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.
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!
