Kent Lee

Dalian, China: Final Days of Food & Karaoke

2009-12-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

'Tis the night before our departure in Dalian and I want to take a moment to recap our meals in the last few days. As noted previously, having canceled our trip to Beijing we stayed within Dalian, where we focused mainly on eating and shopping.

This post is a little more photo oriented with captions:

WEDNESDAY

The same day my dad left town, my Mom and I went looking to try out a local McDonalds.

We ordered two "Grilled Chicken Sandwich" meals and I also had a fish filet sandwich. Note that these are actually I think smaller than I make them look in the photo. I believe their "large" drink (not the one I have) is actually the same size as our $1 small in the US...

The fish filet sandwich was pretty small. The grilled chicken sandwich is definitely something unique to McDonalds in Asia! They were both pretty good and the chicken sandwich definitely seemed more... Asian... in the style in which it was made.

What I did notice though was that McDonalds is much larger here than we're used to (and obviously with no drive through). They were pretty busy when we stopped by for lunch, and had basically a full upstairs seating area for customers. I don't know that I'd have it again in Asia, but it certainly wasn't too heavy on the wallet.

After Mcdonalds, we went to the local Carrefour market, where we spent quite some time in the seafood section. My mom really loves clams, and they were on sale (basically $0.50/pound) so we bought quite a lot!

They also have other interesting things and a variety of them as well. For example, this picture is of a tank full of small sea snails. Yes, snails. I should've gotten a video of it to show you, but they were definitely still crawing slowly around in the tank. I watched as one actually pulled himself almost two inches out of his shell as he was barely moving along. Snails are available in the US as well at asian supermarkets, but I guess these were more special to the area. It's also expensive if you live locally at a whopping $4/pound.

Being that my mom loves snails... we bought some and boiled them.

Pointy shell and extremely small. You eat it by removing the snail with a toothpick.

We also bought slightly larger ones as well...

... and here is one out of the shell. I know this might disgust some, but it's actually pretty good. =P

Bowl full of clams in a spicy soy sauce mixture - very good!

THURSDAY

We spent most of the next day doing some shopping with my dad's maid, who showed us around some smaller shopping spots in town where she felt things would be cheaper. Before we headed out to the "mall", we first hit up a local noodle shop:

The noodles are pretty good and the bowl is large - it came in a ceramic pot that was extremely hot too. This was in particular was a hot & sour soup base. By the way, this is sort of considered more to be like Chinese fast food here.

We also ordered these soft biscuits with some kind of meat paste inside - they were fairly sweet.

The noodles are made by bringing a hot ceramic bowl with the soup base, then a plate of veggies and meat is poured into it to cook a little, followed in the end by the noodles.

At the end of the day, my dad returned from his trip and we had a nice family meal at home.

One of the special dishes we had bought at a local shop is Ox feet - literally as you can tell. It's a bit chewy and there isn't much meat, but it was actually extremely good!

FRIDAY

Finally, we ended our week of tons of food as always. Lunch was at a nice place with these wraps and items to put inside.

Check it out! The dishes and stuff come wrapped, sterilized, and dated!

Here were some of the items that we had to put into the wraps that you can see in the last photo. I'm not sure how to describe them - they're sort of made of flour and thin. Though not as thin as rice paper that is used in Vietnamese spring rolls.

I must've ate 8 or 9 of these things...

Our final dinner was a huge hot pot dinner at the only place in town that valet parks. The hot pot is split into a spicy and non-spicy side, and the spicy side was SPICY. Even my mom noted it had a huge kick, though we were told this was actually their "mild". I guess I don't want to know what "hot" must be like! The meat was EXTREMELY good in that it was premarinated and tenderized so well that pieces of lamb and beef felt like they were melting in your mouth.

As you can see, we ate quite a fair number of plates worth of food! I'm not sure I'll ever have such good hot pot ever again, especially even in the US!

KARAOKE

We finally ended the evening, and basically our trip, with a night out at a local karaoke joint. Karaoke here is called KTV (Karaoke TV) and is fairly different than what I've enjoyed in the US. We had a large room with it's own bathroom, tons of snacks and beer, and an electronic touch-screen system for selecting music.

As you can see, the room also included a stage with a screen so you could literally perform for your friends & family. In fact, I was told that they have even much larger rooms that allows room for dancing and more!

Check out the tambourines they provide to help with your enjoyment!

FINALLY

So tonight we are packing up our final items and preparing to leave tomorrow morning. I'm planning to make a final post about observations and random items either in the morning or when I have my layover in Korea. Otherwise, this may very well be my last post here in Dalian!

