“Hey Rick, have you mounted policewomen in Canada?”

And I says to him, “Sorry, I don’t kiss and tell.”

Ba-dump-ching!
True story, I swear…

Photo source: flickr

Person of the Year move Dalian to tears
“Totally ten local people (or group) were granted the honor of the “Civilized Touch” Person of the Year 2009 in the coastal city of Dalian, January 14, 2010.” Forget the ‘Civilized Touch’, I want to see who won the ‘uncivilized touch’ award. That would be far more entertaining. Forget the ‘Civilized Touch’, I want to see who won the ‘uncivilized touch’ award. That would be far more entertaining.

Ultimate Frisbee in Dalian?
If the winter blues have got you down, check out this marginally less-bleak video of ultimate frisbee at Neusoft’s ‘Will-they-ever put-grass-on-me‘ Field.

Just because you are unique…
This reminded me of that graphic that was going around illustrating the difference between collective Asian culture and more individualistic Western culture.

I hate sea cucumber. Good riddance…

Drowned sailors honoured
“North Korea has posthumously honoured sailors for rescuing portraits of the former and current leader from their sinking ship even as they were drowning, Pyongyang’s official media said on Friday.”

I don’t remember reading this story before, but that’s pretty hardcare.

AmCham-China Launches Dalian Chapter
“The American Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China (AmCham-China) today launched its third regional chapter nationwide, in Dalian, Liaoning Province. At the launch, Dalian Vice Mayor Dai Yuling and US Consul General for Shenyang Stephen Wickman were in attendance and made remarks welcoming the chamber’s expansion.”

Shopping meets tourism in Dalian
“Dalian residents see Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong as among their favoured travel destinations, with shopping at the top of the agenda. Conversely, shopping tours have become lucrative streams of sales for travel agents, with end-of-year and holiday destination offers snapped up.”

Cisco Networking Training Center Opens Its Doors in Dalian -> Cisco News
“The Cisco Networking Training Center officially launched its first program today (Jan 6) in the northeastern city of Dalian. Students recruited from all over China became the first participants, seeking ways to improve their employability through Cisco’s network training courses and best practices.”

Maybe Cisco can train Chinese students to build their own censorship technology?

Dalian 3D Cinema Upgraded for Avatar
Both Dalian Cineplex in Roosevelt Shopping Center and the New-Mart Cineplex at Newmart were upgraded for this film. Nice call, seeing as how the 2D versions have been banned.

Sergio The PIMP In Dalian (China)
Some Russian foreign student looks to be having way too much fun in Dalian. The videos on his youtube channel are pretty nuts!

dalianopolis.com : The Dalian Metropolis
Another Dalian website has sprung up. Looks to be a branch of DiscoverDalian. Someone please tell them that flash is so ten-years-ago.

Daily Dalian-Hefei-Guangzhou Flights Launched-Events on eChinacities – eChinacities.com
Good for Dalian residents to have another option for migrating South.

Dalian, China cuts emissions by treating sludge
english.cctv.com
Dalian is still dirtier than any city in Canada.

China Industrial Waste Management’s Dalian Sludge Treatment Facility Featured on CCTV
More on Dalian’s waste management.

Heavy snow hits Dalian, in NE China
Dalian doesn’t do winter all too well. Not really prepared for snow.

Dalian International Hot Spring Ski Festival
Can someone please tell me how Dalian can slap the ‘international’ prefix on every single event they put off?

For those of you who want some idea of what a Dalian winter looks like, check out these two pictures. The first is from Arthur Berman who says that Dalian was so cold that the ocean froze. The other is from Sonia Telles showing a pretty harsh-looking Xmas morning in Dalian.

Just a quick note to remind those of you in Dalian that Alex has made some pretty impressive changes to DalianDalian.com over the past year or so. I do want to point out (because some of you might not be aware) that the site does have a blogging platform. So if you’d like to write your own travelogues while living in or visiting Dalian, you can do so for free on DalianDalian’s blog platform.

Even if you keep a Dalian-related blog on another platform (i.e. Blogger, Wordpress, etc) you can use the aggregation feature to have your posts imported. Hopefully it’ll bring you a little more exposure.

I haven’t been very involved with the project lately — seeing as how I’ve moved to Japan an’ all — but Alex is doing more than ok. On a google search for Dalian, the site currently outranks longer-established sites like DalianXpat, Runsky (the local English news site), and even the Dalian municipal government’s website. That’s pretty cool, considering that all of those sites are businesses, and we were just three dudes with some extra time on our hands.

Anyway, drop on over to DalianDalian if you get a chance. If you’re an English speaker in Dalian, it’s the best resource at your disposal.

First it was Xianzai.com who was stealing our Dalian content and reprinting it verbatim on their website.

Now it’s ChinaExpat.com. I was a little disappointed to see that, especially since I had written a pretty hefty Dalian piece for them a while back. Maybe they figured that if I did one piece pro-bono, that I wouldn’t mind if they lifted all the stuff I’d written about Dalian? I don’t know… They do link to DalianDalian.com on one of their pages, but I really don’t think that’s gonna cut it on their listings pages. Especially considering that when users search for a Dalian bar or restaurant on Google, ChinaExpat will be right up there in the rankings thanks to the content they lifted (word-for-word) from us.

