Wo.men dao di zai nali?
May 2nd, 2006
To quote my Korean travelmate, “Really, where are we?”
I arrived in Dalian this morning, after having my intinerary reversed by the tour company. Dalian is very modern, clean, and actually has trees. A very nice Chinese coastal city. We did some sight seeing things… then we drove out of the city… then into the new Dalian Development Zone… then out of the development zone… to nowhere, to these little cabin things… and this is where we are staying, an hour outside of the city (in clear traffic).
There are no cars on the street here. I am in this internet cafe that I had to walk like 20 minutes to find because we are literally staying in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by a beach. Except we can’t even find the beach. And it is not well lit here.
Most of our tour group is Korean. I think most of the students on our tour are afraid to talk to us, except for these two clearly Asian people who are from France. At least they blend in physically–they look Vietnamese or otherwise South East Asian.
I feel white.
Tomorrow night I leave for Qingdao via boat. I hope I’m not staying 25 miles out of the city again. Things are getting very Chinese, very fast. This is definately ridiculous.