Hope you've all enjoyed my adventures in blogging and I guess I'll see some of you soon back in San Diego. =)

Dalian, China: Shopping

2009-12-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

From day 1 here, I feel like our trip has mostly been comprised of 3 things: relaxing in the apartment, eating, or shopping. It has been interesting because Dalian is really a smaller port city in China (not on the major cities list), and therefore does not have many (or maybe I should say any) attractions necessarily for tourists. During the summer, many swim in the few beaches here, but otherwise during the winter, tourism is at a low point for the year.

Even with tourism, most visitors do not come from the United States, but rather come from Korea or Japan (at least, so I'm told). When you drive along the streets, you find that there are primarily three major things out there: restaurants, bath houses, and shopping areas.

Food I've talked about plenty already. Bath houses I haven't visited, but the basic idea is that people don't have much space at home or convenience to shower, so they typically go to a bath house where they pay for someone to scrub them down clean. My dad's maid here was extremely surprised to hear that we shower ourselves as she exclaimed: "how do you get clean?!".

So finally, there's shopping... and a recap of several moments of it throughout the last week:

Of course there are the street vendors for everything - food, trinkets, shoes, etc. Sometimes I would pass a random street and bam, there's a whole ton of vendors on it.

Otherwise, we spent most of our time in small Chinatown-style shopping areas where stores could be really small. I noticed that there are TONS of shoe stores here. Most have a plethora of boots to select from, probably due to the cold weather.

Most shopping areas are underground as this one indicates. We didn't actually go in this one though because we were told it was not good at all.

These series of photos I took on my point & shoot because I felt like people were extremely uncomfortable in the small shopping area if I pulled out my massive camera.

Yesterday, we went to this small "wholesale" shopping center and from above you can see the random things that were there - "Nike" & "Puma" bags... random kitchen utensils... yes, a "Ped Egg with handle" all the way from the US =P... and even these cute animals on the bottom photo that are actually made all from seashells - yes, seashells.

There were also medium-sized malls with unknown vendors, but larger shops and more people as well. This was for example might remind me of several malls in the Southern California area that are not the fancy schmancy ones with big name vendors.

And then I was surprised to find that on the first several floors of my dad's office building was an "American" style shopping mall, but almost to a ridiculous level considering the stores that were there. This mall was decorated even for Christmas, had guards around warning not to take pictures of the stores (got this one of Gucci anyway), etc. You'll find in the backgrounds of the above pictures that they had a Sephora, Louis Vuitton, etc. In the same mall was a Prada, Fendi, Coach, etc.

What took me almost 10 minutes to realize was how EMPTY the mall was. Aside from a few people walking around, it was virtually empty. My mom and I walked through Gucci and Louis Vuitton and there were only 2 or 3 shoppers in the stores if any at all.

That brings me to another shopping observation: most of these high-end stores had at least 20 employees throughout the 2-story store - often they were eager to help you find something (obviously since there's no one else around). In fact, when people say that in some Asian countries there is no sense of personal space, you got that right. The moment we walked into Louis Vuitton and browsed around the store, there was a store employee following just barely 2 feet back everywhere we went. I know they have a sense of "service", but I find it to have a sense of creepiness too. My mom especially hates it when people tail you as you're shopping - as if you're pressured to find something and to find it quickly.

Ah, and of course, how does a Louis Vuitton store manage to maintain 20 employees when it has 3 people even just walk through every hour? More about this later...

We also spent some time in a local grocery store called Carrefour (my dad avoids this place because of it's "uncleanliness" though it looks fine to me). My mom decided the only souvenirs she could find were tons of coasters for cups and those things you put under plates...

You can see that the wheel of this shopping card has ridges - it's so that when you take an escalator (they're flat instead of steps) the cart sticks to the escalator and does not slide up or down... pretty cool, eh?

A love for American basketball and the NBA. If you turn on the "foreign" satellite cable box that has CNN Asia, Japanese and Korean channels, channel 1 is actually ESPN. Most mornings it's playing some random NBA game that's happening live in the states (+16 hour time difference). Didn't see a Lakers game though. =(

And then there seems to be the obsession with... American or European models on almost everything. Most of the bigger ads you would find never would have an Asian model on it. Seems to me that what they "sell" her is really "Westernization" almost.

Ah, this was the most risque ad I saw in Dalian - actually caught me off guard for a city in China.

Otherwise, my mom's favorite thing to look at a lot of times was... purses. In fact, in her time here she bought FOUR and would've gotten SIX if I hadn't stopped her. I actually regret stopping her on the two because yesterday still she'd mention how nice and cheap they were...

She bought her "snake skin" (made of plastic) purse at this store and really wanted this furry one that I said looked like a big... cat - she said it was "unique".

Here are the four that she got. In American dollars, two were $15 or less.

