There are no bicycles in Dalian

Wednesday, July 14, There were times sitting in the waiting room in Shenyang, and certainly on that night train, to Dalian, when I thought we should have skipped the peninsula and headed down towards Hangzhou directly; but I am so glad we came. Up until now Nanjing was my favorite city -- one I could imagine coming back to and spending some time. Dalian has a different kind of appeal. First it is bright and breezy, hot but not humid, sort of a Southern California day. More mysteriously, it is spotlessly clean -- the way I would imagine Japan, and perhaps reflecting the fact that for the first half of this century it was in Japan's control. Even more mysteriously, there are no bicycles -- I have seen less than a dozen in a day and a half. I have read there are no bicycles in Congqing, but that is because the city is so hilly. Dalian is ringed by hills, but the city itself is flat, with wide boulevards, so the explanation must lie elsewhere. My guess is that the city does not allow for the parking of bicycles on sidewalks. This is a rich city, but with little traffic on its wide streets. You can get anywhere downtown in five minutes, and without a lot of traffic, the buses and electric street cars move along at an efficient clip. Yesterday Elene got some sleep while I headed off to the Police station to get my visa extended -- something you can only do while in China. Hard to believe that as of this Friday I will have been here a month. Then I headed up to this Internet cafe. At the police station I ran into the only American we have seen so far, a young man named Scott, who has lived here with his wife, teaching English for eight years. Scott is leaving on vacation on Friday and had no time to show us around, but kindly told us about a Chinese man who loves to talk about the history of this city (site of the Russo-Japanese War). So we have hired this man, and one of Scott's students to act as interpreter, for a walking tour this afternoon. The most interesting history is at the actual port -- 15 miles way -- called Lushun (Part Arthur to us Westerners) but because it is near a military base we cannot go there, so we will check out Dalian. This morning we hired a taxi to drive us around the peninsula's shoreline. We passed the stadium and other large public venues, all immaculate with landscaping that seems very western in its style. There are modern sculptures in the parks that look like ersatz Giacommettis, Moores, etc. We drove to the beach, where for 8 cents we joined the local population enjoying the sun and water -- no surf here. We were offered speedboat rides out to the islands, and with more time I would have been tempted, but contented myself with wading in the Yellow Sea. From the south coast we drove along a brand new road that reminded us of the road at Pebble Beach, twisting along above high cliffs, and providing great views at every turn. For a long time this road included a beach that was off limits except to high party officials, but now the road at least is open to all and we took lots of pictures from the different look-out points. Now I am heading back to the police station to pick up my passport with its new visa -- it is just a little nerve racking to be without your passport, even when you know where it is -- my thoughts of Neddi are still vivid. Tonight we fly to Shanghai because we could not get a flight to Hangzhou today and our time is limited. That's fine, Elene will get to see the fabulous Peace Hotel, and I may get to see it without rain...