Catholic Church

I arrived at Qian Dao at 10:00pm 25/6. Then I went straight to the hotel. In the morning of 26/6, I went to the Catholic Church. It's the first time I go into a church in China. Of coz, I had to buy ticket for visiting it.

Pier Bridge (棧橋)

Then I visited the Pier Bridge. It's a previous military pier built in Qian Dynasty. In fact, it's nothing more than a 500m-long pier. The value of it is for visitors to see the coast from a different POV.

Old City Area (市南區) & Christian Church

Then I walked along the streets of the old city area. The bulidings there are in German style and well-maintained. That's what I want! There's a Christian church there. It's also in German style. I talked to the lady stationed there and knew that the sunday service is opened to all.

Eight Passes District (八大關, the Foreign Villa District)

Afterwards, I went to the "Eight Passes District". It's in fact the former high-class residential district of the foreigners. There were many nice villa. One of them is the former villa owned by the German governor. Only this one is opened to visitors. Same as other Chinese senic sites, there were bad-taste gift shops.

4th May Square

I was so tired and hungry. Then I went to the 4th May Square. That's the centre of the new administrative district. It's a well-designed complex with open space, commerical, residential and institutional land use. I took rest, ate and write emails at a Pacific-Coffee-like cafe.

Shopping District

In the evening I visited the newly developed shopping district. The department stores in China are by no means enjoyable. What you can see there is a downgraded Causeway Bay. That's why the Mainland Chinese likes our Causeway Bay so much.

The place I like most at the shopping district is Carrefour. Usually I only buy daily supplies at such large supermarkets in China. I was willing to pay more to get foods and cleanser that wouldn't kill me. I bought some foods there and finished them at the park.

Then I visited the "food street". It had many resturants, KTV, massage centres. At first I planned to dine there but I was still full... I just went into a bar where the Chinese gals meet foreigners. A bar with many foreigners means better hygiene and security.

27/6 - Qian Dao - Wei Hai (威海)

Sunday Service

I wented to the sunday service at the church I visited yesterday. It's full of people and I had to stand there. It's an interesting experience to have service in China. However, the clergy's words........... very long and boring............. maybe it's the Mainland style.

Navy Museum

If you like military stuff, you should be happy with it coz it's the only navy museum in China. I was so excited when I went inside a real submarine - that made me thought of the K-19 submarine (Widow Maker). I was even more excited when I saw a real T-34 tank, one of my favourites!!!

Governor House

Yesterday I visited the German governor's villa. Today it's the Governor House. It's well-maintained and beautiful. It's recalled my good memories of the house of Biohazard I. Of coz, it's clean and tidy.

Wei Hai, Sigh....

I arrived at Wei Hai at around 6:00pm. I tried to find the hotels recommended by the online forum. However, they were with disgusting appearances or couldn't be found. Then I walked into a better hotel not on my list coz I was too tired to search again.

"In 1996, Wei Hai was selected as one of the model cities for improving human living environment in the world by UN" (weihai.gov.cn). This is one of the reasons why I visited it. However, it not so good, in terms of hygiene, town planning, facilities and environment. I guess this city must have been deteriated in the last 8 years. Or there must be some untold stories behind the UN's selection process. I guess the UN commission had been brought to another place (may be a film studio). Qian Dao is 5 times better than Wei Hai.

Before going back to hotel, I had a nice Korean BBQ dinner.

28/6 - Wei Hai

Damn Tung Fong Hung! (該死的東方紅)

I was wakened by the damn Tung Fong Hung song played through the damn public announcement system at the square next to the hotel at 7:00am. The damn P.A. system said "It's xxx Radio. The Beijing time is 7:00am." I was then very sure that Wei Hai didn't have the "living environment" I expected.

Liugong Island (劉公島)

The second reason I visited Wei Hai is because it has the most important naval base of the Qing Dynasty. It was also one of the major battle fields of the 1st Sino-Japanese War (1894).

