Who else wants to visit Dalian

Dalian competes well with the most glamorous cities of the world. I found it more glittery and flashy than what people told me. Now, after my visit, I know that it’s more captivating and mysterious than whatever they wrote. Does it allure you too to visit Dalian? Probably it does.

I’m sure you’d consult Google before you plan your visit. But maps shouldn’t be your only reference. Goggle maps are dependable but Google itself is blocked in China. Lonely Planet hasn’t published a guide for Dalian. In Dalian, it might take you a few days to lay hands on an English tourist map. If you don’t wanna be disoriented, you better carry some information on printouts or on the pen drive. Otherwise, down the memory lane, after you return, you might continue to miss Dalian, as an enigma.

Does it have history

Dalian is unlike the heavily traveled Beijing, Xi’an or Hangzhou. Those cities are dominated by palaces, temples and museums, which emphasize their long history and rich culture. In contrast, Dalian in the Liaoning peninsula, is a dynamic, vibrant and modern city.

A hundred years back it was just a fishermen’s village, and look where it has reached. It now boasts of a maritime extravaganza, a shipping yard and a locomotive factory. And it has a lot of high rise buildings, parks and eateries. In 2007 February, it was granted the title of “China Best Tourist City” and Google called it "The most livable city in China".

The first half of these years saw power struggles between Russian, Japanese and Chinese, but now with China becoming a super power, Dalian has its singular status. Being declared a sister city of many similar cities like Vancouver, Vladivostok, Glasgow and others, there is enough potential for Dalian’s further development and tourism.  But for me St Petersburg in Russia, should be called its twin city. There are very many reasons for that statement.

Both the cities are ports and Dalian is more befitting as a harbor because the sea water does not freeze here, as in St Petersburg. It remains functional throughout the year.

Two related paintings at Dalian Museum

Emotionally, the residents in both these cities carry history in their heads. If St Petersburg (erstwhile Leningrad) suffered at the hands of Germans, Dalian’s previous generations also took the onslaught of misery of the struggles for power. If Leningraders get the credit of recovering from the wintry torture of the German seize (more than two years i.e. 1941 until 1943), which took them three generations, I think Dalianites will do it only in two generations.

I’ve personally seen the first generation suffer in Russia and the one-night turmoil that took place when the old Ruble was converted to the new one. I shudder to think of the pensioners when their savings of life time were reduced to rubble overnight. Most of them were unable to buy a pair of shoes from their rainy day funds. It was a government-inflicted poverty, on which no one dared raise voices.  How would you feel if you’re in that situation, and overnight at that?  I was so moved at their impasse that I framed the old Ruble note, and kept it hanging as a souvenir in my office. It does remind me pitifully, of the so called pensionary funds, which are so fragile in the hands of the governments. I am myself a pensioner.

Dalian too bore the brunt of smaller wars than the World War II, and the suffering on people was no less, - poverty, food shortages, and deaths. Thought, this agony was not emphasized in the world. May be China was hidden behind a metaphorical wall. I empathized and fell in love with these hapless residents in both the cities in my very first visit. I’ve seen them recover, and something tells me that the present generation of vibrant youth, coupled with modern internet facilities and international travels, would probably turn out equal if not better than St Petersburg.

Major Benchmarks in the City

All maps give you a static impression of a city. They show the placement of different benchmarks and if you’re quick-witted, you can memorize them. But it is important that, as a traveler, you grasp a mental picture instead, and do that rather quickly. That mental abstract helps you through the streets and corners of the city in your day to day wanderings. For example, in Delhi you memorize everything with reference to Ring Road, or in Paris Eiffel tower is the relevant vantage point.

There were two such roads that always rang a bell in my mind in Dalian.

Roads and Plazas

One of them, is the Renmin road that extends from the Gangwan square to the Zhongshan square, about 4 KM long. It houses a lot of the high-rise buildings such as the Shangri-La hotel, the New Friendship Store and the like. The road presents a breathtaking view of the modern architecture, and walking on it merges you with the commoners on the street. Beyond the Zhongshan square, it extends to Zhongshan road.

The other one is the Binhai (coastal) road, a stretch of 30 kilometers, that leads you through the sea resorts and beaches of the city. What do you think of a city that has a coastal line of about 1900 kilometers? Not a city; to me it is more like an island. Being on that road a few times, was indeed a pleasure. If you miss this road, then Dalian will remain just another metropolitan city of the lots, in your memories.

Your entire travel could concentrate on or around just these two roads and you’d have covered half of the city. Most of the plazas or squares for example, Shengli (Victory) Plaza, Olympic Square, Gangwan (Bay Square in English), YouHao (Friendship) square, Xiwang (Hope) square, Renmin (popularly known as Stalin) square, Xinghai (represents the reunion of Hong Kong to mainland China) are all on these roads. Whether you stay for a week or a month, these very names will be reverberating in your mind. You can easily configure the bus routes based on these concepts of squares and radial roads.

