JiuTouShan - LuShun (Beach)

21st July. It was a fine weather in Dalian. My department at work organised a weekend trip for 40 of us to a beach in LuShun (30km from Dalian town). It is called JiuTouShan (Direct translation meaning 9 headed Mountain).

The view was great. The beach (Pebbly) was quite long and one end leads to this mountain.

The other end extends to this slope. There are a few fishing boats on this end. I guess some fishing families stays here.

Here is a closer look of the beech. It is not sand, they are small stones. The water is quite clean and quite clear too. It is also not too salty like those sea water in Malaysia.

My gang had lots of fun on the beach. But the water is really cold. It is probably around 18 degrees celcius. For the locals, it is nice and cooling. For me... Freezing !!!

That's a jelly fish on my head... It is not poisonous.

And.. As usual.. I take lots of pictures whenever I travel.

Very nice sunset. I used my 300mm Zoom lense to get the sun this huge.

And.. this is the Night Sky. Click to enlarge. You can see the Stars in the sky... Taken using long exposure time (30seconds)

Well.. It was a GREAT trip. At least.. the very first visit to the beach I have in Dalian..

Kingdom of Discovery - JinShiTan, Dalian

Kingdoms of Discovery. Located at JinShiTan, just around 40 mins away from Dalian Town, a great place to spend your day on a "Disneyland" style themepark for You, Your Partner and Family.


I went on the Grand Opening day. July 16th 2006. ZhangZiYi herself was present to 'Open the Door' to the park. And.. Proudly.. I might be the FIRST Malaysian to step in the park too :) hehe.

Well, the effort for being the first in the park was not easy. Look at the CROWD !! (After reading the paper, it was mentioned that there were 50,000 visitors that day) The que was long. But hey, this is like a Malaysian Book Of Record moment.. "First Malaysian in Kingdom of Discovery"... heheh

Here are the tickets... Priced at RMB 160 per pax... You will gain access to every attraction in the park. (excluding food and sovenirs... that's how they earn money. duh)

The map !! As you can is, it is surrounding a Lake and something like an island in the middle. Well, I soon found out (At 9pm at night) what is the purpose of the island... The park itself is divided into 6 parts... Main Discovery Plaza, Castle Zone, Forest Zone, Factory Zone, Dessert Zone, Toon Town.. (Don't know the real names as they are in Chinese... But.. it sounds like that. (Enlarge the map above to have a closer look)

After waiting Outside for nearly an hour.. I am IN !.. First stop, Castle Zone. Where there are some 'Castle Themed' rides... Flying broomsticks (sound like Harry Potter), Haunted house.. (It was scary... not) and skill games (to win prizes... )

Wow... Castle town... Does feels like being in a castle. There are people dessing in Knight suits and Horses situated around the castle. It is kinda cool. I went in the Haunted House here. The Que was 1 hour long.. and the 'ride' was just 5 mins... It wasn't really scary actually.. My first 'ride' here.. and it was quite disappointing... :( sad..

This is what they call the Flying Broomstick. Do any part of it look like broomsticks ? Beside the fact that it can 'fly'. Anyway.. Malaysian folks, you can get this ride in Genting, Sunway Lagoon, Pesta Penang. Same thing. I manage to get on this ride at 8:30pm (no que at night), as the que for the ride is so long, I did not go up in the morning.

Some fair maids and handsome warriors dessing up to match the castle settings. They are all impressed of the horse.. not sure why..

This is the entrace to the Forest Zone from the Castle Zone. Here, you will find Forest related fun-rides, namely Venus Fly catcher, Tree Top Champion and some other (Check the map above).

This is one of the ride in the forest zone. If I am not wrong, this is called the Octopus in Penang Pesta back in Malaysia. What it does to to spin your carriage, while spinning around the arms, up and down... Very good ride if you never experience a major headache before. (Warning, no intake of food/drinks 4 hours before this ride... hahahah, joking)

This is the Tree Top Champion ride. 2 in a carriage, try to 'climb' up the 'tree' by tugging on the rope in the middle. 2 minutes ride. It is actually mechanical, you do not need to use force to climb it, as long as the machine detects that you are pulling on the rope, it will take you up. and when you let go, it will bring you down. (Tips, how to have fun? Go up and down as many times as you can in 2 mins.. I did 4 rounds.. can you beat that?) Anyway.. more fun for children, especially those below age of 40.

aha... That is the Island again. In the middle of the park. As I said, I soon found out what is it at 9pm that night. For now, keeping it as a secret from you all. No, it is not a place for us to visit using a boat. Hey, what is that behind there ? Roller coaster (on the right) and a tall tower (on the left)? That, is Factory Zone. The MOST adventurous place in this themepark I would say.

