Downshifting to . . . . Dalian

[roddy]

Those of you who've been paying attention might have noticed that I've shifted myself from Beijing and landed up in sunny Dalian. Basically in about late April a perfect storm of factors - landlord selling the apartment I was renting, evil Beijing summer approaching, visa about to expire - coincided and I opted to abandon the city for the summer, head home for an extended 'vacation' (my work is mobile, so technically I wasn't actually on holiday) and return in September or so when the weather was more humanly tolerable.

However once I got home and gave the matter some thought I decided I liked the idea of a change of scene. Beijing's a great city, but I'd been there for five years. I'm sure I'll go back, once it's finished.

So, where to go? I narrowed down my choice a bit by aiming for somewhere in the north-east (just because it's better ), fairly well-developed, less extreme climate than Beijing, and have a university course I could happily enroll on for the sake of having a visa and a reason to get dressed before 2pm, but without being so time-consuming it would interfere with work. I also ruled out Harbin as although I had a great time when I lived there for a year 2001/02 I wanted to go somewhere new.

A bit of reading on here (great site, BTW) and a few emails back and forth with Adam of HYCC and I settled on Dalian - not too large, seemed to be amply supplied with everything I look for in a city, and it's by the sea.

As for the university, I had a look at the options, spoke to Adam again, and ended up plumping for Dongbei Caijing Daxue (Dongcai). They have a four-year Chinese language (汉语言）BA, and with my HSK 7 from years back they'd let me join the third year classes. I'm planning to do a more substantial write up on the school and the course at some point, but to sum up I'm not very impressed with the quality of the BA course, but am hearing very good things about the standard short-term language courses. For reference I've ended up moving to the fourth year classes, which means I won't graduate (need to do at least two years for that) but on the plus side means I won't go mad.

Although I didn't feel a need for any of HYCC's packages, Adam did generously help me out by dropping my application off and EMS'ed it back to me. Since arriving in Dalian I've spoken to Adam on numerous occasions, and if I knew anyone looking for assistance in coming to study in the north east I'd have no hesitation in recommending HYCC.

As for the city, I've got to say I'm really enjoying it. I know it's been said before, but the number one thing has got to be the air. The sky here is, generally, blue. It has white clouds in. When it's grey it's because it's going to rain.

Traffic moves here rather than oozes. This means crossing the road is a much more hazardous proposition, as you are no longer weaving through a slow-moving car park, but on the plus side your bus actually gets to where it's going a lot faster.

I'd always heard Dalian described as a clean city. I wouldn't say it's spotless or gleaming, but it's certainly less dusty - due I think to less construction and more rain - and I think it's fair to say more orderly. You don't seem to get the street hawkers laying their wares out on blankets as much as you do in Beijing. This might make life less colorful, but it makes the pavements easier to use. People queue to get on buses, and then 主动投's their 币 or 刷's their 卡 - and all of this (take note Beijing) without people employed to bully them into line at the bus stop or on board. Also noticeably absent are political slogans being forced down your optic nerves at every corner - in the last month and a bit I've only seen the 八荣八耻 once, not a single 以人为本, and best of all hardly anything about the Olympics.

That's all I can think of for the moment. Will add more if it springs to mind.

Has anyone else done anything similar, moving from a larger city to a 'second tier' or smaller place? Dalian is obviously hardly back of beyond, but as I didn't visit before committing to the place I wasn't sure how it'd work out - but so far so good . . .

[muyongshi]

So can you explain to me again why you didn't come to Mianyang????

[adrianlondon]

What's it like for ... things to do (places to walk around, parks, museums), eating and drinking?

[billiardsmike]

I almost envy you Roddy. I've been harboring thoughts about Qingdao lately.

[roddy]

Qingdao was also a tempting idea, and having visited a couple of times I'm sure I could live there quite happily. However it isn't in the north-east and thus didn't meet my arbitrary, random, criteria.

As for things to do - I'm not actually all that sure and to be honest a look at a guide book will probably tell you more than I could at the moment. There are a couple of aquariums, some beaches which are ok for city beaches, but not going to win any awards, the usual tacky seaside stuff - (had my first go on the dodgems for over a decade a couple of weeks back). Parks there are a few of, although I haven't visited any yet. I haven't even been eating out much (trying to train myself to cook, not with much success). Dalianxpat.com and Daliandalian.com will give you more info on the eating and drinking than I could.

More importantly for me is the number of wireless and power-socket enabled cafes to work in - I've got a selection of three or four, which isn't bad. (i55, West Coast, Pippa's and Starbucks at Olympic, for anyone interested).

[wushijiao]

That sounds great Roddy. Is there anything that you particularly miss about Beijing?

[sthubbar]

Roddy, I highly recommend

Cafe Igossa

45 NanShan Lu

Great Italian food.

[roddy]

Wushijiao: Great Italian food.

Sthubbar: Thanks!

More seriously, excluding some fine people (of which Dalian also has plenty) not really. I can see that if you were a culture vulture or party animal the lack of bars, galleries, plays (or at least the ex-pat orientated ones) might be a problem, but it doesn't really bother me. That said, I've only been here for a month and a bit, so who knows . . .

[Shadowdh]

wait... what... you moved...???!!! and not to Wuhan...!! Oh well, hope you have a blast and one day we shall get that beer in... take care mate...

[zhwj]

Question: What's the population of Dalian these days? I haven't been in years (must've been the summer of 2001 that I last went), and I just read here that the population "has rocketed from 500,000 (roughly the size of Portland, Ore.) to 6 million (a bit less than Hong Kong) in just five years."

I'd guess that one or both of those numbers are incorrect; Slate's Dispatches from China are more breezy than they are reliable, I think - in Part I of this series, the author talks about the China Times and completely misinterprets both the substance of and reaction to the emergency situation law that was implemented earlier this year.

Anyway, I bet Dalian's quite a bit bigger than when I visited. Is it 6 million big?

[gato]

I just read here that the population "has rocketed from 500,000 (roughly the size of Portland, Ore.) to 6 million (a bit less than Hong Kong) in just five years."

Don't know where those numbers are from, but they are definitely wrong.

According to the Dalian city government website, there were 5.5 million officially registered residents in Dalian at year end 2000.

http://www.dl.gov.cn/gov/atodl/annals/2000/821_1858.htm

　2000年末，大连市户籍总人口5514721人，居辽宁省第二位，比上年增加61657人。人口增长率1.12%，比上年提高0.74个百分点。

[roddy]

6 million is the figure I've been told. However if you count only the population of the 四区 which make up the city proper, 西岗区 ,中山区, 沙河口区, 甘井子区, you get 1.87 million, which feels a lot more realistic to me - as is often the case the city boundaries include entire satellite cities and probably enough agricultural land to make up a few smaller European states.

[Stefani]

Hi Roddy,

I am curious why you had the criteria "north-east".

Is the Mandarin pretty standard there?

Enjoy!

[roddy]

To be honest it was partially just about narrowing my options down so I didn't have to think too much. But I'd spent a very enjoyable year in Harbin, enjoy the cold winters, and didn't want to be too far from Beijing as I may need to travel down fairly often. The language issue didn't really figure.

[cdn_in_bj]

Roddy I think you made a fine choice, I would love to spend some time living in Dalian if I could (ie - work).

Wushijiao: Great Italian food.

Oh please tell me where can I find this great Italian food in Beijing?