My dad also selected this "Coach" purse for her that I actually think is really nice.

So there you go - days of shopping in Dalian and I'm sure as you can tell from the photos there are tons of shoes, purses, and random "American" branded items. I ultimately didn't get anything really simply cause there was nothing of much interest for me. In fact, I think the majority of all stores were really oriented towards women.

When I return the United States, I'm not sure whether I'll miss seeing so many stores with so many options at cheap prices, or if I'll be glad to return to our heavily branded lifestyles. Being here really made me realize how utility and even looks without a brand (or with a fake brand, haha) could often suffice. Maybe it'll make me rethink things when I return? Or maybe not...

FINALLY, an apology to friends and others who asked for souvenirs - there simply weren't any traditional souvenirs to get! Being that this is not a major city and not one for American tourism, I never once saw in the shops outside things labeled with "Dalian" or "China". There were no shot glasses or postcards, no great wall or panda figurines, etc. Unless any of you wanted an "Adidas" bag or a "Louis Vuitton" t-shirt, I admit I'm coming home slightly empty-handed... =P

Dalian, China: Day 5, Fog, and a Cancelled Trip

2009-12-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

I suppose I should catch back up to Tuesday when we were actually supposed to fly out to Beijing. There aren't many photos from that day since we spot a lot of it waiting at the airport aside from lunch. I plan to post separately about our shopping experiences all week when I get chance.

I admit I was really disappointed when the airport closed down and we had to cancel our tour to Beijing. I was especially looking forward to the Great Wall, but now will have to save it for a future trip to China (whenever that may be!). Since Tuesday, we've just stayed in the city while my Dad actually had a two day business trip. For the most part, our last few days have just been about eating, shopping, and some relaxation at home.

A popular (well for some) Chinese dish is congealed pork's blood. It's actually one of my favorite Dim Sum dishes in the LA/OC area. This is actually congealed LAMB'S blood, so a little different!

Lamb kabobs and some lamb chops undernearth - the kabobs were a bit chewy though...

Yes, that's a LIVE octopus... I watched them pull one off the side of the tank moments later.

We headed to the airport for a 4:50 flight and left around 5:00 when we realized we wouldn't be flying due to the heavy fog... here's a photo of the terminal, barely visible in the fog!

You can barely see the crowds in front of 32 and 33 trying to find out what to do about all their canceled flights.

The board of canceled flights. Maybe next time to Beijing?

Coming next: shopping adventures in Dalian.

Dalian, China: Driving, Traffic, Pedestrians & Parking

2009-12-02T03:29:00.000-08:00

Finally, a chance to post about the driving, traffic, pedestrians and... parking... here in Dalian, China! I don't have as many photos as I wish or would like to have to document this, but here goes anyhow:

My Dad's rental car in Dalian - some kind of Chrysler with fully tinted windows.

THE CULTURE OF DRIVING

I think the culture of the road differs everywhere you go - including in China where some say driving is definitely different here compared to... Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, etc. This is the same in saying that driving cultures are different in San Francisco compared to New York or Los Angeles or even San Diego.

While there are many people here in China, a fewer percentage of people drive, as I had shared earlier in my post. Even so, there are quite a number of cars on the road all the time, and it is shared often with pedestrians since many take public means of transportation.

Public transportation can be extremely cheap here in American standards. I'll use American dollar conversions when I speak about money in order for things to be understood. Taking the streetcar outside of my dad's building complexes is only $0.15. A taxi from downtown to my dad's apartment is only about $1.50 after tip (about 5 minutes). I'm sure gas costs at least similarly as it does in the US, so
you must not earn that much of a profit!

With so many cars and pedestrians on the road, one thing you'll rarely notice actually is police! There aren't really "traffic tickets" or "speeding" or anything of the sort. There are now some red-light cameras - which even if you get caught results in about a $25 fine. Again, here that's not necessarily a small amount, but it's certainly not as scary as running a red light in the US.

In fact, I've seen many examples where the rules of driving simply just don't apply here. If a car is going slow, drivers will take to the other side of the road to get around. In a big traffic circle, there aren't even lanes - so you don't wait for a space to go. Instead, people simply put the nose of their car out and squeeze their ways through.

My dad said it early when he noted there was no way he could drive here - he'd stop for everything and everyone out of habit. In Dalian, pedestrians have no right of way, but that doesn't stop them from crossing when they want, where they want, and at the pace they want. It's like a game of chicken to see if they'll jump out of the way, the car will swerve around them, or they'll just get hit.

One of the examples Andy (our driver) gave, is that while they have stop signs in China, no one ever stops. If you were to stop, you'd be guaranteed to get hit from behind.

