Sailing in Dalian

We are stuck at parking position at Pudong Airport. Airplane doors cannot be opened, because the Air Condition is broke. Logic? That’s China!

We are on our way back from Dalian (a mid size town of 6mio and one of the big ports in China. PE Robert had invited us to the RC Dalian Charter (actually, I invited us to a day of sailing, the Charter came with it).

We arrived on Friday evening, with the luxury of airport pickup. We had a superb room at the Conrad Hotel overlooking the port and the International Conference Center.

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Saturday, we headed out to sea with a nice catamaran. Starting from near  We did not exactly sail. But rather motorboat across the Xinghai Bay and under the Xinghai Bay bridge. Still, we had great fun drinking beer, and enjoying the ride.

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Back at the hotel, we had short time to change and head to the main charter event. There were about 200 Rotarians and guests. We finally had a chance to see Garry Huang, RI Past President.  Besides the usual high amount of speeches, Dragon Dance, Drums and traditional music were welcomed highlights.

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Aftershow party at 3oth floor had some waitress chaos (5-10 waitresses screaming at the cashier, some great Jazz and plenty Gin and Tonic.

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Sunday, we slept, relaxed and let others do the work. How? Sunday was the day of the Dalian Marathon. Start and Finish Line where right below our window. Hence, we got up, waved  generously to the crowd below,  and went back to sleep. After a stroll down.the newly developed waterfront, which looks like a Russian style town, past the usual crowd of newlywed picture takers, we went back to the airport and made our way home.

That’s how we ended up on the tarmac in Pudong.

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