Sightseeing and Shopping
Arriving late at night, this is the first morning view of the city from my hotel window. Lots of new buildings. And, a light rail system.
For the first two weeks I stayed in the Inn Fine Hotel. An elegant, four star facility.
First walk outside of the hotel. Instead of old and rustic buildings and streets full of bicycles, all I can see are glistening modern buildings and streets full of new automobiles.
This really is an impressive surprise. Everything is new and clean. The sidewalks are twenty feet wide and finished with a tile surface.
We come to the shopping district about three blocks away from the hotel. Big mall on the left, and a Walmart store underground reached by escalators. All new and shiny.
Inside the mall. It is immense. This turns out to be the first of about ten shopping malls in a row. Each filled with shoppers who are buying things.
Behind the row of shopping malls is this immense street market selling everything from hand made toys to clothing and hot meals. Fun place to browse and shop for neat stuff.
About a kilometer south of the hotel is a very large park containing running tracks, exercise areas, basketball courts, tennis courts, and this beautiful indoor tennis and badmitten facility.
The building houses six state-of-the-art tennis courts, with observation bleachers, and eight badmitten courts. These courts are the finest I have ever seen. After a few adventures in language, I was able to meet some good players and enjoyed several matches with the local players. A great group of friendly guys. Several spoke limited english, which made the playing and after play activities even more fun. This fine complex is provided and managed by the government. Court fees are almost nothing.
The tea shop and bar in the lobby of the tennis facility.
This is the park containing the tennis and sports venues. See that large statue to the distant right? Worth a look.
I could hardly believe this beautiful building. I know a lot about building construction, but have never seen anything like this. The giant statues and facade including castle, mother and child, and cherubs are seamlessly integrated into the structure of the building itself. Not only is the presentation beautiful art, this 20 year old work is in perfect condition.
The building is a facility specifically for mothers and children. Has gymnasiums, training classes, health stuff all for mothers and children. Free, provided by the government.
A beautiful work of art.
Last look at the sports park. The running paths are 4 meters wide and paved with a special impact absorbing running surface.
More art for the eyes. This cut through the side of a hill for the road has been decorated with 3-dimensional statues of dinosaurs. Very neat.
A look at one of the popular beaches.
Beaches have paved walkways and lots of intriguing public art.
Speaking of public art, how about this monumental work. This baby riding a winged bull is the symbol of Dalian City.
View from the base of the winged bull.
Now we are in central downtown Dalian. All of the previous pictures were from the eastern side of Dalian called the New Development Corridor. The historic downtown area has little remaining of its older buildings. Just about everything is big, modern and new.
A long circular pedestrian mall circles the inner city. It links the many shopping malls and arcades. There are so many shopping venues that it would take a year to cover them all. The building ahead is a typical mall. Lets take a look.
Has a central atrium. Escalators link floors.
Also a glass enclosed elevator. Corridors of stores spread out in all directions.
A second atrium in the same mall is the venue for a fashon show.
Wow!
Every mall has a large selection of restaurants and food venues. This is a pastery shop.
This is a different mall down the road which specializes in imported goods mostly from Europe. Very expensive. I saw a neat Italian jacket I liked for only $9500 USD! There were still numbers of shoppers buying things here.
This is part of the pedestrian mall. Lots of good food stalls offering just about everything from hamburgers to oysters on the half shell.
This bank building is one of the few remaining older structures in downtown.
No shortage of goods available for purchase. This underground appliance store covered almost an acre of area.
This is the Russian sector of downtown. About two square blocks of buildings built during the Russian occupation of Dalian have been preserved. Dalian City is only 100 years old, but has been occupied by the Russians, Koreans, and Japanese in that short span of time. Today, large numbers of Japanese and Koreans still live here.
This is a great shop for carved jade figurines and jewelry. There are malls full of just this type of shop as well as art and antiques.