Stormy weather in Narita

It's rainy and stormy weather in Narita today. The flight from Dalian to Tokyo was choppy and now I know why. The heavy turbulence made me nervous as the JAL 767 aircraft was trying to land in Narita earlier this evening.

despite the health concern as a result of the Swine Flu, I decided to make the trip anyhow. I don't think I will have any problem returning to China. Fow now, I will be glad to be home in another 14 hours and I hope I will board this American Airlines 777 aircraft on-time.

Bangchuidao (Bansido) Island spot (Dalian)

At the end of my 3-days China labor day weekend, my friend Li Ting took me to a seaside park within the Dalian city limits, overlooking this beautiful, remote island, Bangchuidao (some people called it Bansido). This is absolutely a great scenic spot, and the deep forest surrounding it. This particular resort has the fantastic scenery of hills, sea, island and beach. The island is shaped like a wooden club (Bangchui) used by chinese people as a washing tool. Dao is island in english. Thus this island was named Bangchui Dao.

There are a lot of pine trees and i think cypresses also all over the hills in this Bangchuidao scenic area. The famous Bangchuidao Hotel is situated here covering an area hundreds of acres. This is the only national hotel in Dalian and it mainly accommodates government leaders such as Chairman of the People's Republic of China). Chairman Mao have lived here.

May Day in the valley of Bing Yu Guo

It's May Day (Friday) in China and for several other continents (except America), and after I have completed my early morning US meetings, myself and a friend went to a place call "Bing Yu Gou", about 3 hours by tour bus (250 km) from Dalian train station. Bing Yu Gou is a tourist resort set in a picturesque area of "rocky" mountains and lakes. Apparently the place is best seen in the summer when everything is at its greenest. The weather today was in the 13-16C range and it's just a perfect weather to explore nature. My favorite places to visit are the mountains and lakes and this turned out to be the absolute best place to be in this province yet.

Somewhere during my stay in Dalian, I learned a little bit of Chinese from colleagues. I have learned enough Chinese phrases to impress and surprise random Chinese people but I don't believe I know enough to travel outside of Dalian anytime soon, especially small towns. Out of the kindness of her heart, Li Ting spent this day taking me to this little wonder of Dalian. She said this is similar to SuZhou, another nice city outside of Shanghai. I would not able to enjoy this best kept secret resort without somebody leading the way.

This early morning, we boarded the tour bus to the resort area and had lunch at the nearby local restaurant. They served decent local food and it was included in the price of the tour. Besides, I can eat anything in front of me and I am not a picky eater, anyway. What more could you ask for, right?

This day we explored the resort area and rode a boat to the amusements, enjoyed the natural fresh air in this region. We spent the entire day trekking around the place and got on a few boat trips including a scenic one in the middle. We had fun canoeing the makeshift bamboo ralf, rode the two person raft down the slide across a large lake. We spend the day wandering the trails, climbing the hills, exploring the various temples scattered around the park. It was an astonishing feat to see this area of China. Because of the similarity of the fantastically stunning natural rocks, this trip has made me wanting to go to visit Ha Long Bay in North Vietnam -- the 8th Wonder of the world. Perhaps I will make the trip later this year if I am brave enough to explore North Vietnam.

There were several signs in Chinese with word-for-word English translation. This kind of language is often called "Chinglish".

Anyway, that's it for now. I made some friends today with the travel guide and a 4-yrs old boy on the tour bus as we headed back to Dalian at the late evening hour after a fantastic May Day!

A Chinese wedding traditions in Dalian

Last Sunday, I was lucky to be invited to a traditional Chinese wedding in Dalian. It's my first experience here and it was quite a day of enjoyment. The groom is a cousin of a colleague. Choosing the date for the wedding appears to be very important and the couple is very picky. The date should be a lucky one and this wedding was on a Sunday, April 26th. I am told that there will be a lot of weddings in May because there are many lucky dates.

The day started out with a convoy of many Mercedes Benz led by the groom family heading to the home of the family of the bride. The whole wedding parties were then traveling to the SwissHotel for the wedding ceremony. In this particular wedding, the convoy was led by a Rolls Royce owned by a family friend. I think the families gave the couple a new bed with complete sets of sheets, pillows with cases and covers. The tradition is to have a young boy (less than 2-3 yrs old) to jump up and down this bed to give luck to the newly wed. I think this is to give hope for the couple to produce an heir soon. Red is the lucky color here. I saw the bride wearing red shoes and red "undergarment" and panty hoses. I would bet my salary that the groom wore a red underwear too!

I was the only foreigner in this wedding and the families were extremely friendly to me. I was able to take several pictures with the bride who is a beauty. She wore a white wedding dress (looked exactly like the American wedding dress); then during the banquet, she changed it into a pretty chinese dress and the couple served the guests with drinks, cigarettes and candy. And finally, she changed into a pretty red dress, the traditional chinese wedding dress before the end of the banquet. I was able to take some pictures with the bride this day. The groom must be the luckiest guy on earth!

It must have been a lucky day for me too!!!

An outing at Mt. Xiao Hei Shan and the Dalian botanical garden

Today, there was an IBM outing to visit the Dalian indoor botanical garden. There were all kinds of beautiful orchards with different colors. Also, there were several type of cactus plants. We were served with a special local lunch menu. All of the dishes were prepared with organic vegetables such as eggplants, tomatos, tofu, etc.



























We went on to climb Mt Xiao Hei Shan (The Small Black Mountain) after lunch. At the bottom of this mountain was an old local residence and it is now a museum displaying how the locals made tofus, noodles and mill work.


The Xiao Hei Shan is not even near as tall as the Da Hei Shan that I climbed two weeks ago. But today weather was wet and rainy and the track to the top was muddy. Along the way, the wind was getting gusty and stronger as we got near the summit. This combined with the cold temperature has made it really bitterly cold and was difficult to climb. It took us about two and an half hours to go up to the summit and came back down.




















































We stopped by the local farmers to pick fresh strawberries. The deal was to eat as much as I wanted at the farm at no charge. I bought half of a kilogram of strawberries to eat later this weekend. Oh, wondering why I kissed the goat? a couple of IBMers placed a bet with me if I would kiss the goat for 50 RMB. I guess they did not know me well!

Golden Pebble Beach and LvShun Museum

This week, it's snowing in Dalian. They said it's rare but it happened here in Dalian on April 15th. This weekend, it was cold and rainy. An IBM colleague took me to the Golden Pebble Beach which is located in the Dalian New Development Zone. We crossed the Golden Bay Bridge to get to the beach. It is a good place to have BBQ and beach volleyball in the summer. Not today! Nearby is a huge Chinese Martial Arts School.

We did not stay long at the beach today because
of the cold weather!


We headed to the city of LvShun and visited the LvShun Relic Prison Museum. This is an exclusive area and foreigners are not allowed to enter. I was lucky to be able to admit. This prison was built during the Japanese occupation of this area. Some of the most gruesome tactics employed by the Japanese during the 30's and 40's including the torture chambers, the execution rooms, etc. This has to be one of the saddest chapters of the people of China.

More pictures at the Da Hei Shan