Last week Maggie and I grabbed a flight out of PVG and made our annual pre-holiday trip to visit the inlaws and friends in Dalian. That we both work outside the confines of anyone’s schedule but our own, we are fortunate that we can travel when the rest of the country is distractedly focused on tying up loose ends before one of China’s major holidays. It makes for cheaper and less crowded travel.

Returning to Dalian, where I spent the first year and a half of my China life, is always a mixed bag. I love Suzhou, and I love living in Suzhou more than I loved living in Dalian. But at the same time, Dalian has the huge draw of both friends who have remained (or returned) there and a rather large nostalgia factor.

That it was the first place me and China started our near half-decade affair has left me with a strong impression of Dalian. Around every corner and down every road there seems to be an “oh, I remember that place!” moment, followed promptly by a “hey, but that’s new!” While living there I was always on the fringes of the city proper — living first in Jinzhou district (the “district” bit being a bit of an insult to the city, as it’s older than Dalian), where I met Maggie and where her family continues to live; and second in Jinsanjiao, on the northern edge of Dalian city.

Never having lived downtown may be one of the major reasons I was eager to leave Dalian, and upon looking back, may have lead me to judge the place a bit unfairly. While it is relatively Western friendly, my feeling about the place is that it doesn’t remotely compare to the Westernized parts of Suzhou. Dalian, despite all its development, is still in Dongbei, China’s northeastern rust-belt.

And while Dalian — more than most Dongbei cities, has spent lots of time and energy trying to reinvent itself, learning largely through trial and error what works and what doesn’t, Suzhou’s a decade or two ahead. As a comfortable place to live, Suzhou still takes the cake. However, let me compare a few differences between the two places I’ve called “home” in China:

Weather

Despite being a Canadian, I’ve no loyalty to four distinct seasons. While Dalian’s weather is much closer to that of which I’m used to, I wasn’t sad to leave Dalian’s icy winters behind when I moved south. What I hadn’t counted on was Suzhou’s absolute bunk climate. Even in winter Dalian is likely to have beautifully clear-skied and sunny days. Suzhou hasn’t had sun since the Song Dynasty.

While enduring Dalian’s northern winters may be a challenge, its summer is livable and its spring and fall are a good length. Not so in Suzhou. Suzhou’s summer is akin to living in a bathhouse for 4-5 months, and its winter is wet and about as close to freezing as you can get without committing to it. Winters are made all the worse by the peculiar evolutionary trait of those born south of the Chang Jiang being without the good sense to insulate their buildings. Fall and spring are things only existent in fables — as proof, it will be October tomorrow and I’m still in shorts and tees.

Dalian: 2 – Suzhou: 0

Food

This is another area where both places are nothing to write novels about — blog posts maybe. I find Dongbei food rather simple and bland, while Suzhou’s local fare is sweet and a bit odd (bull frog is a common menu item). My palate is much more inline with Hunan or Sichuan food, and I can’t get enough of the cumin-y goodness of Xinjiang food.

Where Dalian edges out Suzhou is that it has a wide selection of chuar locales. There wasn’t a place I lived or visited in Dalian that wasn’t a 5-10 minute walk from a street full of low-sitting tables and stools eager for you to grill stuff. While Suzhou has a few chuar spots, they are just that – few. And while my body is surely happy I’m not sucking back enough carcinogens to give my grandkids cancer and washing ‘em down with bottle after bottle of cheap brew, there’s a reason a chuar restaurant is usually my most anticipated event in Dalian.

Dalian also scores points over most Dongbei locations as being close to the sea, and for this seafood lover, that’s a huge plus.

Dalian: 2 – Suzhou: 0

Western Standards of Living

Now before the FOTBers or hard-core expats get their backs up, let me qualify this by saying — to each their own. For me, I’ve lived in China long enough that a bit of comfort is something I’m willing to look for. When I first arrived, and occasionally still in fits of boredom, I loved the chaotic cacophony that I had assumed was China. I felt it defined China in some way, and that I was missing out on it by living a cushy expat existence. But then I asked myself, would anyone live in those conditions if they weren’t forced to by finance or because they’re a cultural tourist? Probably not. At least not me.

And while Dalian has some charming and exclusive expat-geared communities and facilities, Suzhou gets all the points in this category. In fact, from what I’ve seen of Shanghai, Suzhou would give it a run for its money. The entire eastern end of Suzhou is row after row of wide, organized streets, designated and protected bike paths, international restaurants, and decently maintained apartment complexes.

