I have to say that I really like 大连 (dà lián).  It is beautiful, clean, not too expensive, and quite interesting.  The people are nice and somewhat friendly, even if they do have a reputation for being a little confrontational.  There are many shopping outlets and means of public transportation.  I can easily see why the city is rated so highly.

We spent the first morning wandering around the coast.  It is quite pretty and well kept.  The city has actually invested in some decent sculpture and public art, which really livens up its image.  We saw a foreign groom and Chinese bride getting married, which made 申琦 (shēn qí) really happy.  There is a castle on the hill next to the main square that we both really liked.  It reminded us of the Harry Potter series.  申琦 (shēn qí) wanted to get a picture of her riding a broom in front of the castle, so she started looking around for one she could borrow.  She found one in a deserted alley behind some hotel.  She ran up, grabbed the broom, and took it out of the dingy alley so we could take a picture.  A few seconds later, 13 guys from the hotel ran out screaming about how their broom was being stolen.  That is until they realized she was just taking a picture.  I guess they get a lot of tourists in designer clothing with expensive cameras trying to steal used brooms out of dirty alleys.  We both really wanted to climb up into the castle, but didn’t get a chance to before it began to rain.

We decided to spend the afternoon browsing the plethora of shopping malls, including a HUGE underground area with individual stalls selling discount goods.  The larger malls had lots of designer clothing, but we both felt it was all way over priced.  申琦 (shēn qí) did, however, find a really cool bathing suit for 58RMB ($7.25 US).

I was mainly looking for new shoes, but couldn’t find anything in my size (12 in the US which is 47 in China).  Most shops only had sizes 41-43.  The biggest I found was a 46, but it was still a bit too small.  I guess my feet are just far bigger than the average Chinese foot.

On our second day, we were a bit lazy and lounged around the hotel all morning.  In the afternoon, we did some more shopping, went back to the castle, climbed it, and looked at the shell museum inside the castle, and finally rode around the city on various trolleys.  申琦 (shēn qí) had never seen a trolley in person and really wanted to ride one, so we decided to take a few all over the city.

It is really nice being on semi-vacation