Roller Coaster !! They called it the Crazy Cobra. It moves at 80km per hour.. up and down the structure, spining, turning... This is the first time I saw a roller coaster THAT BIG. Anyway, it was closed until late in the evening. I did not have a chance to ride on it. But according to those who went up. IT WAS AWESOME !

My first ride in the Factory Zone is the "TeaCup". It is actually more for kids. Look at the girl (my colleague's daugther). I think she might be thinking :"Hey, Uncle. I think you are a bit too... erm... grown-up for this ?". Anyway, i regret going up that thing, I had a major headache after that. Can't stand straight for nearly 1 hour.

My next ride here was the "Fish Market" . I am not sure if the name is right, but this was painted on the side of the machine. Basicaly it is a Big boat with 2 rows of seats. You are practically tied down to the seats and the 'boat' will spin... Yes, spin to the front and to the back... Hanging you upside down, spinning at all vertical directions. My eyes nearly popped out of the eye sockets... The pressure was so high when you are hanging upside down with the force of the whole boat swinging down.

oh.. what's that ? In Disneyland, this is called the SPLASH MOUNTAIN. I see wet people everywhere. Some of them, because they where on the ride and some of them, because they were watching too close. See the picture above ? The next second, all those people on the stairs were all WET! hehehe...

This is our group picture, AFTER the ride. We are all WET, WET, WET.. It was kinda fun !

This is what happen if you did not get away fast enough on the Stairs and the bridge. I was taking a video with the water coming to get me here. To make it more dramatic, I stayed until the water was close enough, and guess that I deserve being wet. (I have the video, those interested, can get it from me.)

After being wet, I went to watch some stunt shows. It is a mixture of comedy and some action packed stunts. Car spinning 180, Bike flying on ramps. Very impressive setup.

Night came very quickly. And, for some reasons, my stupid compact camera refused to work. Anyway, the night scene was really nice.

The lights, fountains.. and much more. My camera died after this shot. I can't take anymore pictures after this... But luckily I still have a stupid camera phone..

ARGH ! The place is on FIRE ? No.. it was the fireworks.. It started at 9:00pm sharp.. and it lasted for nearly 20 minutes. HUGE fireworks that can only be seen on very large and important festivals. It was really beautiful. I only caught this using my Nokia 6125's built in camera.

Here are some fireworks picture taken using the Phone video. I cut them out to make this list of pictures.

Well, it was a GREAT experience. I really enjoyed it and will visit again in August. :)

Malaysian Food Product found in Dalian

I was surprised to find some of these here.

Ayam brand can food. It says packed in GuangZhou but "Malaysian Product" in chinese. I was really really surprised :)

Roti Canai !!! .. Comes in packs and you can buy them from SuperMarket... You can have Roti Telur, Roti Ham, Roti Kosong... But no Curry to dip with... :) RM 1.00 per piece.

At least if I miss Malaysian food. I can try these out..

Back in Dalian... and Busy

Hi All,

I did not have time to post since I came back to Dalian. Was so busy with work all day and night.

Some key highlights :
- From 20th April, I did not get to sleep for 40 hours due to a huge project launch.
- Partying in Dalian is fun! Will share with you all a Bar called ALICE BAR...
- Eat Eat Eat. I visited more eating places... Both High Class and Budget.

Well.. Will continue posting after the Golden Week in China.

What ? Don't know what is Golden Week ? Golden Week is a 1week holiday in China. Yes, 1 week from 1st May - 7th May. By right, everyone is off on holiday, to rest and be with family members.

For me, I am working in a Japan Office, so I follow the Japanese calendar. One thing nice is, They also have Golden Week.. from 3rd May - 7th May.

So... I will be off till then...

See you all later...

