Trip West to the Old–and New–East: Part 4 – China

We stopped in four Chinese ports. The first was Dalian, where we found a mix of old and new that I still don’t quite understand yet.

That “faux old” section resembles 18th cen. European architecture. I’ve done a little checking since we’ve been home, and discovered that we didn’t explore far enough. Apparently they modeled this section on Venice, complete with canals and a copy of the Rialto Bridge. The name of this area itself is puzzling: if the model is Italian, why is the advertisement in French?

In French, the word “montage” means “assembly” or “fake.” Maybe that says it all.

The Russian Empire leased the area around Dalian Bay in 1898 for use by the Trans-Siberian Railway. The territory was not returned to China until 1950.

Next port was Tianjin, where we opted for the excursion to Beijing. We hit all the highlights:

Old and new co-exist in close proximity in the coastal town of Quingdao,

including the Tsingtao Beer factory.

Our last Chinese port was Shanghai, where we saw even greater contrast between new & old. We took the short ride on the maglev (magnetic-levitation) train from city center to the airport.

We rode up to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower, to look down upon the corridors of 27 floors of the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

And we wandered from these modern marvels to streets that seemed to have remained unchanged for decades.