Our trip from Beijing to Dalian was by train, a form of transportation I had not previously experienced. The cabins we had were nice; they were considered soft sleeper cabins and had room for four occupants. We boarded the train in Beijing around 9 PM and arrived in Dalian the following morning around 8 AM. I slept essentially the entire ride, but I can say that travel by train is fairly comfortable and I would have no problem doing it again. As we stepped off the train in Dalian we were welcomed by rain and cold weather. We checked into the hotel and had our first break of the trip. After resting and freshening up, we headed out to do some sightseeing.

Our bus drove to the top of a large hill where an observation platform was built to overlook Dalian on one side and the ocean on the other. Atop the hill stood an unusual flying saucer structure which was apparently an observation deck. 

We did not go up since it was not free, but the structure itself was interesting to look at. Unfortunately, due to the fog, we were unable to see very far from atop the hill. The pictures our cameras were able to take hardly capture the size of the city. We ventured down to the beach after taking in the view and found a rocky beach covered by smooth stones which were perfect for skipping. Following our stone skipping contests we headed back to the hotel and put on our dress clothes for a high class dinner with some of Xinli’s friends. Some of the food was unique to Chinese culture (in other words it was not appealing to me) such as intestine, deep sea clam, and squid. The following day began with a long drive to visit another part of Dalian. This area was atop another hill and overlooked a Chinese naval base. This hill was topped by an old structure built during the Chinese-Japanese war.

 Lunch was our choice of anything in the area. Most of us decided to try Chinese McDonald’s. I ordered a chicken sandwich and fries. The chicken was not quite the same; the meat was darker and somewhat chewy, but the fries were the same as American McDonald’s fries. Our dinner was another fancy meal, although this one had more traditional pork and beef dishes, so I ate much more and greatly enjoyed it. The table for this meal was large enough to seat our dinner party of about 40. It had a center that rotated automatically so that food was always moving to different parts of the table. This constant motion of the food made competency with chop sticks a necessity if we wanted to eat.

Overall, Dalian is a beautiful city, but is still undergoing massive construction. The city is being widely expanded through investments by corporations such as Intel, and within ten years I think the city will be even nicer and busier than it is today. Most of the buildings are fairly modern as the main city is only 25 years old, and it seemed as though the majority of hotels had revolving restaurants atop them so guests could observe the daily changes in the skyline as new skyscrapers popped into view. Our stop in Dalian was mainly to experience expensive Chinese dining, and even though Dalian is known for its seafood, of which I am not a fan, I thoroughly enjoyed our dining experiences.

Location: Dalian, China