The two above signs I found in the parking garage of my dad's office building in the middle of town. I don't about any of you, but I find it a bit ironic that they have signs in a parking garage warning you of vehicles and pedestrians.

Here is a video that documents... well not as much of the driving as the fog that we ran into the other day. It's why we never made it out of the city to go to Beijing! Since the day was extremely foggy, you'll actually find that people's driving was a bit tamer. I hope it at least still gives an idea of the pedestrians just walking around, the cars driving inbetween lanes, the nonexistent lanes on most roads, etc!

Oh, sorry about the song - limited choice on this computer. =D

PARKING

Ah, parking in the city. The simple rule is - if it's a space, you can park in it, regardless of where it is. Oh, and even if it says you can't. In my time here, I've seen people remove "no parking" tents on a parking space, park on the side of the road in a traffic circle, or who knows where else. Of course, there are still specific situations like at the airport where with police present you wouldn't want to leave your car unattended. Nonetheless, parking is truly just up to you! Suffice to say, the official parking lots for many places are small, or are unused simply because they charge.

Here is a series of photos to document parking that I've observed:

On one of my first days, I discovered this car as we walked down the street.

I guess you could say he made is own space.

If I were him/her, I would have at least left the backwheel NOT smashed into the curb.

(a closer look would reveal that it's bent in a little)

The roads ARE paved in Dalian. Therefore, the sidewalks are all fair game!

To be fair, the sidewalks are specifically USED for parking spaces in front of stores and restaurants where as in the United States they're mostly used for... walking.

As you can see in this alleyway, cars are all parked up along the sidewalk. They really need to design the cars here with higher bumpers and undercarriages because the curbs still exist and getting on them doesn't look easy!

It may not look like it, but this is a major traffic circle - where there are underpasses to get from one street to the next or to the middle. It still doesn't stop people from parking on the side if they're going to the bank.

I'm not even sure how this car exactly got up here. Or why.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this post! It's been a topic I've really enjoyed at least observing all week. It's interesting (and I'm not trying to add to stereotypes) because most of the women we've met (especially those with husbands that drive) note that they've never driven here, nor would they have the courage to try. I know this isn't the worst driving in the world by far, but it certainly is interesting for anyone who's grown up in Los Angeles and is used to "bad" driving. Trust me, we're really not that bad at all!

Perhaps most interestingly is the way my dad puts it - the best way to drive here is to simply close your eyes and hit the gas. Let everyone else get out of your way. =P

China, Days 3 & 4: Fish Heads, Fishing, and Fishiness

2009-11-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, I just thought that would be a funny title - and in truth I guess you can find all three in this post.

Days 3 and 4 in Dalian, China have been fairly relaxing - our family spent some more time at home or just doing a little shopping, and less time eating huge meals. Recently, I had dropped in weight back down to about 145 - but after a few days in China, my weight has jumped back to about 150!

On Sunday, my Dad's secretary Toni and her husband took us out to have a "hot pot" lunch where you cook your own meats in a large boiling pot of water. Half was non-spicy and the other half was fairly spicy. I think because of the tameness of the spicy foods here, I'm actually beginning to appreciate spicy meals!

One of the specialties of this hot pot restaurant was the... fish head, which I will say I have never had before. They literally cut fish heads in half, and placed it into the boiling pot. The servers would then fish them out and serve them to you. I definitely avoided the eyes and I guess the brain, but did eat the rest of the head (which is supposed to be the most tender part of a fish by the way). This was definitely a meal I would not find often in the United States - nor would I try to I think. Otherwise, we had lots of lamb and other meats, and the meal overall was extremely good! =)

Next, we went to a local place for some shopping. I'll have pictures eventually on facebook of the shopping experiences, but I can just say the shops and thew ay they were oriented really reminded me of Chinatown in how they were packed in. As always, there are TONS of fake items as expected. For example in the photos above, you can find some Converse All-Stars, fake enough that you can tell they literally seemed to stick the logo on the shoes. Then there are Dolce & Gabanna shoes.

Even as left the shopping area and took a taxi, I looked below my feet to find... you got it... LOUIS VUITTON FLOOR MATS! Amazing, right?

We ended the evening with a nice bowl of Laksa (Singaporean style with coconut) noodles that my dad cooked (from prepackaged powder) at home.

On Monday in Dalian, we actually ate at home. My dad had made some stewed Ox Tail with a pressure cooker (amazing how quickly it cooks things) and the cook had helped with a few veggie items. Basically the whole company (only 3 others anyhow) came over and ate lunch before we headed out.

We got a small tour of my dad's office - which is located in central Downtown Dalian, in a new building in town that was still practically empty. What's interesting is that the zone is basically both residential and commercial, so while for my dad is his company this was their office, next door someone was using their space as a home.