Marriage Proposal - 6th April

Well, my Penang trip was a BLAST !

The largest thing that happens and made News in Penang was my Marriage Proposal to my Girlfriend. It made headlines to 8 major newspapers in Malaysia. Hahah. Let me fill you with some stories of Before the event, during and after.

BEFORE 0604

It was about 2 months ago, when I got this idea and started laying out the plans. But soon enough, I was too busy, I put that aside until the final 2 weeks.

The plan was to project a Video Clip of our love journey, add a video clip of me talking about it and propose. This clip will be projected in the Cinema. And since my company's 'GPTW' team is having a movie day. It will be a perfect timing to do so.

So I made arrangement with Mega Pavillion Cinema Bukit Jambul to work on the plans. With some fee, they will arranged it to be projected, control the crowd and call the media. (Well, good plan. I thought)

And so, it is ON. I went and got myself the Engagement ring from one of the oldest gold smith in Dalian. It's a Platinium Diamond ring. I know my Girfriend's finger size because I tested them using my own ring. So I wasn't too concerned.

Half of the video was created in Dalian before I go to bed each night. And the other half needs a video camera. I can only do that back in Penang.

3rd April. I am back in Penang. I started to work on the video only on the 4th, which is the same day I had to pass the complete video over to Mega Pavillion. I was so tense that day. (I took the day off). Luckily I manage to finish the video by 4pm. (The last few minutes was spent right out side of Mega Pavillion, burning into DVD dics.

ON 0604

The day has come. My girl friend and I was on leave. She did not realise that I have planned all these behind her. Eventhough on that day I recieved a lot of phone calls, confirming about the flowers, movie time and lots of last minute arrangement. I even had one Press Interview with me when I was at home, she was watching DVD downstairs while I did the interview upstairs. hahaha.

We went to Bukit Jambul Complex around 4:30pm. Took her around the complex until around 5:00pm. I was so nervous that I was feverish. Friends have gathered at the cinema.. and there where :O over 10 photographers and media crews. All on standby.

Exactly at 5:30pm, the Video Clip was projected. And everyone was cheering, camera's flashing...

You can get the Video here : www.johnsonlam.com/video/live_proposal_jl.wmv

It went well, She said YES... It went perfectly well..


AFTER 0604

I did not expect to see this news was so hot and it was published in 8 Major newspapers in Malaysia.

Beijing Part 3 - Food

Every place will have their local food, specialties and attractions.

In Beijing, one of the most famous one is of course the Beijing Steamboat. The pot looks like this. It will contain the Charcoal in the middle of the pot. NOTHING at the base of the pot and you cool all these using the heat from the charcoal, boiling the soup around it.

This is one of the famous Steamboat restaurant in WangFuJin Street. This restaurant is even more special as it serves Halal food for Muslims. (Click to enlarge picture)

Just near the street is WangFuJin's and Beijing's most famous hawker street. You can walk along this near 1 mile row of stall and choose from the many variety of goodies to eat.

BBQ ? Well, it is more like Satay.. but with 'special' stuff. From bottom, you can see Pig's Liver, Then Chicken Heart, the brown one is Cocoon of some big bug and the top most are squids. Heheheh

Here's some good ones. These are little Chicken which are not hatch yet. It was taken out from the egg the last few days before it hatched and made into snacks. I did not taste any of these during this trip as Bird Flu is at large now. Kinda scared but curious at the same time.

(The white one in the middle) Frog on a stick anyone ? The one on the left looked like friend Worms... hahaha.. the one on the right are just harmless cuttlefish.

If you feel that is weird, look at these.... Dried Lizards on a tick.. and Starfish too. :) hehehe.

In Beijing, the most famous food of all will be the Beijing Roast Duck. Here is one of the restaurant. I did not enter for a few reasons : 1) Bird Flu (remember?) 2) I heard it is very expensive 3) 1 person would not be able to finish 1 duck alone. So... I did not tasted any in Beijing. But I sure did that in Dalian.

Well.. that's about all on my discovery of Beijing Food... I will be visiting Beijing again one day. This time.. I will make sure I catch the Great Wall of China :)

Anyway.. My next trip out of Dalian will be to QingTao in May. Will update those for you guys too.