We live in a nice apartment complex called the Xīnghǎi Guóbǎo. Xīnghǎi translates to Sea of Stars and Guóbǎo means national treasure so we can roughly translate that the Xīnghǎi Guóbǎo is the treasure of Dalian (at least as apartments go).

The complex is comprised of four, 30-story buildings and is located adjacent to Xīnghǎi Square. This is our building:

This aerial view of Xīnghǎi Square sort of shows where we are located. The complex can be seen on the right side of the image below just to the right of the canal that runs into the Yellow Sea. Xīnghǎi Square is the large green space in the center and fronting the sea.







This is an aerial view of the center of Xīnghǎi Square. During the summer, all sorts of Chinese tourist and locals visit the square to swim in the sea, enjoy the amusement rides, sea park, or otherwise stroll and escape the heat. Additionally, the area hosts many international events such as the International Beer festival, fashion show and this year Davos (an International Ecomonic forum with about 85 countries participating.



Overall, this is a great area to stroll through in the evenings and because of all the space, a great way to escape the masses of people and cars in the city center.

Where in the World are we?

Three years ago I could not have imagined that I would one day live in China. Two and a half years ago we started toying with the idea of coming to China to work and live when my company announced they were going to build a factory here. Now, after a very long gestation period, here we are on the other side of the world - both geographically and mentally.


How we arrived at this point in our lives is a another story that maybe I can answer along the way but the whole point of this blog is to share our adventures as we discover China. In Mandarin, China is 中国 and is pronounced as Zhōngguó which translates to Middle Kingdom. Hence, the name of this blog.

So, here we are! To give you some perspective, this shows where on this planet we are now living.







Zooming in a little, you can see we are living in the little place of 6-7 million people called Dalian which is located in the North East (dōngběi) Province of Liaoning which interestingly is just a short way from North Korea. By plane, Seoul is an hour to the East and Beijing an hour to the west.

If we zoom in a little closer, this shows our new city. We are located in an area called Xinghai Guang Chang or Xinghai Square. We are in the lower left area of this image, right on the sea. If you look closely, you can see the the Square (actually a big round oval next to the canal that runs into the sea). This area will be our new home away from home for the next few years.

Dalian is really a nice place - it is much newer and cleaner than many other places in China (and was voted the most liveable city in China). Being on a peninusula, the air is much fresher due to the ocean breezes
and is not so hot in the summer as it is as you move inland.

Given its location, Dalian is a summer vacation spot for the Chinese. You don't see very many Westerner's here aside from the other expats but I can assure you that we are way outnumbered.

So, the journey begins now... stayed tuned!