In the morning we took a walk down Xian’s old defensive walls.  These are similar in construction to the Great Wall, but not on such mountainous terrain.  Therefore, instead of curving in all directions, the walls follow a straight, level path for several kilometers.  The walk gave us a scenic, elevated view of the city.  At one point, we walked past an elementary school and could look down at the kids playing games during recess.  Eventually they saw us too, and we spent a few moments exchanging waves.  

We also spent some time today on Xian’s “Snack Street.”  This is a crowded pedestrian mall where one can find lots of food venders and grocery stores, as well as souvenir shops.  As is the case at all these markets, every price is negotiable.  It was really fun to look at all the crafts for sale.  Back and head scratchers were a frequent item among the stores, as was dried fruit at the food shops.  I bought a bag of dried kiwi slices, which were not as sweet or sour as I had expected but still very tasty. 

Happy Valley at the Snack Street

In the late afternoon, our bus driver brought us to the Xian airport.  While checking in, we discovered that the travel agency had accidentally booked nine of our group for a flight to Shanghai that departed one hour later than the rest.  I was among those nine.  While everyone else boarded, we got hotdogs.  There was only one bottle of ketchup in the entire restaurant.  The rest of our group ate at the Shanghai airport while waiting for our flight to arrive.  Due to the delay, we didn’t check in to our hotel until after 1 AM.  Suffice it to say I was glad to have stocked up on sleep the previous evening.

Location: Shanghai, China

Today we spent most of our time at a Buddhist site named the Famen Temple. After fading into obscurity, the Temple continued to deteriorate until it partially collapsed after an earthquake in 1981. Five years later, the supposed finger bone of Siddhartha Gautama was found in a crypt underneath the temple’s foundation, and so some serious renovations were undertaken.  Modern constructions and a walkway were paved right through the village surrounding the Temple, with parts cut out of pre-existing buildings on the perimeter where it was necessary.  The bone was one of many Gautama relics spread across the Buddhist world and one of 19 in China, but the rest have been lost to time.  It was buried with three other similar bones, which were meant as decoys in case someone tried to loot the tomb.  Each was enclosed like Russian dolls in layers of containers made of precious metals and stones.  While replicas and select items discovered in the tomb are on display, the finger bone itself is hidden high in the modern Namaste Dagoba–a gigantic, diamond shaped building containing statues of Buddhist gods that stand stories tall.  While touring the nearby museum, we saw one of the monks texting.  I’m not sure where they keep a cell phone in those robes.

A restaurant at the temple serves traditional Buddhist food, which is essentially the Chinese version of vegan dining.  The lunch we had there was probably the consensus least favorite so far among members of our program due to its surplus of tofu and utter lack of meat or dairy.  However, as far as vegan goes, I thought it was pretty good. 

One of many statues along the pathway

The Namaste Dagoba

Looking down from atop the Dagoba

Farmlands behind the Dagoba

The reconstructed Famen Temple

Our next trip was to the tombs of one of the fist Emperors and of the Empress who ruled after his death.  Each left behind a stone obelisk, but the while the Emperor had his inscribed with his legacy, the Empresses’ remained blank.  Some believe that she chose to do this because she thought herself already famous enough that a written record was not needed, while others believe that she wanted to permit history to judge her reign instead of expressing it superficially in stone.

The walkway to the tombs  

For dinner we went to a restaurant that specializes in dumplings and sampled 10 or 15 of the Chinese staple.  My favorites had a sweet taste, and included walnuts in their filling.  It took us about half an hour to figure out that our waiter was speaking German to us.  Before then we knew that she wasn’t speaking Chinese but couldn’t figure out why she called the pork “swine flesh.” 

The duck dumplings looked like ducks!

Later in the evening, some of our group opted to pay about 120 RMB each to see a traditional Chinese dancing show at a restaurant near our hotel.  However, I decided to take the time to catch up on the blog and sleep instead. 

Tomorrow we’ll spend one last afternoon in Xian and then hop on a two-hour flight to Shanghai for a five-day stay.  We’re all really excited for Shanghai, especially because it’s the host city of the 2010 World Expo.  

Location: Xian, China

The train arrived at our destination, the city of Xian, at around eight in the morning.  We departed and headed by bus straight to our new hotel for breakfast.  The meal was the closest we’ve had to an American style.  We could choose to have hot milk, warm milk, or coffee to drink, and were served a salad (odd for breakfast, but at least the veggies were fresh), toast, and a sunny side up egg.  The toast came in a sandwich with bright pink filler that we think was just dyed butter. 

