Dalian, China
Dalian is a much larger city than I anticipated. Supposedly the fashion capital of China. We are on our own today.
There is a shuttle bus to the center of the city. It is only a mile or so but the port area is not friendly for walking. The shuttle bus dropped us off in front of a shopping mall.
We decided we would go into the mall on our way back to the ship. Our goal was to first get some cash at the ATM. There were many to be found. The first one had a button that allowed you to select the language. English. The word was in English but everything that followed was in Chinese. I gave up after a few attempts. The second machine allowed me to put in my password. Great so far. Withdrawal. Yes. 1000 yuan. Yes. No money. I did receive a receipt. No explanation. Third machine was the winner. English. Insufficient funds. I tried a lesser amount. Bingo. I took the cash and then opened my fidelity app to add more cash.
We started on a walk to an underground shopping area hoping we could continue the haggling on merchandise that we did in Shanghai. We did find the mall. 5 stories of underground shopping. Nothing on the surface suggested that this shopping area was there. If there was a sign, I couldn’t read it.
The mall was rather dumpy and had seen its’ better day. The most current information that I could find while doing research was years before the pandemic. We did spend some time here. Terri was trying on high end dresses in a small little store. Prices about 1/3 of those at home but no purchases. The owner took us to her shop next door. I tried on a shirt and made a purchase. We left and decided to go to the more legitimate shopping mall across the street. Five stories above ground. Lot’s of nice shops here.
We walked through a department store, cut through the food court and made it into the mall.
We browsed around and then decided to start back toward the bus. We ducked into some greasy spoon on the way back for lunch. Again, no English for them and no Chinese for us. We ordered a dish to share and also had a beer each. The waitress brought us a dish, spoon, cup, and chopsticks all wrapped in plastic. She also brought two separate dished that had what appeared to be appetizers. Something akin to peanuts at the bar. One tasted like cereal from my childhood. Quisp. Anyone remember? The other was like a large Necco wafer. Had a taste I didn’t recognize. We asked the waiter what it was. Haw Flakes, said translate app. I later looked it up. Candy made in China from the Hawthorne plant. We paid our bill. Cash only. Total? $7 USD for all of it.
We took a few photos of some interesting things. Sunday. Catholic Church in China holding mass. Probably a rare thing. Not many Christians in China.
We made it back to where the bus dropped us off and visited the mall. Very high end shops here also. We browsed a bit and then got on the bus.
Dinner and then group trivia. The topic was Space. What does space smell like? How many constellations are there? Which planet has the largest ocean (we said Earth. Wrong.) What is the disc that encircles a black hole called? Which constellation features a bow and arrow and a horse? What is the largest type of star? We finished in the middle. One group answered nearly all of them correctly.
The evening entertainment was a third set of Kenny Martyn. He covered Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty for his opening. His sax skills are the weakest. It was a 5. He did more clarinet playing and that is way beyond a 10. Very enjoyable performance. Canned music again. I give it a 9.
Some kind of Chinese issue prevented us from leaving on time. It was 7 pm when we finally left. We were supposed to leave at 4:30.
Dalian as we leave.