On the bottom floor of the office are shops for Louis Vuitton, Armani, etc. Amazing because I wonder how people sell the real purses when it seems like fake ones supposedly float around town underground all the time!

Hmm... who's drinking on the job? (Coronas on the door shelf)

My dad and Andy, the driver/computer tech/etc.

My desk doesn't look anything like this back at home. =P

Afterwards, we spent some time touring around Dalian and visiting the beach. My dad noted that this area we went to is basically a "Camp David" of China - a spot for the President and Prime Minister to visit in off times. There were some great views of the shoreline and things all around. We also got a chance a windy road with some nice views, and stopped to check out some individuals doing some fishing off the cliff. Amazing that they can fish from so far up!

My mom went searching for rocks and brought 3 back with her.

This is a famous quote by Mao Zedong - I have no idea what it says though!

Talk about a traditional looking phone booth!

Some nice views that I picked up just here and there on our route.

Here is where they were fishing from way up high. As you can see, it's a long way down! From the last photo, you can't see the fish, but it's actually IN his left hand. They certainly weren't catching for food as much as they must've been catching for fun, at least considering the tiny size of the fish he had caught. We watched him put this one into a bag with at least a dozen others!

Finally, we ended the day by going back into town and doing a little more shopping. My mom found a few souvenirs for friends while I found this hat. Russian style... or Chinese style... either way my Dad said it would look more realistic if there was a big red star on the front of it.

Well, Day 5 has been uneventful and we're heading off for lunch and then Beijing soon! For now I'm all caught up and I guess you'll hear from me later!

China, Day 2: Noodles & Hot Pot

2009-11-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

I am actually just barely trying to catch up in my posts about the trip so far as I'm already in Day 5 here in Dalian, China. However, the last two days have not been as exciting necessarily, and so hopefully I will be able to condense them in the next post.

On our second day here though, we again had quite a lot of food! We woke up at a fair time (10am or so on a Saturday) and I've been happy to have felt not too many effects of jetlag despite the 16 hour time difference! Perhaps this is because we flew out on a red-eye flight and I felt like I got a fair amount of sleep, and thus with the time changes, I felt like I landed when I woke up (plus or minus a few hours =P).

Our first destination Saturday was to a nice noodle restaurant in Dalian where they make all of their own noodles in house. Again, the menu was pretty much just a big room where you walk around and look at all the items they make and pick the ones you want. Aside from noodles, we had a number of side dishes with the meal - like dumplings (I'll have photos on facebook at a later date).

Here, they are making two different types of noodles by hand.

Sea Urchin? Anyone?

At this point, I was politely asked not to take any photos in the restaurant - the second time actually since I had been told the same thing the night before. It only applies to the menu portion of the restaurant, but afterwards, my dad and Andy took me around and told me to take photos. It was much easier for them to wave off the servers then - I guess it all depends on your attitude and how you ask? Again, I'm a bit hesitant in China and try not to piss anyone off - might be cause my Chinese is extremely poor. =P

Top: Scissor-Cut Noodles (direct translation) - they literally cut the noodles out using scissors from a small block. It was interesting to watch...

Bottom: One-Strand Noodles (the ones that I had) - you can barely see in the photo, but they literally take a very thick strand of noodles, then stretch it thin as they throw it into the pot. You can see the thick strand on the left and the fast moving thin strand on the right. The noodle is literally one single strand in a bowl.

Top: My bowl of noodles after adding some sauce and meat.

Bottom: Me trying to show that it really is one strand of noodles - my dad challenged me to find one end and eat my way to the other end. Suffice to say, I couldn't untangle the whole bowl.

My parents and I in the restaurant - you can see a whole bunch of different teapots in the shelves behind us.

After our lunchtime noodle adventure, we actually headed out and did a little grocery shopping at a place called Metro. Andy noted to me that things are a little pricier here, but my Dad shops here mainly to find imports of things he enjoys, as well as because it's like a Super Walmart in that it has literally... everything. I saw things from toilet scrubbers to Tabasco to... frogs.

As you might guess, the tanks above are turtles and frogs - and they're not in there to be raised. No we didn't buy any...

After shopping, we visited a more touristy site in Dalian - a commemoration to I think 100 years of... the city? It was freezing cold that day and so I didn't pay as much attention as they talked about where we were going. I just snapped some photos and we walked around a little bit. This was probably the first point where I began to question whether I'd have enough warm clothes in layers to survive a visit to the Great Wall later this week (still wondering). More photos on facebook later.

