A Seaside Fourth

Quite unintentionally, I passed another Fourth of July in China last week. This year's festivities went down near the oceanside city of Dalian, China's northernmost "ice-free seaport."

That morning we had risen, again, on an all-night sleeper train and thereby began a week of rapid travel throughout Liaoning and Shandong Provinces. After arriving at Dalian's train terminal, which disappointingly looks like every single other train terminal in China, we were hustled onto our tour buses and taken to our hotel farther down the coast. Much of Dalian's fascinating history was unbeknownst to us.

As it turns out parts of Dalian, or "Port Arthur," were occupied briefly by the British. During the Sino-Japanese War it came under Japanese control. Later the Russians obtained rights to it, and it became Russia's largest trading city on the Asiatic coast, linked by rail to the Trans-Siberian line until the Japanese again invaded. Immediately after Japan's surrender in 1945, the area passed into Soviet control. Only in 1955 did the last Soviet soldiers pull out, leaving the city to Chinese authority. But, like with many things in China, Dalian's outer appearance gave little indication of such an exciting or tumultuous recent history.

My only view of Dalian proper came when I volunteered to pick up 75 KFC orders for the group with our tour guide. Before boarding the ferry to cross the Yellow Sea towards Shandong, our American-born caucasian guide Shane took three of us on the hurried lunch-mission. The ferry had docked much farther from the city than he anticipated, so we had precisely ten minutes in the city to pick up our waiting order before taxiing back to the industrial-looking ferry port. Again, though, the city appeared superficially the same as every other large Chinese city I have seen.

But I didn't mind because the day before we had enjoyed a pleasant day of swimming in the ocean. I had never expected, ever, to go swimming in a Chinese body of water. It proved too tempting, however, and I am still healthy a week later. Our crumbling hotel happened to face a surprisingly aesthetic rocky beach, just a few hundred yards from a man-made sandy beach occupied by several Russian tourists.

It was also a day for other firsts - my first visit to a Chinese theme park. Visions of dilapidated death-traps were dismissed when I beheld the impressive facility, known as "Discoveryland" (发现王国). It is something of a cross between Disneyland and Six Flags. For example, "Discoveryland" is written in the same font as is "Disneyland," and there is a large tower in the middle with turrets. The roller-coasters were very modern, and at least on-par with those at Six Flags in the United States.

We are travelling in Shandong with limited Internet Access this week - posts will resume on the 12 of July. Thanks for checking in!

Swine Flu

China has taken the Swine Flu seriously. Perhaps for no reason, perhaps for good reason, perhaps to make amends for poor performance the SARS outbreak, China is taking the H1N1 Flu far more seriously than the United States.

Our screening began on arrival at Beijing airport. Before disembarking, several individuals in white coats raced down the aisles beaming each and every passenger with a little laser-like thermometers. Without touching an individual, they can aim it at his or her forehead and get a temperature reading. Any passenger with above-normal temperature is grounds for suscpicion and likely to be quarantined. Most famously, the mayor of New Orleans (like all of the other passengers on the flight) was quarantined in his Shanghai hotel for three days due to one suspected passenger.

For seven days, our Chinese group leaders took our temperatures and recorded our health data. We were also forbidden from eating at the same times as other students until the full week had passed. Fortunately for the group, everyone was healthy for the duration.

Pumping Iron at Hei Da

The language program is not quite as intense I had expected. We’ve therefore been able to exercise regularly, sometimes making use of the university’s weightroom. The first time we tried to visit the weightroom, at 6am one morning, we learned that it didn’t open until 9am and closed at 6pm. While there are reports of another weightroom somewhere on the campus, this particular one has a lot of “character”; or rather, I should say there are a lot of unhealthily jacked “characters” pictured on numerous posters throughout the sparsely equipped facility.

One of our classmates, a former navy guy pictured in brown shirt, happens to have devoted much of his life to strength training and fitness. While he was unable to join the Seals due to an accident, he has been the drill sergeant for a motley group of us who know very little about strength training. His military intensity seems to threaten the guys who man the sign-in desk, and a little bit of a turf war has escalated over the kind of music that gets played whenever we come. The attendants have insisted that Chinese patrons do not appreciate songs with English lyrics.

Street shoes are not supposed to be worn in the weight room. Therefore, just before getting to the weightroom, we change into flip flops and carry our street shoes in. Once inside, we switch out the flip flops for the same dirty sneakers. Once shoed and signed-in, one will quickly notice the lack of large weights. This always serves to make me feel particularly strong and athletic - I can quite comfortably handle the heaviest weights that they have.

While ordinarily the lack of heavy weights might be a problem, Sean’s style (having a heavy dose of cross fit) is based more on high numbers of repetitions, not pure weight. Unlike most travelers to China, Sean happened to bring enough medical tape to create a medicine ball using sand from a nearby construction lot. Frequently he will also pull out unusual exercise equipment like hanging handles for the pull-up bars, stretchy rope for stretching, etc. He also brought the soundtrack to 300. We enjoyed listening to it today until the attendant switched it out surreptitiously.