Our hotel is located near the center of Xian, which is marked by two structures, separated several hundred feet away.  These are a bell tower and a drum tower, whose sounds were used to signal morning and night to the city’s people. 

         Xian was a key city to China’s first emperor–a man who unified through force half a dozen separate nations and created a feudal society.  Our first tour took us through an early winter palace of Chinese emperors, of which the most remarkable infrastructure is a series of bathing rooms for the Emperor and his entourage.  Hot water passed through underground channels first through the Emperor’s bathhouse, then to that of the concubines, and lastly to that of the eunuchs. 

We love our ice cream!

         Our next destination was the burial complex of China’s first emperor.  While it is believed that a small city once exited at the site, all that remains now is the towering man-made mountain under which the Emperor’s tomb lies.  This tomb is supposedly expansive and elaborate–with booby traps to prevent unwanted guests and a flowing river of mercury.  While modern sensing technology has suggested that there is some sort of a cavern in the mountain, and mercury levels in the area’s soil are extremely high, the Chinese have decided to wait to attempt an excavation until they have the technology to avoid any possible booby traps and prevent the damage that a sudden exposure to outside conditions would surely cause.  However, they have created a model in keeping with descriptions of the chamber from the time of its construction, which we were able to walk through.  In addition to the river of mercury, the tomb supposedly had a black roof with embedded jewels forming star constellations as well as priceless artifacts spread throughout.

         The most well known part of the tomb’s grounds are the clay terra cotta warriors, which were buried under farmlands until just a few decades ago.  In fact, the farmer who made the discovery while digging a well has a stand at one of the tourist shops.  Supposedly he was well rewarded when the government seized his land for excavation.  One would hope that this would be true of the discoverer of the “eighth wonder of the world.” 

         Some 8,000 terra cotta warriors exist, but the vast majority remain buried.  Again, this is because the Chinese want to wait until they have the technology to properly preserve the ancient artwork.  When excavated at present, the colors of the terra cotta fade within just minutes of being exposed to the air. 

         The statues are found at three separate sites, all of which have been contained under warehouse-like structures.  The warehouse labeled as the first is the largest and most impressive, with row upon row of foot soldiers and a few horses.  More varieties are found at the other sites, including archers, generals, and horses for mounting and pulling carriages. 

They look like figurines until you see them relative to a person

Note the individualized faces

         Our last location of the day was a park-like square of Xian, complete with a shallow pond that visitors can traverse without getting their shoes wet via a series of concrete pathways.  

Some great signage

         We still have two days in Xian, with plenty more sights to come!

Location: Xian, China

Today we disembarked from the cruise ship (for good this time), finding ourselves in the city of Yichang.  From there we backtracked along the Yangtze on bus to the Three Gorges Dam, where we had the chance to view it from an outsider’s perspective.  Seeing the entire expanse of the Dam instead of just the inside of the locks was just as impressive an experience.  Surrounding the Dam, several observation points provide different viewing angles, and a museum has a model of the structure and exhibits that trace its planning and construction.  The Dam may have been built only recently, but decades of discussion contributed to its final form.

Despite having survived its first seasons, questions still exist about the structure’s long-term viability.  One major problem is the buildup of sediment that will undoubtedly occur on its upstream face.  Chinese engineers think they can remove the deposits before they cause a serious problem, but this has yet to be proven.

A model of the Dam

One of the locks as viewed from a road over the Dam

The Dam

After lunch, we stopped by a grocery store, knowing that the next 16 hours would be spent on a train where food would likely be overpriced.  I found some “just add water” noodles, a fruit cup, a huge bottle of water, and some cookies (crackers with mousse inside).  These supplemented the rice cakes, strips of dried walnut (like fruit roll-ups but with a nut) and “strange-taste horsebeans” (which are awful tasting) that we had been given earlier by our tour company. From the store we headed directly to the train station and boarded.  The tour company had only managed soft sleeper cabins for about half of us, leaving the rest in hard sleeper.  The main difference is in the number of beds per cabin–four and six respectively.  Soft sleeper rooms also have a door, while hard sleepers are open to the train’s passageway Just as before, the beds were arranged in columns on bunks on two sides of the cabins.  I volunteered to take a hard sleeper, but so did most of us, so I wound up in soft sleeper anyway.  It was a rather uneventful evening on the train, which was well needed after how late we stayed up the previous night in order to watch the ship pass through the locks.  

