大连大黑山

Daheishan Scenic Area

Address: East of the District, Jinzhou District, Dalian 116100, China

The Grand Black Mountain of Dalian is a dramatic rocky landscape, with ancient structures, and shows the panoramic views of the city we called, Dalian. For us, we took a bus in order to take the sky railway train, and afterwards another district bus at 开发区 and walked a good 10 to 15 minutes inside the forest. (If you're curious how to get there, you can drop a comment below and I'll search the app for you!)

The hike was tiring because it was freezing cold where we got there. We left our hotel and reached there within 2 hours journey. We didn't want to spoil ourselves always, due to the fact that we took cab almost on everyday basis when it gets dark at night. Dalian is relatively near to Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea and occasionally, the sea wind will blow towards our direction and it gets chilling windy and freezing cold at night.

I bought the wool hat there while shopping on the first day! We woke up late for the trekking due to us being too tired from travelling and getting up early so as to maximize our time there at Dalian. Initially, I didn't want to travel so far to trek up the black mountains, cause all mountains are the same??? Trekked so many of them during my time at Beijing but after looking through all the reviews from TripAdvisor, I decided to go ahead stilll. It was a great hike indeed.

Yay! :) :) look at the beautiful landscape with a passing swallow who flew by. During the winter period, usually the night falls do start early. By the time we managed to climb halfway up, the sun starts to set down and thankfully we managed to get a shot of the gorgeous sunset! Love it when we get to see mother nature at her very best.

Indescribable feeling.

There wasn't any tourists around except for us. Most people will come the black mountain for offering incense to the mountain gods, deity during chinese new year as well as important festival like the mid autumn festival on the 15th. 

Wah sian. I had a damn bad culture shock when I walked into the toilet. The conversation went something like this.

Zan: help me hold leh, I want to go to the toilet now. *monk kindly showed us the direction towards to the toilet

Me: okay.

(after a good 5 minutes)

Zan: You go in the toilet, you'll be surprised!! Go check it out, quite interesting leh.

Me: huh really? I go in now. Help me carry also.

So when I walked in, I was damn amazed lah. There were simply no toilets! Just cemented dug holes with pile of dried leaves. I happened to see a few sanitary pads and tissues on the floor. So.. my friend was having her menses at that time, and I immediately suspected her and said, "wah, I saw your bloody pad on the pile of dried leaves damn gross ok" and before I could even continue, I saw her holding to something wrapped with tissue. Hahaha it was quite obvious that the pad was on her hands, not on the pile of leaves -_- Since sanitary pads are not disposable, so I begun to wonder about the damage done to the nature. But then it was okay,  because I only saw a few of it scattered around. So, where are the rest of them?? Highly possible that the monks swept them regularly together with the faeces and threw them properly :") #thankgod

While climbing up up up!

The temple midway. We didn't finish the whole hike so what a pity. Went down the mountain before everywhere gets dark. There was absolutely no street lamps or whatsoever. Can you imagine how scary it was!! I really didn't want spend a night up the mountains.

Beautiful landscape of dalian. Bustling streets.

Love taking photography of peeping through the bus window.

Gorgeous landforms!! Took this in the train.

The complete map of the scenic area. Mandatory to pay RMB20 to hike up.

Feasting seafood again! Fresh cuttlefish, scallops, noodles and prawn. Paid a little more for the fresh oyster to be served with wasabi sauce. The oyster not cheap but worth every slurp! Entire meal is about $10 with the grilled potatoes and rice served.

Here's a candid photo with so many cactus. :o :o

Boomerang while the train continued to move :)

Do look forward to the 3rd series! 

大连你好呀 (6th- 13 December 2016)

I believed that nobody once heard about Dalian, Liaoning China. That is because we usually associate china with Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou all the "zhous" where the tour agencies heavily promote tours with packages in Singapore! Never did I heard about Dalian, being a city with sea ports founded by Russians.

However, everything changed when I joined a Facebook competition by FlyScoot,a budget carrier. It was a Facebook competition, where the person who posted the most cheesiest photo with some comments and sharing will win lah. That time Scoot just started their new flight to Dalian through Qingdao, and they were rather active in publicizing about this new city. So I thought, why not try right? 

And guess what, I won it. I remembered being the happiest moment of my life though. I genuinely put in much effort, and since the terms and conditions (at that moment) didn't state I have to travel on 30th October, I thought why not right? But damn. I could not make it. I have school at the moment. Afterwards it was really like a drama. The marketing department had to communicate internally to the "ScootieGoodie" a term where they call it for claims for vouchers. But what anger me the most is that, first they took many days to response, and second they did not mention anything about the date to travel until you actually win the prize. They even void the return tickets (till 2017) since i couldn't make it ptffff without knowing. And not a damn was given or a reminder email was given. I know I shouldn't bring up the thing again, but I guess it wasn't appropriate for them to finally reveal the terms and condition until the recipient won it. Nvm.

But to be honest, I wouldn't want to travel 9 hours plus again just to transit from Qingdao to Dalian. I have traveled so many countries, never did I had like blood clots while sneezing on tissue/migraine headaches for few days after travel. :( Maybe there's issue regarding my body, but we won't get to there. But thing is, always be grateful. Because I have chose to go ahead, and paid all expenses with my sweat job pay, and thus, I really enjoyed this trip so much! I didn't expect Dalian to be so 

A M A Z I N G

Would be such pity if I didn't go to Dalian for reason like, not enough money/ feeling angry haha. If you're wondering how to get here, just google Europe Street, Dalian and you'll get there. It is very near Ren Ming Guang Chang (人民广场）and you will see a short street selling many russian souvenirs such as Russia doll, tin chocolates etc.