UPDATE: This is especially mind-boggling considering that ChinaExpat has their content stolen a while back, and made quite a bit over noise over it. I suspect this is a case of the site owners not knowing what hired writers are doing… But Jesus, c’mon people.

Anyway ChinaExpat, you can use my stuff. Just be clear to attribute where it came from.
Also you’ve stole some of DalianXpat’s content too, so be sure to get in contact with them too.

Some examples:

Original Page: http://www.daliandalian.com/listings/dalian-bavarian-beer-house
Stolen content: http://www.chinaexpat.com/dalian-bavarian-beer-house.htm

Original Page: http://www.daliandalian.com/listings/brooklyn-bar-and-restaurant
Stolen content: http://www.chinaexpat.com/brooklyn-bar-and-restaurant.htm

Original Page: http://www.daliandalian.com/listings/chu-shin-ya
Stolen Content: http://www.chinaexpat.com/chu-shin-ya.htm

They’ve been training every week and drinking their milk, and fund-raising as well, in the hopes of traveling to Malaysia for the All-Asia Games on October 11th and 12th. Read more about that here, on their blog. But they could use your help. If you have a paypal account, it’d be much appreciated if you send a modest donation. No amount is too small.

Update 9/28: Mikey Farrelly, coach of the Wolfhounds, has just announced that unfortunately they didn’t reach their fund-raising target, and will not be able to make the trip to Malaysia. However, your donations are still welcome, as they will continue fund-raising for the club — and according to Mikey, they are “going to hit next year’s China Games like a ton of bricks!”

I recently got a new camera, and I’m trying to put more videos on our site. Like if I go to a restaurant, I’ll take a short video to show people what it looks like and how to get there. I recently recorded a video the Dalian Wolfhounds Trivia Night as well, so if you haven’t come out to participate yet, have a look and see if it strikes your fancy.

But essentially DalianDalian is non-profit, do-what-we-can-when-we-can, share-all-the-info-we-know kinda website. There is a forum for those who like forums. But the meat and potatos of the site is the listings section. We don’t ask for any sponsors, money or volunteers. We also have a blog platform, where you can start your own weblog as well. Alex has done a really great job.

In other news, I tried my hand at archery yesterday and that was pretty good fun. And here’s the video:

Single White Male Pekinese Dog, enjoys long walks on the beach and books about fire hydrants.

Seeking female for romantic evenings on the town, and/or quiet escapades behind the noodle shop.

Name: Pepe Q-tip.
Age: 1 and a quarter.
Height: 8 inches tall, but don’t let that mislead you.
Hobbies: Wiping my face on things, chewing on MacDonalds straws, peeing in places I’m not supposed to (as befits my rebellious nature).
Currently resides in: Dalian China, Shahekou District. Kaifaqu Bitches need not apply.
See more at my UnitedDogs.com Profile.

Seeking fun-loving female pekinese dog with similar interests and philosophies, but open to inter-breed relationships as well (with the exception of Chihuahuas – sorry girls, you just can’t accomodate).

Interested parties please contact me at:

pepe_and_the_funk_train@yahoo.com

Correspondences will be treated with the utmost discretion.

Dalian Sea-Rhyme International Youth Hostel

??????????

This hostel is actually located on a warship, and looks like quite a neato place to stay. But it looks like at least one person ran into some problems. He contacted me, in order to warn others:
“hey this is T (we’ll call him T),
I was trying to post a review of the dalian hostel but got some crazy error messages about spam reports when i clicked send. can you add my coment manually? since your site comes up at the top of the serp for this hostel, i really do hope i can leave this
comment to warn everyone about them. thanks!!!
T from Beijing

T’s Review:

Hi this is T__ from Beijing. Was in Dalian for a day last week and booked a room in advance at the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel on Zhongshan Qu (Warship #104). But upon arriving at the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel I was met by a hostile (not to be confused with hostel) receptionist who refused to allowme through the front doors, claiming that FOREIGNERS ARE NOT ALLOWED at the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel!

I was with my Chinese traveling companion, and we met with the manager of the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel, reminding them that “international” usually means everyone, not just Chinese, and that the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel’s racist, exclusionary policy of refusing westerners contradicted the basic tenants of YHA and HI.

They retorted that because the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel was located on a naval facility that the government had established the NO FOREIGNERS ALLOWED at the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel rule, but then how did the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel ever get authorized to use the HI logo on the front of the boat? My intuition says that they were just holding out for
Chinese tour groups because that’s where the real money is, but I will email HI and YHA just in case.

I should also add that the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel is located about an hour’s bus ride from the train station and quite a drag to find, especially if you are carrying a big pack. I was quite p.o.’d at having to return all the way back to Shengli Square to find a luguan (cheapest one from a tout for 35rmb), since there are no other affordable accomodations in the area.

It’s a real pity that the Dalian Sea Rhyme Youth Hostel does not allow foreigners, or that any hotel in China has the right to refuse western guests because of the color of our skin, but I hope leaving this post will start some change.

That’s just ridiculous.

So, needless to say, if you’re coming to Dalian you might want to consider scratching this hostel off your list.

For a list of accreddited hostels in China, please go to:

The Hostelling International Website

.

And take note that there is no hostel listed on that site for Dalian.
Surprise surprise…