Dalian

Yesterday was Dalian. The smog had blown away for the morning, and it was a beautiful, sunny day, and everyone in town was taking advantage of it. Its an interesting city--brand new beautiful buildings and some old ones, reflecting Chinese as well as Russian and Japanese architecture--the city has changed hands a few times in history. Big wide streets and beautiful big open squares or parks everywhere. When you think of modern China, think of many new buildings taller than the Richardson, with stunning architecture--none, literally, of the box stuff we North Americans are used to. The older buildings are still there, but are off the beaten track. Housing and apartments are equally newer, but there is much more of the 20-30 year old stuff. Think downtown shopping centers that are 4 stories underground with a park at street level on top. All this in Dalien--a city of over a million.

We did a walking tour and then went to a big park--a circle about a kilometer in diameter in the middle of the city, with lots of landscaping and statues--to fly kites. What a blast; just awesome. There were mostly delta kites, but a few outlandish shapes and one "kite" that consisted of about 100 small kites along a single string that went upwards a *long* way. Back to the ship for a swim--the smog was starting to blow back in--and then sailaway.

Sea day today--not much to report--and Kagoshima tomorrow, so we'll blog that one for sure. We have an adventure scheduled!!!