Location: Yichang, China

This morning our ship entered the first of the three gorges, named Qutang.  At just eight kilometers it is the shortest of the three, but arguably the most spectacular, and is characterized by high, sharp peaks.  

The Three Gorges mountains

Here we took our second excursion, transferring to a smaller boat that took us down a branching gorge to a port used by the traditional wooden boat rowers of the three gorges.  These pea pod-shaped boats seat about 15 people in rows of three, and require a crew of four rowers (three in front and one in back) and one captain to steer the rudder at the rear.  Rowing the huge wooden oars was clearly backbreaking work, but nonetheless some of the boatmen are as old as 60.  Their people speak a particular dialect of Mandarin, and are considered to be one of China’s minority ethnic groups.  Whenever two boats going in the same direction would approach one another, the men would pick up their pace and race until one had clearly overtaken the other. The local guide on each canoe taught the audience chants to use to encourage their crew, but ours seemed to particularly like a good old-fashioned American slow clap.  I can’t imagine incentives for these races other than pride and a brief distraction from aching muscles.  For one section, the rowers left the boat and pulled it by a rope from pathways on the shore, some of which have been etched into the mountain rock by thousands of years of use.  This task is usually performed without clothing (I’m told that cloth has a tendency to chafe), but for the tourist’s benefit our haulers were wearing well-used jeans and polos. 

Drastic differences in the The Gorges peoples’ way of life have come with the influx of tourism and modern influences, as well as the rising of the waters due to the Three Gorges Dam.  They were forced to relocate their homes and much of the landscape on which they once sailed is now buried meters under the Yangtze.  However, there are some positives to the lifestyle changes.  What we saw of their new homes are clearly upgrades, a service that the government seems to have done an excellent job of providing across the board.  In addition, deeper waters have made more of the waterways accessible by motorboat instead of only canoe.  A run made twice a day by such a motorboat transports the area’s children back and forth to schools in only a half hour or so.  Previously, the three or four hours needed to row to the schools was too great an obstacle to receiving a complete education. 

A waterfall we passed during the canoe ride

Racing another boat

After returning to the cruise liner we passed Wushan, another county of Chongqing that was relocated because of the Three Gorges Project.  We also passed Goddess Peak, which is a small, human-sized extrusion on the top of one of the mountains.  Local lore claims that the spirit of a woman is in the peak, and generously grants the people favors when they are in need. 

Just after passing Wushan we entered the second gorge, named Wu, which is 45 km long.  The mountains here are shorter and rounder than those of Qutang, but the path of the River is much less linear.  Before the sharpest curves of the snaking Yangtze, the ship had to blast its horn to warn any boats coming from the opposite direction.  Every blast seemed to echo forever as it bounced back and forth along ancient mountains.

There are usually at least one or two other ships in view, although these range in size from the small canoes and motorboats of locals to coal and shipping container transporters headed upriver (we are headed downriver).  Hydrofoils occasionally zip by–their speed is unmatched by all other vessels here.

After several more hours of sailing through the final and extremely long (65 km) gorge, named Xiling, and an hour or so spent docked at a security checkpoint, we were finally cleared to pass through the five-step locks of the Three Gorges Dam.  It’s hard to describe in words how imposing this structure is, especially in the black of midnight.  A long array of lights to our right marked the main section of the damn, which in winter generates hydroelectric power from the water’s flow.  Dead ahead were the two parallel roads of the locks, one for ships going upriver and the other for those going downriver.  Our ship and four others pulled through the first lock into the second (the lower waterline in summer renders only four of the five locks necessary), so close to the cement walls that we could lean over the ship’s rails and touch them.  After all the ships were in place, the gates behind us slowly closed and locked into position.  Then the water began pumping out, and the walls appeared to rise higher and higher.  Our boat rocked back and forth with constant period, every time returning to a relative position several feet lower on the wall.  Eerie metallic screeches accompanied the drainage of the water, reminding me of the percussion in Eric Whitacre’s “Ghost Train.”  At last the rocking stopped, and the gate in front of us slowly hinged inward.  Our boat powered up and slowly advanced forward into the next lock. 