Dalian: 0 – Suzhou: 3 (because few things top ‘livability’ for points)

Culture and History

The park at 2,500-year-old Pan Gate

Being that it was the native home to nomads, it is perhaps unsurprising that there aren’t many long-standing cultural spots in Dongbei, and what few the area has, virtually none of them are in Dalian.

Suzhou, by contrast, has been sitting here for 2,500 years just collecting culture like it might one day come back in style. Despite winning 3 points for its modernity, Suzhou has done a decent enough job maintaining its numerous historical sites — the revenue for which no doubt helped pay for the newly developed districts.

Both places provide good insight into what is China’s chimera-like culture, but for strictly bookish culture and history points, Suzhou wins hands down. There aren’t many cities in China that get their own Chinese sayings, nor do many still have monuments to pre-Qin kings.

Dalian: 0 – Suzhou: 2

Natural Scenery

Bingyu Valley, just outside of Dalian

Both Suzhou and Dalian have decent scenery. Suzhou’s Venice-like network of canals are fed by a number of lakes in the surrounding area, including China’s third largest, Tai Hu. Additionally, there are a good number of large hills (called “mountains”, but really?) for a day out hiking.

Dalian is also great for hiking, with Da Hei Shan and Bingyu Valley being particularly great spots to visit. However, where Dalian jumps ahead of Suzhou is its proximity to the sea. While perhaps not for everyone, it’s hard to deny the aesthetics of a nice sea-side sunset/sunrise. Coupling its drastic seaview vistas with its rugged hilly terrain, Dalian beats out Suzhou in this category.

Dalian: 2 – Suzhou: 1

Location

This was one of the primary reasons I was eager to move down from Dalian to Suzhou three years ago. While Dalian is well-connected via trains, planes, busses and ferries; Suzhou wins out simply for being directly adjacent to one of China’s (indeed, the world’s) largest cities. Suzhou’s proximity to Shanghai (just half-hour on the new fast trains) give it a huge leg-up over Dalian, which despite its connectivity is still in the relatively isolated northeast.

And while unlike Dalian, Suzhou doesn’t have its own airport, we’re happy enough borrowing the two in Shanghai, or a third in nearby Wuxi. Shuttles run from Suzhou to both of Shanghai’s airports, and because Shanghai PVG is a truly international airport, global direct flights are easy to come by.

The one downside to Suzhou’s otherwise unencumbered system is that it is virtually the last stop before Shanghai for all trains coming from the north. This can make it a bit of a challenge to get train tickets to Shanghai last minute.

Dalian: 0 – Suzhou: 1

Nightlife

I’m married, what the hell do I know about nightlife anymore?

Actually, I think both cities are pretty much on par with each other in this regard. Both have a couple of clubs, a number of pubs, and a few good miscellaneous expat hangouts (cafes and whatnot). The only edge I might give Dalian here is that it is generally cheaper to go out in Dalian than in Suzhou — which seems to have taken its pricing cues from its big sister to the east.

Dalian: 1 – Suzhou: 1

Final Score & Conclusions

Dalian: 7
Suzhou: 8

Not a striking difference, and admittedly my scoring is biased as all hell. At the end of the day, I would happily recommend (and have numerous times) either place as a good spot to live. That they have their differences is a great argument against the opinion (that I’ve more than once repeated) that all Chinese cities are indistinguishable at their core.

A few photos from my trip to Dalian

What wasn’t mentioned on the Web sites I reviewed, but was added to the rhetoric after I arrived was that Dalian girls are considered some of the most beautiful women in China. I’m betting had I known this beforehand, it wouldn’t have come down to a coin-toss between Dalian and Qingdao (another beautiful sea-side city with a beer festival, but no beautiful women to speak of — my requirements weren’t complex).

Dōngběi nǚzǐ, northeastern women, are renowned throughout China for being tall, strong-willed and fair-skinned beauties; a fact that most every taxi driver comments on when I tell him that my wife is from Dalian.

When moving to Suzhou in 2006, the aforementioned beautiful Dalian girl in tow told me (somewhat apprehensively) that Suzhou has been famous for centuries (perhaps millennia) for its beautiful women. After having heard the same thing about Dalian over the previous year and a half, I was beginning to suspect Chinese people just told foreigners this about every city in China.

