Took the “City Walking Tour”, a guided walking tour along Zhongshan Road, one of the main roads in Dalian. The walking tour began at Zhongshan Square, with it’s huge soccer ball in the center. The guide was a college student, studying to be an English teacher. She was difficult to understand, and on the street, she was very hard to hear; however, she was pleasant and did manage to convey information about the squares and some of the buildings. The tour was a walk straight up the main road from Zhongshan Square through Friendship Square to Victory Square, past a very upscale shopping area, and on up the street to People’s Square, with its very interesting fountains. The walk was uphill, and one wondered why the tour did not start at the top of the hill and walk down.
At People’s Square, the tour stopped at a local restaurant for refreshments -- coke or beer -- and then we all boarded a coach for the ride back down the same street to Labor Park, the most interesting place on the tour. The ship was in Dalian on a holiday, the sixth day of the national week, and many people were in the park to relax and enjoy the nice weather. One of the interesting sights was a matchmaking scene at the entry to the park, where dozens of parents had posted one page descriptions of their son or daughter on trees, in the hope that some other parent would want their own child to meet them and form a match. Rather than using a computer site to form matches, this ancient ceremony was an attempt for parents to find a match for their children.
As I took photos, a young woman came up to me and wanted her boyfriend to take a photo of me with her, which I found amusing. Later in the same park, I saw them again, and I asked him to use my camera to take a photo of her and me. The entire scene in the park was very colorful, with people everywhere relaxing and enjoying the day. The guide handed out paper kites for passengers to try to fly, but I did not attempt that.
Dalian is a very modern city, with skyscrapers everywhere, and like other Chinese cities, it was very clean and neat.
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