One benchmark which you can’t shut eyes to is the flyover that converts the Jeifang road to Wuhui road. The 5-star Kempinski hotel standing majestically on this turn marks the beginning of the Wuhui street. Whether you pass over it at night or in the day time you’ll simply be overawed by its glamour. If you’re not dazzled by the night illumination pampered by the hotels Meridian, Swish or Parkland, you will certainly be blown away by the gold tinted sea food restaurant which stand shoulder to shoulder to the Meridian. And what to speak of the of array of car headlights at night or when there is downpour. It is simply astounding. You cannot but choose to pass on or around the flyover.

Style and Architecture

The city follows the Paris style layout. Radials roads stretch between each plaza, square or площадь (space - in Russian). Because in modern times such roads are prone to traffic congestion, therefore designers tend to arrange construction in avenues and blocks as in New York, Toronto or Chandigarh in India. So if you take a wrong road you could be drastically diverting from your intended destination, and returning back to the starting point will be the only choice, whether you take or leave it. Historically both the Russians and the Japanese preferred to build Dalian as a regal and majestic city, and they both followed this style. Maybe they didn’t expect such voluminous growth. And now the Chinese are continuing with the same paradigm, only they make them imposing in size.

Bus stops

To say that the roads and public transport infrastructure is excellent, is an understatement. The buses are in abundance and frequency of their plying is countless. The beauty is that multiple routes can be chosen for the same destination. On a major bus stop you’ll find multiple sub-bus stops, each for a different destination. If you know the destination then choose the direct route, but if not as I was in the beginning, you choose any route and you will reach your destination somehow or the other, by indirect routes.

On every sub-bus stop, which may be within a few meters of each other, there is a route chart depicted on beautifully designed displays. They appear neater than a billboard. The only information lacking on these may be the maps or photographs. No commercial ads are vandalizing or defacing their surfaces, as they invariably do in India.

These charts have two sides, on one side is inscribed the route in Chinese and the other side is in English. Every bus-stops in the route appears on these displays and the current stop is highlighted. If you read the display upwards, you get the route in the reverse order (that is all the stops which went past up to this point) and if you read downwards you get the stops that are forthcoming on the way ahead.

So looking at all the displays on the bus-stops, you can determine which bus must be taken for a particular location. You don’t have to ask for help, if you know the name of the place that you wanna visit.

Of course every stop follows a queue and one Yuan is collected from every passenger by the driver, in a box placed for this purpose. No body travels without ticket. And if you make a mistake, get down anywhere and change over to the new route. It is well affordable at 1 Yuan per trip.

Cars and Public Transport

And cars! you name a brand and it is there in Dalian. I found Bentley and Porsche with young girls on wheels. Both sides of the roads and streets were lined up with abundance of cars. Mercedes all models, BMW's, Volkswagen, Volvo, Toyota and Nissan and almost all form of SUV's are parked on both the sides. I didn’t fail to notice, and you too will find, that they were brilliantly polished and shining. And what a surprise, sometime the ladies were seen taking up the role in the car care. I’s so excited at the array and brands of cars on display, that a special section for cars and public transports was crafted in my portfolio of photographs.

The cars take turns for parking; in day time the office goers park near their offices and they return at night to park close to their residences. Amazing that they find adequate space, and each parking bay is marked with paint or with bricks. I think it is a good arrangement and I wish we followed it in India. There were however excellent parking spaces in the bottom three floors of high rise buildings.

Taxi drivers. they do not cheat as in other countries, probably they don’t find fresh tourists in their day to day operations. Everyone is aware of what price one should be paying for one'strip. The taxi driver is assured of 10 Yuan every trip. So why would he cheat.

There are very little metros in Dalian. Out of the proposed 5 lines only one works for the time being, and I guess they aren’t emphasizing on them. Since the other systems are working without glitches. Some places within the downtown area, are connected with trams. Two types exist; one the classic type - the older version and another the newer type - the modern looking.

Pricing Euphoria

Yuan is the currency in China. The distinction between the terms renminbi and yuan is similar to that between sterling and pound, which respectively refer to the British currency and its primary unit.

Aren’t you surprised that the one trip on local bus costs only 1 Yuan (about Rs 10) and the taxi fare varies between 10 Yuan to 30 Yuan. The local train fares are similar. Won’t it allure you to be in Dalian, and travel around? It is far too little than in Europe or in America. Are you crazy, the whole of the Dalian city can be traversed in taxi by spending less than 500 Rupees?

Conclusion

If what I described to you is Greek and Latin, or Chinese, you could explore the city yourself and find pleasure in abundance.