I took a weekend trip to Dalian leaving Friday night and returning to Beijing on Saturday morning.

The two nights sleeping on the train turned out to be a lot more worth it considering their beds are much softer than the one I have in the dorms! The sleep wasn’t too bad because my bunk cubical for 6 didn’t have any extreme snorers or babies crying.

A weekend isn’t enough to really see what Dalian is all about but it seems that my tour guide easily covered the non-nature-related-attractions … within one day!

I like living in a city, always bustling with people and being able to always have/find something to do. But when a city gets as big as Beijing, the magic just fades after a while. A city like Dalian reminds me of Perth;

Big town turned small city,

limited places to visit,

shops close too early,

the ocean and

it’s own uniqueness!

How can you not love it?? =P

Don’t get me wrong, Beijing isn’t too fantastic even though I love it here, I just don’t like the fact that staying here has made me lose interest in the culture as well as damaging to my health. Beijing is just getting less and less mysterious as each layer of paint goes on.

All for the preparation of the Olympics of course!

Anyhow, the stay in Dalian was a fantastic mini adventure, and it’s probably the only city in China I’ve beaten my mum to =P wOOt!

Come Monday morning, the first thing that greets me back in my dorm is my fishy friend looking VERY dead. I suspect Jinjin and Heihei had another one of their head-butting rounds which of course Jinjin, the one that eats the most, came out on top.

aHhh well, it was bound to happen sooner than later….