The above photo is of my Dad's rented company car that Andy drives. I guess as business improves in the next year they might buy a car instead. Believe it or not, there are no car rental programs really in Dalian, at least not for the long term, and so this is actually ridiculously expensive. I'll try to do a post on cars, parking, traffic, and more later.

After traveling around a bit, we actually headed over to the movie theaters - where we watched the movie 2012 (in English with Chinese subtitles) in a fairly packed movie theater. The movie was pretty good actually, albeit extremely unrealistic obviously in the way the family escapes... everything. What was interesting at the movie theater was that so many people love Hollywood movies and therefore will watch them in English and have to read the subtitles.

Also, seating was done in a way that would make tons of sense even in the US. Instead of a mad rush to get into the theater and pick the seat you want, seats are actually assigned when you purchase your ticket, much like a concert typically in the states. Even so, everyone seemed to pack the line to get in and get a seat, but at least you can rest assured knowing that you can show up 5 minutes before and still have the seat you bought your ticket for. Movie prices are still about $8 or $9 US, though again that's a bit more in Dalian considering the standard of living.

After eating, we enjoyed another great meal in the city - a special "spicy food" place called "Mala 100%". For those who speak Chinese, the word might make sense. For those who don't, it translates to something like "numb & spicy". I discovered though that people in Dalian, China don't eat very much in spicy foods, and so I found it all to be quite bearable - perhaps it's the training from all the Korean food I've had in California. =P

No "live" menu ordering this time.

In the photos above, a lot of the food was actually cooked in boiling bowls of oil (it's not soup). When you pulled the shrimp out example from the big bowl (photo 1), it was crisp and spicy. The enoki mushrooms that came with it were extremely good (photo 2). Photo 3 was a bowl of fish in oil again, though it was originally cooked with a huge number of chili's that were scooped out into the bowl on the right. Finally, there was a huge crab that was one of spicier items of the evening, though since you get the meat in small amounts, it was definitely bearable.

We ended the night visiting a spot up in the hills overlooking downtown Dalian and got a nice nighttime view of the city.

On the way home, we passed by this big lighted ball in the middle of a large traffic circle. They asked that I take a photo, so I did. Check out the huge lighted KFC on the right though. =P There are lots of KFCs here!

Fresh Off The Plane - In China!

2009-11-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

Days 1 and 2 in China have been quite interesting so far and have included tons and tons of food - so you'll find that this post will have a lot to do with... well, food! Here's day 1 just to get things started!

Anyhow, upon our arrival, one of the first places we went to was a bread shop that my dad visits often in town. It reminds me a typical Chinese bread shop in say Rowland Heights like Diamond Bakery, haha. The owner speaks great English since he actually came over from Hawaii and was talking about how things are just so different in China... agreed!

One of the funny things that I quickly discovered is how my Dad had given his employees English names to make things easier for himself. His secretary got the name Toni, his driver and tech guy got the name Andy, etc. I guess it makes it easier for him considering his Chinese certainly isn't that great.

We spent our first night eating out at what's supposed to be the most "popular" restaurant in Dalian, China. A lot of the restaurants are interesting because they look more like hotels and have "rooms" that you can reserve for your party. In this seafood restaurant, we were seated in room 408.

What was even more interesting was the way you order food - the menu looked like a 99 Ranch seafood section with the tanks of fish, ice patches with tons of fresh seafood sitting on top, etc. Basically, you walk around the "menu" as a host follows you and takes your order as you look, point, etc. Photos of all this are below:

Some seafood and clams - big clams might I add!

As you can see, there are a lot of options and they're all just in these baskets. Oh, and of course the tanks behind!

Different fish and... squid?

Almost a 2-pound lobster... anyone? =)

Of course, Chinese dishes are often incomplete without side-dishes and/or cold dishes!

Some more dishes, soups, and other options. I still found it interesting to order in this way!

This bowl of insect-looking things are what we call "Sea Cucumbers" - I still have no idea what they really are, but they're a bit slimy and soft when you eat them, haha.

As you can see, the menu was heavy on seafood, mainly because Dalian is a port city and simply has a lot of it. However, I've also been told that seafood is still quite expensive in the city nonetheless. After ordering, we took the elevator up to the fourth floor and to our private room where there was a server waiting to help us throughout the evening.

One of the big things I've also noticed in China is simply how many employees there are at some of these restaurants - so many in fact that not only does each rooms has a server that is there to serve your food as well as someone to bring the food to you, most also have individuals whose sole responsibility is to stand at the front door and greet people as they enter!

What this tells me is that while human labor is cheap in China, it doesn't mean they maximize profits - instead, there is some level of care to hire additional employees and focus more on service rather than on profits. I certainly think a lot of people could greatly appreciate the high level of attention they might get in a city like this. When you raise your hand for a server or even just call out "server", people would literally run to your table to help!