According to this recent article on Netease, thankfully translated by the folks at ChinaHush, which ranks China’s top 10 cities with the most beautiful women, there’s some truth to it (if truth can be found in online polls) — Dalian took the #1 spot, with Suzhou following closely at #4.

1. Dalian | 大连

Bold but graceful
Score: 95
Girls from northeast of China always have the reputation of being light skinned and tall. Dalian girls are undoubtedly the cream of the crop among girls in the northeast of China. Compare with women in southern China, Dalian girls might not be as graceful, but they are more bold and prideful; Compare with women in other northeast China and other inland cities, Dalian women added more elegance. For example actress Dong Jie (董洁) is a typical representative of the girls in Dalian.

4. Suzhou & Hangzhou | 苏杭

Pretty girl of humble birth
Score: 92
Suzhou is the most girly city in China. Some say more than half of the beauties of southern China are in Suzhou. They all have admirable pretty hands. Needless to say, Suzhou girls are most suitable to be kind, considerate and desirable lovers. Suzhou and Hangzhou are known to produce beauties, is indeed well-deserved reputation. [Example]: Han Xue (韩雪)

The full list is

1. Dalian | 大连 – Bold but graceful – Score: 95
2. Chongqing | 重庆 – Warm like fire – Score: 94
3. Chengdu | 成都 – Pure as the eye solution – Score: 93
4. Suzhou & Hangzhou | 苏杭 – Pretty girl of humble birth – Score: 92
5. Changsha | 长沙 – Beauty of blandness – Score: 91
6. Nanjing | 南京 – Delicate, free and natural – Score: 90
7. Shanghai | 上海 – Fashionable and exquisite – Score: 89
8. Beijing | 北京 – Aristocrat of the century – Score: 88
9. Hong Kong | 香港 – Fashion Pioneers – Score: 87
10. Guangzhou | 广州 – Soft inside and hard outside – Score: 86

As the last time I got my visa in Suzhou the woman told us in no uncertain terms not to come back, Mags and I knew we’d be heading to Dalian this month when my visa expired. Any trip to Dalian is generally a welcomed one for Maggie, as it means she can visit with her family. For me it means squirming through uncomfortable Chinese conversations with my inlaws, and getting drunk with old Dalian friends.

We flew in on Wednesday and went straight out to Jinzhou, Maggie’s hometown about 20km outside of Dalian. After dropping off our bags we headed directly to the Jinzhou police station.

Though you’re supposed to register with the local police station within 24 hours of arriving anywhere in China, this was the first time I adhered to the rule – and with good reason. The first step to securing a visa in China is obtaining a sheet of paper from the local (and sometimes district) police station confirming that it’s cool with them if you hang out in the area.

You’ve got to love small towns. We had forgotten to photocopy something, and with the station’s photocopy room closed for the day the cop drove us down to a copy shop.

We were on a pretty tight schedule to get things done, as it was late Wednesday and that left only Thursday and Friday to complete the visa process before the weekend hit (I needed to leave on Sunday to get back for Monday). Happily the officer was quite intrigued that this small-town girl had hooked herself a foreigner and had brought him into their tiny district, and the whole process was the most congenial of any such visit I’ve had to make to a police station here in China.

Stopping to pick up a DVD player for Maggie’s parents. My, somewhat misguided, attempt to give them a nice gift. I’m sure that it’ll be gathering dust beside the microwave in the spareroom in a matter of days.

Back at the apartment we sat down to a banquet-sized dinner of seafood – a ritual everytime Maggie returns to her sea-side home after living with the land-dwellers of the south. A love for seafood is something I share with my wife, so I was not disappointed.

Day Two: 110

Having stayed up virtually the night before we left trying to get work done, I was happy to lie in a bit Thursday morning – quite contrary to the 5:30am rising of my inlaws.

Eventually we wandered our way into Dalian. Not being certain when the PSB takes their lunch, we decided to browse around Victory Square and grab a bite before heading over to the visa office.

It’s amazing how familiar Dalian is to me, even after having not lived there for more than two years now. There are certainly a lot of aspects about Suzhou that I am more familiar with (namely bars and restaurants), but when it comes to shopping, for whatever reason, I can navigate Dalian like a champ.

