CHINA 2010 FRIDAY 10th SEPTEMBER

After a lazy day yesterday we went for a long but not too strenuous walk. After leaving home well into the afternoon we took a quick route to the ferry terminals passing under the coastal road where there are several ‘junk’ stalls in the passages. We might as well take a look whilst we are here as Keith is looking for another mobile phone case to attach to his belt. Somehow when we emerged from the underpass we hadn’t got across the road but found ourselves not far from the ‘Harbour View Hotel’ where we had dined weeks ago with Yeti. Pure coincidence we could cross the road at this point and began our walk by the sea. It wasn’t so busy in this area today, perhaps because it was late in the afternoon and most of the tour groups had left. Tied up by one of the jetties we saw a small passenger boat with a large colourful dragon on the boat’s roof and wondered why we hadn’t seen it before. As we walked by several ticket offices one lady tried to encourage us to take a trip to Gulangyu. The waiting room in this area was very smart with lots of seating and stalls selling drinks and snacks and we wondered where the boats went to from this particular terminal. Facing up the way we had walked, and by derelict railway lines, was a shop advertising ‘Taiwan Goods’ so we went to see if there was anything different to Chinese Goods – there wasn’t. However whilst Keith was looking at binoculars at one stall I was asking him “Who is Che Wing?”. He came over to me as I began to laugh realising it was a misprint. The label on the large box should have read ‘Coffee candy for chewing’. The staff looked on in amazement as I took a photo.
We walked by a couple of Naval buildings, one in the course of being rebuilt before crossing back over the road hoping to walk up a hillside to a rock with a globe topped spire just showing above the tree tops. Keith recalled seeing steps leading up but we could only find a set by a small shelter among the shrubbery at pavement level. Walking on we both saw a very large rat run across the narrow path amongst the shrubs and wondered if we really wanted to go in there. Still we walked a little further along the pavement reaching more garden area with a relief statue of military men fixed to the hillside but no sign of any access. So back we went to see just how far up the steps went. Oh my God another rat ran across the same path – or was it the original rat! The steps went no-where as Keith suspected. Back again as far as another Naval building and then up the incline to Suming NanLu. Along Zhongshan Lu we came across a small version of Dalian’s Korean Market and went inside to have a look around. The ground floor had stalls and shops (more like large glass fronted cublicles) selling women’s and children’s clothes and larger areas with shoes all for around 10 yuan. Upstairs was more upmarket with prices as high as 29! If you wanted thick soled canvas shoes this was the place to come as they were available in all colours and styles, including baseball boots. There were no clothes or shoes for men! Before we knew it we were almost home where I had prepared duck in beer for our evening meal.