Weeks in China

We are so happy to have shared our week to travel China in Chinese Spring Festival. Chris and Geoff having had their flight postponed out of Shanghai, they had a 7 hour lay over there, so didn't arrive in Dalian until late Saturday night and were in need of a good nights sleep. We spent the next day showing off our school and community and exploring the Jinshitan area. Unfortunately it was windy and cold, including a bit of rain, but time passed quickly. We celebrated their first night by buying a large box of fireworks and setting them off in the middle of the street just down from our apartment. I had hoped we could go to the beach and enjoy the evening, but it was too cold - fun fireworks though! They are the kind that we would see at home on the first of July- big and colorful, but by no means the biggest that we could have bought. It was just the biggest that we could easily carry!
The second day we took the train into Dalian and KaiFaQu, where we did some shopping and ate lunch at IKEA - a favorite haunt of Maple Leaf teachers, but not the best lunch in town! On our third day, we had a driver arranged by our China tour agency take us into Dalian for the day to check out some sights that Rick and I had not seen yet, including a large square called XingHai, and a beautiful drive overlooking the ocean. Geoff and Chris loved one of the the underground shopping malls - 4 floors underground - small vendors all entreating you to spend your money with them. We still laugh at Rick buying a pair of shoes that he really didn’t want. We finished our day off with a delicious meal at an Indian curry house and then got dropped off for our evening flight to Beijing. That night , we had a second driver (Cat) also arranged by the China tours meet us at the Beijing airport. He spoke English well - what a bonus. He was pretty proud of the fact that the customers he drove had taught him the English he knew. And then got a good laugh out of the fact that they ended up paying him for it! He had a difficult time trying to find our hole in the wall hostel, though, and had us all wondering what we had gotten ourselves into (or what I had gotten us into because I had chosen the hostel!). It turned out to be a great place - walking distance to all the city center attractions - Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square- as well as the subway (which turned out to be a lifesaver as we never did find a taxi driver who would or could take us back to our hostel!) It had a great bar/restaurant that we spent all of our evenings, many western travelers and a great friendly atmosphere. As well, western breakfasts! Rooms were small but clean and the staff was so helpful. We spent everyday visiting different sites and markets, but mostly ended up being exhausted and sure appreciated our place and a cold beer. One day we hired the same driver to take us to a section of the Great Wall. We had asked him for a more remote section where it was not all restored and filled with souvenir sellers. He took us to Mutianyu, about 2 hours away. We walked the 1022 (we counted them) steps to get onto the wall. And if you didn't want to take the gondola down, you could take the 'toboggan' run. (Geoff and Chris did this and said it was a lot of fun - but Rick and Gail walked the 1022 steps back down!) Anyway, the Wall was so interesting - the main part where you go was restored, but at the end you could walk on the unrestored section and see it wind for miles through the mountain peaks. It was truly an amazing sight and the highlight of the trip as far as attractions. I am waiting for Chris's pictures because my batteries ran out of charge when we got there. I curse Chinese batteries which generally last one day of pictures - I'm always changing batteries! Some of our best time, though, was at the hostel sitting in the bar drinking beer and laughing. It was so much fun to be all together. The weather warmed up enough to sit on the small front patio and watch the Chinese tourists watch us. All of us were surprised at the number of times random people came and asked if they could take their picture with us. You feel like a celebrity and realize how much of a novelty foreigners still are here. On the last Sunday, we took the bullet train to Tianjin for the next destination of travel China.