By this stage it was about 2 AM, and we still had three or four hours to go before we would be free of the Dam and able to sail the last short leg of the journey to the dock in Yichang.  Most of our group chose to go to bed, continuing to watch the concrete walls rise from our bedroom windows as we attempted to catch a few hours of sleep.  

Location: Yichang, China

Today’s shore excursion left at 7:50 AM for China’s ancient Fengdu Town, known in English as the Ghost Village.  Chinese mythology says that when people die, their souls travel to Fengdu where it is decided whether they will go to heaven or be tortured in hell in the time before their next reincarnation. 

There is only one place for several ships to dock at the Town, so three of the cruise liners formed a chain connecting to the dock.  This meant that we had to climb from ramps across two other ships before we reached the shore.   From there one ascends several hundred stone steps to reach the Town, although for those who want to cop out there is a ski lift which goes most of the way. 

The port at Fengdu Town

Like all the ancient architecture we’ve seen, every element has associated symbology.  Every temple has a threshold, and stepping upon it is considered to be as offensive as standing upon the shoulders of its deity.  Threshold heights are proportional to the importance of the temple.  Every entrance also has three doorways, two smaller ones on the wings and a larger in the center.  The rightmost door is for entering and the leftmost is for leaving.  The center one is reserved for Chinese spirits on their way to be judged.  Women are supposed to stay on the right side and men on the left, a tradition that carries through even to the location of restrooms in restaurants.  Along the walkway to the temple of the King of the Underworld, one passes the three tests to which souls are subjected, and which even the living can attempt.  For instance, one test requires one to cross a stone bridge without having it collapse (as it supposedly will under the wicked).  Another is to run up a particular flight of steps with ones eyes closed and breath held, and without looking behind.  The third is to balance on a stone with one leg for three seconds while reading the words inscribed on the side of a temple. Another test unrelated to the three is used by wives to determine the truthfulness of their husbands.  A 400 lb., half-spherical stone sits in a pit shaped like a lemon juicer.  If the husband can balance the stone on the pillar in the center of the juicer, he is telling the truth.  There is only one person who can do this on a regular basis, and he has been practicing for about a decade.  He operates a shop right next to the stone and will demonstrate his skill as long as he is promised tips afterwards.  The trick is to roll the stone around the groove in the pit to build up its momentum, but we leaned firsthand that this is much harder than it looks. 

The temple for the King of the Underworld is the most grand of all in Fengdu, and in addition to his giant statue, features a scene of clay figures demonstrating the torture methods used on evil souls. 

Some of Fengdu Town’s ancient art

Once back on the boat we spent the afternoon and evening relaxing, and a few of us learned how to play mahjong from one of the cruise ship staff.  Dinner was prefaced by the Captain’s cocktail party, which had sweet wine and snacks.  After dinner the staff put on a show of mostly dancing, with a little Tai Chi thrown in.  They selected members of the audience to participate in a few events, such as a beer speed drinking contest (through a straw) and musical chairs. 

By evening the ship had docked in the Fuling district of Chongqing for the night, and before bed we enjoyed watching the city from the fourth deck while sipping beers.  All the structures of Fuling look brand new for a reason.  Just a few years ago, before the Three Gorges Dam, the District was located in an area that is afterwards submerged under the Yangtze.  Fuling was relocated to the higher ground on which it now stands.  A stadium much like the Bryce Jordan Center was located just next to our dock, and the techno music and flashing lights emanating from its exterior suggested some sort of Saturday night dance.  Fireworks also graced the evening from time to time.  We saw several shows in the distance from neighboring regions in addition to those of Fuling itself. 

These balloons are lifted by the heat of a candle at their base and I think are used to make wishes.  Someone gifted Xinli with one, but we never managed to get it off the ground.  It dropped immediately into the Yangtze.  Others we saw floating about the sky over the River were more successful.  