Address: North side of Shengli Bridge, Xigang District, Dalian 116011 China.

Remember the app I used to use when I'm Beijing? You can use in any part of china to navigate you through! I spend one week in Dalian to navigate to different places by train and buses. Even cab fares are known before you actually hail one.

How can we not eat xiao long baozzz

The temperature there was rather cold. Around 0, 4  to -1 degrees. We were told that during winter session, nobody comes here for tourism. Peak period is during summer time (July-August) for their beaches and seafood. However the perks of it was that, everything is just freaking cheap!! Like the hotels you booked normally are of 50% discount, some attractions free of charge and so on. 

I love cats. I always love to play and take random pictures of cats. Am i pervert hahahaha

Dried up flowers.

Beautiful Dalian when we arrived!!! Took a mandatory picture at the airport railway. Oh yes I flew here $110 without luggage check-in.

Yicheng Business hotel

No.31 Fengguang Street, Xigang District, Dalian 116001, China

Price we paid: 78 RMB $12 SGD per night. (It was wayyyy a steal!)

I have no idea how they earn it. 

A quick tip for those who wanted to taobao during your stay in China:

Download taobao and pay through visa/mastercard. However do note that the money exchange rate conversion depends on the card you're holding. For mine was 4.67, but the exchange rate was 4.84 at the time. Secondly, you can arrange for the 快递 (delivery man) to send it directly to your hotel 1-2 days before you check in. What I usually do is that, I'll send my orders 4 to 5 days in advance, and I'll set the pickup point to a convenience store. All the convenience store are labeled either 评价超市 or 水站 (supermarkets or water stations aka mama shop) taobao will let you know after you set it and whether they are okay to deliver.

In Beijing you are required to pay a small fee (RMB 1) to collect your parcel indvidiually but in dalian, wahhh is free! Let say if your parcel is missing don't worry and just chill. Remember to give the delivery man a call and they will offer to send it over hahahaha. I ever encountered one guy that just signed on MY parcel himself on MY behalf and stated it as collected. There is no way the seller could refund or tracked it. Super dishonest!! and luckily is just a $3.55 shorts lolllol

For entire stay in Dalian, we spend a total of 5 nights at Yicheng before moving to the luxurious collection, the castle for a marvelous stay! But the timing was bad as I was down with severe stomach flu and had to vomit several times. 

We went to a Yunan Cusine Restaurant for a great steamboat meal!

Not too expensive because apparently in Dalian, every eatery outlet is giving discounts and rebate off when you dine in!!

My favourite still. 手抓饼

Cheap and good! Egg, ham and lettuce with the spicy sauce and prata for breakfast.

Jinshitan Scenic Area

Jinshi Road, Economic and Technological Development Zone, Dalian 116000, China 

This place I highly recommend!! It is very convenient, just take their land speed train here and drop down at 金石滩 station (Jin Shi Tan Station) Unfortunately during this period, really like a ghost town cause it's too cold for a dip in the sea.

Love it love it love it!!

Beautiful pebble beaches with many different sizes of pebbles!

So cold but worth it

we paid a small amount like RMB8 for a uncle peddler to send us to the bridge. It was tooo cold to walk there. Had two heatpads sticking on my legs because the seawind is terrible. But I'm sure it will be a great place in summer!

Beautiful coast.

Love the weather and all!

Seafood International Buffet. Located at B1 of the mall.

I can't remember exactly the name of the seafood buffet. But, the mall is the BIGGEST. Like literally with cinema, kids playground and so on. There's a supermart inside too!! A local told us that this is the cheapest seafood international buffet ever. We paid like $12 SGD per person? RMB59 student prices.

Cold dishes with vegetables, mushroom for the hot pot.

Wah so many meat I can't even finish. We barely even touched.

Sorry crab, but that was the most cruel thing I did. I put them inside the boiling soup and watched them to turn into red colour :( I'm sorry. So while picking the crabs, Happened to pick a relatively big crab. However, a crab (don't know sprout from where) immediately use its pincer to grab the crab back to the water. So.. I just let the both of them go. #truelove

super delicious bowl of seafood!!

There was a spread of dessert as well. I really couldn't finish it. The tiramisu was good though, with the cheesecake and the chocolate coated balls.

YESSSSSSSSSSS

My bulgy stomach after eating halfway. Sad.

Sea urchin that wasn't included in the buffet!! (sorry guys)

Eventually, we went hopping around the places and found small streets selling live sea urchin for $4 (RMB20) The urchin taste was basically covered with garlic, but to be exact, it is a slimy taste inside heh heh . Not something I would go for eventually. I still prefer oyster and scallop :D

bbq it! It was so so good. We spend most of our allowances eating seafood and getting none tummy ache. But last day I just died after eating two herbal eggs and one spicy cooked fish with mutton stew.

Inside the sea urchin!!

Anyhooo Dalian is a beautiful country. All photos are taken by iphone 6s proudly :)

While walking at Jin Shi Tan, I got curious when I saw so many ladies picking something!!!

End up I asked and realised that they harvested hell alot of oysters and was trying to pick up the good ones for the wet market. I was so tempted to ask them give me a few for me to bring home. By the way they are always so excited when we told them that we're singaporeans :") So proud to be a singaporean sometimes haha.

The supposingly "chalets" that are on sale as houses. Wonder who will stay here HAHAHA 

Do look out for the next entry on Dalian II Thanks for reading!! xx