The island was fairly-designed for tourists. There were two museums - one demonstrates the war (without antique) and the other is the former navy HQ (with antiques). The former has professional tour guides. In fact, the good speech of the guide plus the exhibits made me felt unhappy about our corrupted old dynasty (just like the feeling of viewing TV prog "Towards the Republic (走向共和). However, the quantity and quality of the exhibits should be improved.

According to the exhibits of both museums, the communists seemed sympathetic to Admiral Ding Yu Cheong, commander of the North Ocean Navy. However, I thought he's one of the people responsible for the defeat. Without his poor management and command, the navy should not have been defeated in such an humiliating way.

Then I visited a garrison far away from the museums (15 minutes walk under sun). But that's just a ruin with less visible structures than the WWI ruins in Hong Kong....

City Centre

Originally I planned to go to the "Cheng Shang Tau (Cheng Hill)", the "Cape of Good Hope of China". It's the eastern end of Emperor Qin (秦始皇)'s trips. Too bad that I have no enought time to go.

I wandered around the city centre. The City Government Building and the square in front of it was quite good in appearance.

There are a lot of so-called Korean malls there. However, apart from the real Korean foods and drinks, all other goods in these malls were still the bad taste China goods, especially the fashions. If the Southern Koreans really wear such clothes, they can unify with their northern relatives without difficulties...

29/6 - Dai Lian (大連) - Lu Shun (旅順)

Lu Shun

Ship to Da Lian

I took the ship to Da Lian, the "Hong Kong in the North".

There were 5 classes of tickets. I bought the 2nd class (RMB$220) but still had to be with 3 other strangers. I prayed for not having the dirty and thief-like people.....

Thanks God I got a Korean, a good-looking lady and a quiet man in the same room. I became the translator for the Korean when the ship officers and policemen talked to us.

The ship left at 9:00pm and arrived at 4:30am. I chose to stay on board till 6:30am by paying $10 more so as to strive for more sleep. Later I found this the most stupid decision in the trip. As I couldn't sleep well, I decided to leave. When I walked on the pier, I found there's no signs, no facilities and no transportation for me to get to the exit... Please imagine if you were left behind at an unknown place at HK's Kwai Chung container terminal with insufficient lighting................

Going to Lu Shun in an Illegal Way

Eventually I saw a custom officer. He told me how to get out of the pier. Then I got a taxi at the exit. I told him that I wanna go to the coach station to Lu Shun. He said he could take there at the cost of $100. I said that's too expensive. Then he said he could bring me to another taxi driver who would charge me $10 only. Guess why? Becoz that's a Lu Shun taxi which could not operate inside Dai Lian. If that taxi couldn't get a passenger back to Lu Shun, it would have to go back with empty seats. Therefore, such taxi took 4 passengers to Lu Shun at $10 each. That's indeed what we call "Lai Man Taxi" (泥魚孟的士) in Hong Kong.

Lu Shun has been an important navy base since the 1st Sino-Japanese War (1894). It had been ruled by the Russians and Japanese before the end of WWII.

The driver "Lai Man Taxi" suggested me to "employ" him at the cost of $200 for the whole day. I denied his offer. Later, we went to breakfast. That's quite a economy but delicious one. Surprisingly he treated me the breakfast although I denied him! He's really kind. Therefore, I gave him $10 tip. In fact, most taxi drivers I encountered were kind, except the ones in Jinan. They were thieves.

Russian Garrison

After breakfast, it's 6:45 only. Then I took a taxi to the ruin of the major Russian garrison during Russo-Japanese War (1905). There had been a really fierece and long fight. Therefore, most structures had been damaged. At the trenches and damaged concrete bunkers I could imagine how the Russians and Japanese lost their lives on our land.

Lu Shan Navy Harbour Park

The park had no special features but the view of the entrance of harbour. There had been much fighting there, too. Visiting there was just for seeing the old battlefields (弔古戰場)。

Prison Museum

Many Chinese rebels were imprisoned there by the Japanese. I was soooooo glad that I didn't see bad-taste things there. The atmosphere there was quite horrable. There were many exhibits showing how the Japanese torture the Chinese people... I was so glad that we can really "make love, no war" (just kidding). A must-see in Lu Shun.

(Cont)