Location: Fuling, Chongqing, China

Our first stop today was to visit one of the central squares of Chongqing.  On the way, our tour guide filled in some details about the city.  Sprawling along the Yangtze River and its tributaries, Chongqing claims a population of 32 million (including many outlying areas), making it the largest city in China.  One of its major industries is automobiles.  Ford, Suzuki, and what our tour guide called the “local brand” all have plants in the area.  In the last decade or so the city became politically independent from its province, and this has allowed it to develop much more rapidly than it had been previously.  The square we visited has an important structure on opposite sides.  On one end is a modern hotel built in the ancient Chinese style housing a Starbucks that is very popular among young people of the area.  A museum of Chonqing, the Three Gorges region, and the Three Gorges Dam stands across the square.  Inside we learned a great deal about the geography and cultural heritage of the area.  We also watched a documentary in a 360-degree theatre, in which screens around the entire circumference of the circular room displayed continuous videos of the River. 

The Museum

A model of the Three Gorges Dam

The essential debate around the Three Gorges Dam is that although it prevents the rapid flooding that has taken thousands of lives, its construction has caused the water level upriver to rise and required the relocation of millions of people.  Whole cities had to be demolished and rebuilt on higher ground.  Ancient structures and carvings were buried beneath the waters, and the ancient ways of life practiced by ethnic minority groups along the Yangtze were altered. 

Our last activity in Chongqing was another hotpot dinner (the same as our first meal in China).  The city is credited with the first hotpots and known to have the best and spiciest in China.  The meal met our highest expectations, and we left the restaurant stuffed with rice, lamb, seafood, rice wine, and the thin sweet bread that was my favorite dish. 

         Finally it came time to board our cruise down the Yangtze River.  A funicular saved us the walk down the dozens of steps between street and river level.  The ship holds about 100 people on two decks of rooms.  The third deck has a bar, tables for lounging, a dance stage, and a cafeteria.  The fourth deck is open to the air and offers a great view of the River’s foggy green mountains and murky green waters. 

Tomorrow will bring our first shore excursion and hopefully some down time with which to catch up on my blogging.  For tonight, I’ll fall asleep to the rocking of our ship as we begin our journey down the Yangtze.

Location: Chongqing, China

         The primary objective of visiting Dalian (sampling its cuisine and eating culture) was more or less complete as of last night, but our final day was to feature more excellent views of the coast.  Our first location was high above sea level, at a bridge that is famous among the locals.  It actually plays a role in their wedding tradition with a ceremony in which a newly wed husband and wife walk from opposite sides of the bridge and join each other at the center. 

         Our next stop was called Tiger Park, named for the giant statues of the animals that are located there.  The statues are of modern design and creation.  At the Park, venders sold the usual collection of foodstuffs and trinkets, and some had toy horses and cars that parents could rent for their children to putt around in for a few minutes. 

         Next we visited a coastal amusement park, complete with bumper cars, a ferris wheel, and other standard and nauseating rides.  One unusual structure was a giant square shaped like an open book, which resembled a skate ramp.  Its ends were actually quite steep–even my newish sneakers started to lose traction at such a gradient.  However, the extra elevation offered a great vantage point for photos. 

         The amusement park itself wasn’t so different from what one might find in the states.  Couples and families enjoyed a safe, comfortable atmosphere.  All kinds of junk food and drink were available for purchase.  The same catchy music blasted over and over again from speakers placed strategically about the grounds.  However, there were a few things I had never encountered at a park before.  For instance, some men were playing a game where you spin a top on the ground and use a leather whip to keep its momentum going for as long as possible.  Also, a little yellow dog seemed to be having the time of his life running around the crowds and sniffing every tree and light post.  The dog was without a collar, but I think he belonged to one of the staff members.

         The dogs in Dalian have been the first I’ve seen in China, and they seem to enjoy many more freedoms than we permit in the United States.  They are almost always unleashed and without collars, and it’s hard to tell whether their owners in the vicinity because of how far they are allowed to wander.  Oddly enough, they seem to understand traffic rules better than most human pedestrians. 

         Next we visited one of the city’s higher-class malls.  The five-story affair sold everything from specialty foods to washing machines to Apple computers, and had a lot of stores and brands that I could recognize.  Unlike the silk market, these items were genuine and prices were not negotiable (and tended to be on the high side compared to what they would be in the United States).  On its top floor, the mall had a food court, and to our eyes most of the offerings at the 20 or so restaurants seemed the same.  For lunch I had a pan of what I would describe as dumplings filled with beef soup.  They were formed with a small spout at the top, which one is supposed to bite off and use to sip out the soup.  For dessert I had a chocolate ice cream sundae that also came with sweet corn chips tasting like Pops cereal.

