Dalian
is a harbor city in Liaoning Province in the Northeast China. It's a city
very much alike Boston. Since it was close to part of the Russia, a lot
of architeture was built in European style which easily distinguishes
the city from others in China.
My
college friend Zhang Li had a lot of relatives in Dalian. In the summer
of 1994, she was invited to visit her relatives. She was very kind that
she brought me and another friend Ding Ding along.
Grown
up in Beijing, a city far from the ocean, I had always longed for living
by the ocean. Swimming in a swimming pool was my favorite activity since
my childhood. But comparing to swimming in the ocean, it became far less
enjoyable.
In
Dalian, a lot of people go to the shore in summer after work. They call
it "go up to the shore" ("Shang Hai" in Mandarine).
They don't just go there, they also bring a lot of food to the shore to
barbecue. One day, Zhang Li's cousin invited us to the barbecue she and
her friends had after work. We barbecued fish, shrimp, corn on the cob
and vegetables. Everything was so delicious. We barbecued until it got
dark. Then we went to swim in the darkness.
We swam far from the shore and we could hardly see each other from time
to time. The water started to get chilly. We decided to head back.
Suddenly,
the moon got out of the clouds and it poured its light on the ocean generously.
I was amazed by arrays of fluorescent light emerged from the splash I
made while making my way through the water. It was like the special effect
we saw in Disney's movie The Mermaid. My friends started to notice it
as well. We were so delighted by this awesome phenomenon.
The
next morning, we walked to the nearby seafood market and got some fresh
clams. It was a quite unusual clam breakfast. We went up to the shore
after lunch.
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It
was a hot and sunny day. We got there in the early afternoon, the shore
was not crowded at all. Unlike us, Local people usually don't show up
in the hottest hour during the day. After the morning tide, plenty of
seaweed was left on the shore. My friend Ding Ding went to gather a big
pile of seaweed. She was going to dry the seaweed and bring it back to
Beijing. I put on my goggle and a pair of flipper ready to get under the
water. This was my first time going to the bottom of the ocean. Without
a snorkel, I held my breath and went down to the bottom of the ocean.
I could still see beams of sunlight peircing through the water. It got
darker when I went down deeper. All of a sudden, it got so quiet. I don't
hear my friends' voices around any more. It made me realize that this
was a totally different world than mine. Seaweed and kelp were all over
the place. Jellyish and some small fish passed me at ease. For a few seconds,
I felt like an intruder. Helpless was the word to decribe my feeling in
this strange world. I hurried to pick up a shell on the ocean floor. An
exhale of breath brought me back to the world that I was familiar with.
I could see the light beams peircing through the water, again. I could
hear the familiar voices and sound, again. I could breathe, again.
We
enjoyed our visit in Dalian for two weeks. Sightseeing was fun and exciting,
but coming home seemed always difficult. Ding Ding and I couldn't get
the train tickets back to Beijing. Instead, we took the boat from Dalian
to Tianjian. It was a 15 hour trip on the boat. From Tianjin, it was another
2 hour bus ride back to Beijing. After a long trip, it was so nice to
come home.
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