After a big plate of málàtāng we grabbed a cab to the PSB. Picky cabs are rare in Suzhou, so I was a bit thrown off when after giving the cabbie the address he said he couldn’t take us. He tried to lay some lame excuse about traffic on us, but we knew it was just because our destination was within the 8RMB base fare. Fuck that. I refused to get out of the cab. He took us. Asshole.

Interestingly enough – not the biggest asshole cabbie of the day. But more on that in a moment.

We got to the PSB and dutifully took our number. After waiting for 30-40 minutes, our turn came and we approached the visa officer. Very kindly (a drastic change from our experiences at the Suzhou visa office) the officer explained that we were at the wrong PSB – Jinzhou-based applications had to go to kāifāqū, Dalian’s shiny tax-free development zone – roughly the same distance from Dalian as Jinzhou. Sigh.

A bit bothered that we had wasted so much time, we were still in high spirits of finishing the visa process that day. It was only 2pm, leaving us plenty of time to get up to kāifāqū. We grabbed a cab and headed for the light rail station.

Arriving at the light rail station I was getting out of the cab, crossing over the backseat so as not to exit into traffic, and my foot hit the dirty plastic cover encasing the car’s emergency break. Apologizing , I continued to get out of the taxi.

And that’s when it all went to shit. The taxi driver jumped out of the cab and began yelling at us, accusing me of accosting his rust-eaten, early 90s model Santana. Not believing I could have done any “real” damage, I tried to ignore the driver and cross the road, but he wasn’t having any of it.

He yelled at us to come back, which – being the stupid whelps we are – we did. We listened to him bitch about how I maliciously, and with full-force intention kicked (he kicked the air for effect) the plastic cover and snapped it completely off. To prove his point he went back into the car and, with some effort, yanked the piece off.

Now, with a crowd starting to gather, he clearly illustrated where I had broken it – at the front of the piece of plastic. From the back seat. Where I hardly had room to move, never mind leverage to cause damage.

Not wanting to stand in the middle of the street, I moved us over to the sidewalk – unintentionally giving the mob more room to grow. Maggie, bless her heart, said to hell with all this and called 110, the Dalian police department. She explained the situation to the dispatch woman, emphasizing that the the taxi driver wouldn’t let her or her foreigner husband leave.

The cops showed up, the man showed them the tiny plastic tab (one of six that held the piece in place) that he was accusing me of having broken. You could almost hear the cop’s smirk. Looking to solve this stupid situation as fast as possible the cop asked the guy what the thing was worth. The cabbie feigned that he didn’t know and had to call a friend.

A minute or so later he came back and said it was about 20 RMB.

20 RMB. I don’t know who thought the guy was a bigger idiot – me, the crowd, or the cop. The cop deemed that if it was worth 20 RMB new it must be worth 10 RMB used and proposed that I pay the 10 RMB – tacking on that if we disagreed, we’d be solving things downtown.

Of course I paid it. I would have paid 20 RMB just to have not had to waste my time. But, of course, that’s not what this was about. Fortunately Maggie’s calling of the cops killed the cabbie’s quick con, where, through the course of arguing with us in public he was intending to extort a much greater sum.

Asshole.

Now 3pm we hopped on the light rail and headed for kāifāqū. Time was getting tight, but we were still confident we would make it well before 4:30-5pm – the time in which we assumed the office closed.

It was with the resigned chuckle of two people who’d had a hell of a day that we read the “Due to a meeting today, the Foreign Visa Window will be closed at 3:30pm” sign. It was 3:40.

We headed back to Jinzhou – heads low and utterly defeated.

Adventures in Korean

To lift our (my) spirits, we took Maggie’s parents out for dinner. During the time in which I lived in Jinzhou I came to love a tiny Korean restaurant, and Maggie thought it’d be nice to take them there.

I stunned me that despite Dalian, and the North East in general, having a huge Korean population, Maggie’s parents had lived more than half a century and not ever tried Korean food.

Fortunately, her father, not unlike myself, is entirely carnivorous and so BBQ’d meat wasn’t too difficult a sell. Her mother couldn’t stop asking Maggie in hushed voices, “So, this is really what they eat?”

Day 3: Visas, Brooklyn and Meatloaf

Fortunately the second time was a charm. We returned to the visa office bright and early and relatively smoothly were given a 1 year, multiple entry, infinitely renewable visa. Maggie explained the troubles we went through trying to get the visa in Suzhou, and how rude the visa officer was to us both. With that the visa officer turned to me and (in English) said, “Welcome” and then in Chinese called me a “son-in-law” of Dalian.

