Dalian, China
7/25
0130 – I received a call an hour ago telling me that we were docked and that I should be at the gangway at 0600! I really didn’t need five and a half hours to prepare as I had already been packed and ready to make a break for it over 11 hours prior to that call.
0600 – Made it down the gangway without falling – minor miracle – when the rep for the port agent finally arrived. We drove out of the secured port area through some heavy traffic for a couple of miles then through two narrow alleys to a building right out of the film noir spy movie.
0130 – I received a call an hour ago telling me that we were docked and that I should be at the gangway at 0600! I really didn’t need five and a half hours to prepare as I had already been packed and ready to make a break for it over 11 hours prior to that call.
0600 – Made it down the gangway without falling – minor miracle – when the rep for the port agent finally arrived. We drove out of the secured port area through some heavy traffic for a couple of miles then through two narrow alleys to a building right out of the film noir spy movie.
At the immigration building we were met by the driver who would take me to Sean’s apartment. The rep and I walked around to the front of the poorly maintained building, into a hot stuffy lobby that hasn’t seen fresh air since the 70s and no a/c. The rep told me to have a seat on a filthy, mid-century leather couch and went into a side office. Fifteen minutes later he came out and asked me to come to doorway he was standing in and face the immigration official who was holding up my passport. The official nodded and I was told to go out to the driver of the second car and wait.
Driver #2 had disappeared although my luggage was already in his car, he returned, and then went to get my paperwork. It took about 30 more minutes for them both to return. It then took about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Sean’s apartment.
Driver #2 had disappeared although my luggage was already in his car, he returned, and then went to get my paperwork. It took about 30 more minutes for them both to return. It then took about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Sean’s apartment.
View from Sean's balcony
7/26
Off to the train station for the 11 hour ride to Qinhuangdao.
For about 20 minutes it looked like we might not make the train, all the cabs that went by were either occupied or didn’t want to take us. We got lucky when a woman got out of a cab right in front of us and at first the driver waved us away – I suspect the looks on our faces changed his mind because he popped the trunk and took us to the station. The ride took about 30 minutes due to morning traffic – the same amount of time it had taken Sean to walk home from the station the night before after purchasing our tickets.
Sean encouraged the driver to fight some extra traffic and take us up a ramp to the departure level by telling him I was lao-lao (old). We gave the driver twenty RemMB (or Yuan) – about US$4 - which was double the fare and got ready to run – the driver tried to get us to come back for the change – we passed on that.
Across the station that had to be the size of an American football field and down the stairs to the train to find ourselves next to car 1 – we were in car 12. Found our seats as Sean shelved the luggage and it was time to let the staring games begin.
I do get it – white people are rare here and buxom women even more so. There were two men (at differing times during the journey) who sat facing the same direction I was and would turn around, with their feet blocking the aisles, and just stare at me. I would let my eyes pass over them as I looked around and when they continued to stare I gave it right back to them. They finally got the message and turned back in their seats. The little children were funny, some would smile, some would instantly look away and some would gawk with their mouths hanging open.
When I stepped between cars for a smoke a few people, usually the fairly young from the next car would come stand near me to stare. This became more of a community activity as we picked up passengers in the rural areas we passed through.
I was very surprised to see 3 or 4 rows of corn growing between small rice paddies. What little I learned of farming while living in Kansas led me to believe that this would not be possible, the corn basically would not have survived the saturated soil.
At one point during the ride Sean quietly read to me the beginnings of a story he had handwritten in letters too small for me to read. No one near us made a sound until he finished the nine or ten paragraphs of monologue.
The thing that truly shocked me was the number of huge apartment complexes going up both in Dalian and around virtually every small town we passed through. Buildings between 30 and 50 stories tall in groups ranging from 10 to 30 in number, I have no doubt that combined they could hold close to two million people if not more – it was truly mind boggling. And this was along a single rail line in the easternmost part of the country.
Off to the train station for the 11 hour ride to Qinhuangdao.
For about 20 minutes it looked like we might not make the train, all the cabs that went by were either occupied or didn’t want to take us. We got lucky when a woman got out of a cab right in front of us and at first the driver waved us away – I suspect the looks on our faces changed his mind because he popped the trunk and took us to the station. The ride took about 30 minutes due to morning traffic – the same amount of time it had taken Sean to walk home from the station the night before after purchasing our tickets.
Sean encouraged the driver to fight some extra traffic and take us up a ramp to the departure level by telling him I was lao-lao (old). We gave the driver twenty RemMB (or Yuan) – about US$4 - which was double the fare and got ready to run – the driver tried to get us to come back for the change – we passed on that.
Across the station that had to be the size of an American football field and down the stairs to the train to find ourselves next to car 1 – we were in car 12. Found our seats as Sean shelved the luggage and it was time to let the staring games begin.
I do get it – white people are rare here and buxom women even more so. There were two men (at differing times during the journey) who sat facing the same direction I was and would turn around, with their feet blocking the aisles, and just stare at me. I would let my eyes pass over them as I looked around and when they continued to stare I gave it right back to them. They finally got the message and turned back in their seats. The little children were funny, some would smile, some would instantly look away and some would gawk with their mouths hanging open.
When I stepped between cars for a smoke a few people, usually the fairly young from the next car would come stand near me to stare. This became more of a community activity as we picked up passengers in the rural areas we passed through.
I was very surprised to see 3 or 4 rows of corn growing between small rice paddies. What little I learned of farming while living in Kansas led me to believe that this would not be possible, the corn basically would not have survived the saturated soil.
At one point during the ride Sean quietly read to me the beginnings of a story he had handwritten in letters too small for me to read. No one near us made a sound until he finished the nine or ten paragraphs of monologue.
The thing that truly shocked me was the number of huge apartment complexes going up both in Dalian and around virtually every small town we passed through. Buildings between 30 and 50 stories tall in groups ranging from 10 to 30 in number, I have no doubt that combined they could hold close to two million people if not more – it was truly mind boggling. And this was along a single rail line in the easternmost part of the country.