A trip to downtown Dalian

Last Saturday (Sept 2), C and I decided to visit downtown Dalian. I had been there once for some bar hopping last week, and then we both saw it in a blur during our medical examination the following week. But we never really got to walk around and experience the heart of the city.

We took the 502 minibus, which costs 2 kuai (about 23 cents) from the nearest bus stop all the way downtown to Zhongshan Square, which is considered the heart of the city. After about only 2 or 3 stops we managed to get a seat, which is practically unheard. Given that the ride downtown is at least 30 minutes, you definitely want a seat! The Chinese buses and trams are insane in terms of the number of people getting on and off, but Saturday's bus trip was comparatively mild.

When we got to Zhongshan Square, I took a brief movie with our camera, which I will share below:



And here are some pictures of Zhongshan Square:






From the Square, we decided to go looking for a Chinese antique store we heard about that was supposed to be on Tianjin Jie (Jie=Street). We walked the length of Tianjin Jie and we never found the place (addresses in China are very difficult to track down when you're not a native). That was fine though because we saw so many different markets. There were people selling vases and woodwork and bubble tea and meat-on-a-stick and a thousand kinds of fish. On Tianjin Jie you could find the perfect bra or bargain for sea cucumber. The street markets have an energy that you don't feel shopping at your local department store. It was a neat experience to see all the wares. And of course everyone tried to get our attention by yelling "HELLO!!!!" at the top of their lungs.

Here's a picture of a long line of food vendors:


Something you don't see in China very often - an orderly queue:


We also saw a Starbucks during our meandering. I promise we didn't go in. I hear a cup of coffee is 30 kuai, which is ridiculous.


After wandering around for awhile, we decided to get some food. We had a Korean restaurant in mind on Qiyi Jie, but yet again we were thwarted. We wandered up and down Qiyi Jie but never found the place. Not to worry however, becuase on the bus on the way into the downtown area we saw two western restaurants that looked interesting. One is called the I-55 Coffee Shop and the other was the Bavarian Brew House. Believe it or not, we do eat Chinese food all the time during the week. I swear we don't eat Western cuisine all the time!





In the end we opted for the brewhouse. The allure of the Paulaner Weissbier was too good to pass up (apologies to my german relatives for not using the eszett in Weiss!). We both had some sausages, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes. We were magically transported to the Fatherland by our English speaking Chinese waiters. The food was pretty good. I am not sure it compares to the real Bavaria but it was certainly a treat for our noodled out taste buds. C had some ice cream for dessert, while I opted for another wheat beer. From here we headed back to our humble abode via taxi. It was a good first experience downtown.