         Our last sight of Dalian came as we checked into its airport for our three hour evening flight to Chongqing.  Security at the airport was much less stringent than in the States.  I wasn’t asked to show my liquids and gels and did not have to take off my shoes (although they did run over my soles with a metal detector).  The flight itself was comfortable only for the shorter students in the program.  The available leg space, even for someone of my height, really wasn’t enough to feel good.  During the flight, LCD screens spaced every five or six rows played British TV shows, such as Top Gear and Mr. Bean, as well as some promotional material for the airline.  The Chinese passengers especially seemed to enjoy Mr. Bean–I think some were actually crying from how hard they laughed.  It was surprising to see British programming because most of the sets in our hotels have played news or soap operas from CCTV (in Chinese). 

         Our flight came in just before midnight, and we were introduced to our Chongqing tour guides during the brief bus ride to the hotel.  Tomorrow we’ll spend a day learning about the city, and in the evening will board a cruise ship for our three-day voyage down the Yangtze River. 

Location: Dalian, China

Today’s sightseeing brought us some great views of Dalian.  We spent some time walking on the beach, which has sections of imported sand but is mostly smoothed stones (perfect for skipping in the ocean). From there we drove to a different district and wound our way up a mountain, walking the last mile or so.   Along the path we came across a monument made from the barrel of a late 1800’s cannon that had been manufactured by the Germans and used by the Chinese to fight the Japanese. At the summit we came to an excellent view of the coast, overlooking a bay that has been used as a naval base for the past hundred years.  Docked naval and patrol ships, gigantic cranes, and covered docks pepper this section of the coast, along with various other buildings under the control of the Chinese navy.  These, along with an array of high-powered guns we passed on our ride along the coast, were a sharp reminder that China is a military force not to be reckoned with.

The coast of the naval base

The summit also holds a tower, named Baiyushan Mountain Tower, which was built by Chinese soldiers while under Japanese rule in the latter’s attempt to foster unity. Most of the stone used in its construction was imported from Japan.  The Tower does not seem to have succeeded in its mission–the plaque on the tower indicated that the Chinese soldiers did not enjoy the forced labor.  Then again, the English translation of the plaque was full of grammatical errors and phrases that amounted to nonsense, so it’s possible that we received the wrong impression.  Issues with English translation, even at government buildings and beautifully crafted museums, have been numerous and often hilarious. 

For lunch we were given the option of McDonalds, KFC, or a Chinese restaurant.  Desperate for some cheese (almost never consumed by the Chinese) most of us went to McDonalds, where the food tasted more or less the same as it does in the United States. 

The night’s big event was again dinner with Xinli’s millionaire classmate.  His wife, and son (who I had sat with for the previous dinner) were also in attendance.  The meal took place at one of Dalian’s most famous restaurants, and marked the first time that our group has sat around the same table at once.  The circular table was the largest lazy susan I have ever seen, and fit all 40 of us comfortably.  The surface upon which dozens of courses sat was slowly rotated by hidden machinery.  Our skills with chopsticks are still developing, which sometimes left us chasing pieces of food across our space as their platters drifted by.   The dishes was astoundingly good, and again emphasized Dalian’s seafood tradition. 

Also carried over from the previous night was the necessity of social drinking.  Toasts aplenty were made, but most of us were fortunate enough to avoid the rice wine (Chinese firewater) that was making its way around the table.  This leads me to an interesting kind of paradox.  Our host certainly supplied enough alcohol to ensure that all were sure to have a good time, but the pressure that fell on his shoulders to drink with his guests at every toast led him to consume far beyond the comfort level of most.  This is an accepted aspect of Chinese culture, especially among businessmen.

As soon as our host learned that one of our group, Matt, was to turn 19 years old the next day, he ordered the restaurant staff to bring out, buy, or make a birthday cake.  This kind of swagger impressed us all, and the cake that came was delicious. It tasted most like angel cake, with whipped cream for icing.  A single candle at the top of a closed plastic flower burned several feet high when initially lit.  After a few seconds of burning, the flower opened and the flame was transferred to the tip of each petal.  The mechanism also quietly played the happy birthday song with altissimo bell chimes.  Our host ordered for Matt a long, continuous noodle in keeping with a Chinese tradition that represents longevity of life.

Tomorrow we spend one final day in Dalian, and in the evening board a plane for a brief flight to Chonqing.  

Location: Dalian, China