The meal that we had for the evening had a plethora of different seafood dishes as follows:

This massive scallop is something I've seen in restaurants in LA as well - extremely tender and lots of flavor!

We ordered abalone soup - it's supposed to be real abalone but I certainly can't tell from the small amount that we had.

Here is the slimy sea cucumber I had mentioned. Interesting, right?

This steamed fish came at a point late enough in the evening that we didn't have any room left to really enjoy it!

Check out the interesting desserts! (Left) Pumpkin shaped/colored sweet buns (Right) Some kind of crunchy dessert that looks more like a pineapple!

Our company for the evening (left to right) - Top: Me, Andy (our driver)'s wife, Selena (the accountant), Toni (the secretary), Andy, the company lawyer. Bottom: My Dad, My Mom, the lawyer's wife.

All in all, the meal was extremely interesting and completely different from what we might expect of Chinese food back in the states. Things are actually a lot more heavily flavored here (in many cases saltier) and there is a huge amount of variety to the kinds of Chinese food you could expect to have. The service is 10x better than what we're used to at Chinese restaurants, though you almost get the feeling there's a level of condescension in how servers are treated because of their roles. Of course, I've been told that people in Dalian are some of the nicest you'd find in all of Northern China, and certainly so far that has been true (except for on the road... which is another story).

A Different Standard of Living...

2009-11-29T20:19:00.001-08:00

So, having arrived in China, one of the big things I've realized is that the standard of living and the cost of human labor are both quite lower than what we expect or are used to in the US. My dad moved here
basically in the last year or two for business purposes, and helps manage a small company focusing on the production of diesel fuel. In being the "boss", he has the luxury of several amenities that are scarily affordable here when you consider the conversion of money - things like a driver and a housekeeper/cook.

However, that isn't to say that things are "ultra cheap" in China - they aren't. Cars cost the same here, but are simply a much greater luxury to the people. The typical working individual thus typically takes public transportation. For example, people graduating out of college get paid like $300 US per month! So getting a car for them is extremely impractical. What it really seems to show is that there is a huge spectrum between the rich and "poor". Even that kind of salary actually provides quite a normal working life here - so now I can understand why coming from the US here could make you feel sort of wealthy or why others have exclaimed how cheap things are.

While some things therefore are "cheap", there are certainly still a huge number of items that are the same as we'd find in the US - like electronics, a trip to the movie theaters, etc. I imagine people simply
live life different here in order to maximize on their money. When you think about how much you save from luxuries that we typically have, I guess that does leave some more money to be spent on other things instead.

At the same time, I admit that some items do seem to cost very little here - especially in local markets where you can find things like a pair of gloves for $1, or ride a taxi across town for about $1.50. I guess it all depends on where you go and what you do.

Packing Light In Clothing, Heavier In Gear

2009-11-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

First off though, I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've brought with me on my trip. Unlike all of my travels in the past where I brought mainly clothing, my ipod, and say my laptop - I feel like I've focused this trip more primarily on bringing my camera and equipment along with it. =D I carried two bags with me mainly - a North Face "Surge" backpack which carried some extra clothes, my macbook air, and tons of other random things - as well as my Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home bag for my camera.

Recently, I've also really geared up camera wise. On this trip, I brought the Crumpler bag, Canon XTi with Targus battery grip, Canon 430EX II flash, 50mm f/1.8, and my new and amazing 24-70mm f/2.8L. As you can imagine, walking around with the camera in my hands results in a lot of strange looks from people, especially in China. I've actually been hesitant at many times to take photos in certain places because of the aura I get from people around - and twice have been asked not to take any photos at restaurants I was at (still did get a few though).

For those of you photographers out there, I highly recommend getting the Canon handstrap for your camera if you haven't. I only keep the neckstrap on there now for when I have others carry my camera for a picture - otherwise I rely heavily on the handstrap for one-handed holding. Especially with the heavy lens on it, the strap helps me carry the camera loosely yet safely wherever I go!

Anyhow, so that's what I've carried here for my trip...

Greetings from China!

2009-11-29T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

It's now my third day in China and I'm finally both able to access my blog and have the time to write a little bit about my trip here so far. It feels like I've just gotten here even though it has already been a few days! Most of my trip so far has involved a lot of eating, even before I left Los Angeles. I have had quite a number of observations as well and I hope I can share them all in the next post or two.

Since I'm also on my Mac, I've chosen to not process any photos until I come back and have access to my PC and Lightroom again, so these are just photos as I've taken them to make things simpler. =)

My mom and I left Wednesday night from our home in Orange County after a rush of last minute packing and reshuffling of bags. We were attempting to pack in a number of items to bring to my dad in China, including some chocolate he had bought at Costco and wanted to share with friends here, 18 cans of tennis balls (as many as I could pack in half of my duffel, lol), along with vitamins and boxes of airborne.

