Qingdao to Dalian

Off to Dalian. We checked out without event and headed to the airport. We got to Dalian and found a whole row of hotel booths in the airport. We decided that a US chain hotel was better than our Chinese run selection and settled on the Holiday Inn.. It was the right decision- English speaking staff, CNN and HBO, working A/C and a western restaurant.

We grabbed some lunch and headed to the “tailoring” part of town. Jean had told us about getting clothing made very cheaply in Dalian, so we found the buildings and wandered our way through aisles of stuff until we found a huge area filled with fabric. Fortunately we had the Chinese-English dictionary, because English speakers were not to be found. We found a “dressmaker” and tried to explain what we were looking for. She tracked down a girl who could speak a bit of English and we managed to find some fabric and negotiate the price and the 2-day time window.

With the tailoring behind us, we set out to explore Dalian. It was another modern Chinese city so we started by checking out all the western hotels. The Shangrila was filled with an Asian Amway convention. The Hilton was just opening and most of its facilities were in progress. We stopped at King Pizza for dinner and had a wonderful waiter who had only been working for 4 days. He knew enough English to bring us cold wine and a plate of spags. We asked what his name was- and got this long Chinese name. We asked him if he had an English name and he said no. So, we gave him his new name- Martin. He was so thrilled. When we tried to tip him, he refused the money and said that we gave him the best gift of all- his English name.