UFO's?!!? DINOSAURS??!!

Did a little more exploring of our city yesterday, which was quite fun. We are finding that this city keeps getting bigger and bigger (they're definition of city limits is very broad here). We were invited to join our friend Hunter and some of his classmates on a hike and decided to tag along.

Took a bus to the light rail and the rail to another bus and we were began hiking the "giant mountain!" it actually turned out to be more of a hill than mountain, but beautiful views nonetheless. The original plan was to go to a bigger mountain but we will have to wait until another time. On top of the hill was a UFO structure which in classic Chinese form took a bit away from the natural beauty, but wasn't nearly as cheesy as some of the other "art" forms we've seen strewn about the landscape here. The students were great and their English was pretty good, so we were able to have some good conversations. Had a snack on top of the hill and then went down the backside towards the beach. THis is in the Development ZOne of the city and the hill we hiked is called Tongniuling Hill. At the bottom we encountered some DINOSAURS on the side of the road! crazy. spent a little time at the beach and then headed back to the train station. The fact that you can take a train out of the "city limits" to another part of the city and still be in Dalian illustrates my point perfectly that their boundary system for city limits is very loose. This is why we were told the city of Dalian has nearly 6 million people when most websites we looked at said it was about 2 million. It would be like including all Pleasanton and the outlying areas of San Fran in San Fran's cities population. Don't why I'm bothering to write this, but you can keep that in mind when you hear some population sizes of cities in China. They are definately super-crowded over-populated cities, but the #'s may be a bit skewed. After the beach the students were a bit tired and were ready to head back to the school, so we decided to cruise around the city a bit more with Hunter. Met a Chinese guy who had lived in LA for awhile and knew where San Jose was and was thinking of opening a clam chowder place here. Small world. Checked out a new, more localized mall, had a bite to eat and met Hunter's friend Susan, and then went for a walk around the city. Had our first tea shop experience which was great. You sit down and they serve you fresh hot tea as they explain "in Chinese of course" how to serve it, etc. THe tea was amazing. Tried three different types. A Jasmine, oolong tea (which we bought, really really good), a green tea, and pu-er tea, a bit darker. Looking forward to making our own Chinese tea, especially since winter is coming soon!
Hunter helped us out with a few more Chinese words- left, right, and straight (zuo, yoa, jizoa) and a few more. Planning on getting more serious about learning Mandarin. we shall see! zaijian!