I can see why people hate moving away from their hometowns in this country.

Later that day we headed into Dalian. I had plans to meet up with Rick and Alex at the electronic city, where I hoped to pick up a Sony Playstation Portable for my 24 hour train ride back to Suzhou on Sunday.

Late to arrive, Rick and Alex had done 80% of the PSP hunting for me, even going so far as to source out who seemed like the best vendor (great guys, them). After a bit of haggling I secured the coolest toy I’ve owned in a while.

On top of the 8 GB of movies, music and video games I can slap onto it, it also has a built-in wifi card that I can connect and browse the Internet with. I even went so far as to pickup the cables so I can hook ‘er up to the TV – allowing me to stream video from my PC hard drive, over the wifi, through the PSP and onto my TV in the other room. Too cool.

From the electronic city we headed up the road and hit Brooklyn, a relatively new bar/eatery that Rick had been raving about during his visit to Suzhou the week before. The place had me at cheap cold Dalian gānpí and reasonably priced bacon-wrapped meatloaf.

Day 4: Hand-made dumplings, farewell to Jinzhou and one horny fucking dog

Saturday night I had arranged to crash at Rick’s to allow for an easy jump to the train station the following day, and the ability to go out and not have to worry about catching the last train back to Jinzhou that night.

For lunch Maggie’s mom, Maggie and I made dumplings from scratch – something I’ve had rather few opportunities to do (it’s up there with speaking Chinese and playing mahjong as things I should know by now). The dumplings were admittedly better than the frozen ones I usually eat, but a helluva lot of work.

We got to Rick’s early in the evening and finally met his famous dog: Pepe Q-Tip. I’ve never met a dog so excited to see me. He didn’t stop humping things nearly the entire time we were there. Rick, a man with a sense of humour, bought Pepe a giant inflatable hammer that he can pleasure himself with. It squeaks. Fecking hilarious. (and he’s available ladies)

Tearing ourselves away from the infinitely entertaining Mr. Q-Tip, we hit up a great (and cheap) little Japanese BBQ place where we were met by more friends: Devon and a kiwi named Nick.

After dinner I said my goodbyes to Maggie – as she had to catch a train back to Jinzhou and so couldn’t join us on our trip to the bar. We hit up Noah’s, the first bar I ever went to in Dalian, which has barely changed at all.

It’s funny how perspectives change over time. I remember I used to think that Noah’s was a bit pricey (when compared to 2RMB fake beers at the chuar stand), but now looking at their prices, it’s easily 10 RMB cheaper there for a pint of Carlsberg than it is at the cheapest bars here in Suzhou.

But it’s not just the location, I guess it’s also my station in life that’s changed. When I lived in Dalian I was a poorly paid ESL teacher, and every RMB counted. Now, I’m by no means well-off, but certainly doing better than I was in those days – making 10 RMB here or there not such an issue.

Still, it made the copious zài lái‘s all the sweeter.

Day 5: A day on the train

After a alcohol induced sleep, broken only once when I woke up to find Pepe Q-Tip snuggled up against me on the couch staring me right in the face, Rick and I headed out for some breakfast. We met up with a friend of his, Tom, that graciously filled up my PSP with some games for my journey ahead.

Then I got on the train. And nearly exactly one day later, I got off. Fuck it was long. I had done the trip before, but it was with Maggie and so much more entertaining. In fact, other than an occasional “damn” or “yes!” while playing my PSP, I didn’t say a word for 24 hours.

With only limited seating available when we bought the tickets, I was confined to the top bunk in the sleeper train, and I only removed myself from it 3 times the entire journey. I likely wouldn’t have moved at all had it not been for the 6 pack of Qingdao beer my mother-in-law insisted I take with me. Bless her heart.

So, home now. It’s great to be back and great to see Addie again. Maggie and I filled a lot of time up in Dalian joking about what she was up to back here in Suzhou.

It’s also great to be back online. Contrary to what I thought would happen, I didn’t start twitching when I pulled out the plug for 5 days. Still, nice to be reconnected.

This is Maggie’s dog “mao mao” – I know she wasn’t mentioned in this extremely long post, but I couldn’t resist including the picture. The dog is as round as a ball. Seriously, fattest little dog I’ve ever seen.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Like in general, not just about this video. Life, gardens, Scotch tape… whatever.