The two of us ended bringing 2 full bags each - I had originally packed all of my stuff into a small suitcase whereas my mom had a massive suitcase and then half of another the same as mine with just clothes, shoes, and more.

For anyone ever in need of long-term parking for LAX, I highly recommend checking out www.airportparking.com! My mom got the site from someone, and after checking it out, I made a reservation to have our car valet parked indoors at the Westin Los Angeles hotel for only $8/day plus a $5 service fee! The $85 for our 10-day trip is far cheaper than hiring a shuttle or getting a taxi for a long trip. Plus, if you cancel your trip, you're usually only held responsible for one day's fee. We also got a shuttle from the hotel and assistance with our luggage and got to the terminal fairly quickly (15 minutes or so).

For this trip, we had booked tickets through my dad's travel agent in Orange County for fairly cheap ($745 round trip to China per person!) and we flew on Asiana Airlines. Dalian is a port-city in northern China near the Korean Peninsula, so we connected through Seoul for our flight.

The Tom Bradley International Terminal was surprisingly quiet since I thought there would quite a lot of red-eye flights going out. We ended up eating McDonalds since we had skipped dinner, which was totally a mistake since we were about to eat tons more on the flight...

Asiana Airlines actually impressed me a fair amount for the flight! The flight attendants were extremely attentive and nice, somehow it felt very different from a typical group of flight attendants in the US. They served two great meals on the flight and had American and Korean options even! Dinner was steak or bibimbap and was served right after we got in the air. Then for breakfast we had an omelet or some kimchi thing (was out of my seat when it was served) right before we landed. Of course, complimentary wine also helps I'm sure. =D

The flight itself was fairly comfortable and there were a few amenities. They provided toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathrooms - a nice touch for a long red-eye flight. Having a TV right in front of you with movies playing as well as music and other entertainment options really helps pass the time! They did provide us a set time to sleep between dinner and breakfast, and coupled with Nyquil to help my sore throat, I must've slept a good 8 hours on the flight. Ultimately, the 12.5 hour flight actually felt short and survivable and I really just hope my return flight will be just as great.

I also met Andrew on the flight (who was sitting in the window seat in our row) and learned that he was traveling to Korea for the first and staying there for a year to teach English. He graduated just this year from CSU Northridge and had just applied and gotten accepted about a month or two before the trip. To me it's quite a scary thing to pick up your whole life and move to another country for a full year - for those of you who've gone abroad and done it, props to you!

Arriving in Seoul, we were an hour early, but had a lot of time to really enjoy the airport. I must say that Incheon International Airport in Seoul is one of the NICEST airports I have ever seen. It had a great feel, tons of room to walk around, many shops to check out, clear and open signage, and then great areas for you to relax during your layover.

They even have a "shower" room where you can go in and take a shower, change, etc. all for free as long as you have your own towel.

We had a 7-hour wait, and spent the first 1.5 walking around checking out some of the shops. Yes, apparently Starbucks is EVERYWHERE.

We ultimately ended up in a lounge upstairs to relax for the rest of the morning. With our Asiana Airlines boarding pass, the lounge was about $20/person, but included all-you-can-eat meals, computer usage and internet access, as well as drinks and more.

I was surprised by the fact that they had liquor ready for you in case you wanted to make a cocktail (I skipped out, lol).

My mom and I ended up staying in the lounge long enough to have both breakfast and lunch! (Note the extremely tiny dumplings that served as well - we kept wondering who got stuck with the job of making those one by one! Ultimately, we should have skipped lunch as well. Boarding our flight from Seoul to Dalian, we figured that the short 1 hour flight could not possible include a meal. We were TOTALLY wrong, as the moment we got in the air, we were served a boxed bulgogi lunch that we barely had room to touch.

All in all, the travel between Los Angeles and Dalian, China went extremely smoothly for us, except for the fact that we ate basically 6 times on the way... at least we stepped into China fairly well rested and relaxed.

I'll post more soon about life, the people, the food, and more in China hopefully soon!

Kent

A Beginning

2009-11-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

This is hopefully the first of many posts I intend to make as I start my own blog. My hope is that this blog will help to capture not only moments in my life and things around me, but also to help display them graphically through photos that I take.

In part, I am starting this blog since I am taking a trip to China for 10 days, and am hoping to document what I see and show photos that I take. For now, I am starting here in Seoul, Korea on a 6-hour layover.

Anyhow, since I'm running low on battery, I will have to update this later!

Kent