Dalian (大連) - Seafoods, GeoPark, History And Ma'am On Horses (大連女騎警) !
Posted On Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at at 7:36 PM by Alvin
Taking a late flight out of HKIA (gratis from Singapore Airlines), we landed at a low-key Dalian Airport (周水子國際機場) at 9PM and having spent the night at the even more low-key airport hotel, we were pleasantly surprised the next day to find Dalian to be a very westernised, bustling and organised city (with the famous, friendly, smart and proud Ma'am Mounted Police - 大連女騎警 !). There were lots of Squares (廣場) in Dalian to feast the curious eyes, such as 星海廣場 (the largest square in Asia !), 友好廣場 and 中山廣場. We quickly settled down and visited the food stalls (天津街大排檔) where we stuffed ourselves with the famous Dalian abalone (鮑魚), sea cucumber (海參), juicy mutton roasted on a stick and fried prawns - sheer joy !
We spent a day visiting the Dalian Bin Hai National GeoPark (大連濱海國家地質公園) located about an hour northeast of the city by taking the city fast rail (大連快軌), right by the ocean edge; and we were rewarded with the smell and sights of fresh salty sea air, colorful rock formations as well as a good hike. Next day we ventured to the strategic military city of Lushun (旅順) where towards the end of the Qing Dynasty (清朝) had been the naval base of the Chinese Navy 北洋艦隊 ( later completely destroyed in the famous naval battle 甲午戰爭); as well as the tragic site which suffered foreign (Russian Tsar, Japanese) occupation, wars and massacres. Lushun though a very nice city for a day-trip, carried a heavy burden in recent history as witnessed by the Prisons built by the occupying Russian/Japanese (旅順日俄監獄), the victims memorial hall (萬忠墓紀念館) as well as the battle fields (203高地, 東雞冠山) dotted around the city.
