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!