Friday, May 8, 2009

China Vacation – Day Seven

24th April is the worst and suckiest day I had during my stay in China. Speaking of the devil, it was raining in Dalian and the temperature was 6-10 Celsius. I wore one warm top and two tops along with a sweater. Still, it was freaking cold especially when the wind blows. Having to hold an umbrella on tour totally ruined the day. However, seeing him early in the morning did make my day. Well, just a little.

DSCN5654 Yes, he is none other than LeeHom xD It was just pure luck. We were given a mineral bottle and it happened to be WaHaHa brand. I got two of this from Adrian before :D

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It was around 1030 when we reached Lushun to visit Prison Relic Museum. It was a terrible place to go to but, for the sake of visiting the place, I visited the place. What the hell are you talking about? lol What I want to say is, it is worth visiting the place.

Do you know that Japanese tourists are not allowed to visit this place? I think Korean tourists are included as well. Why? This prison was once used by the Japanese to lock up and torture the Chinese.

Though it was horrible, terrible and vegetable place to visit, we had a real insight on what our ancestors had been through in the past. That will teach us love peace more and hate war even more.

DSCN5656The picture above shows the body checking room. The prisoners would have to walk over this gate, naked. If they were hesitate to walk (suspicious) or walked slowly (more suspicious), they would be punished.

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After body check, the prisoners were to wear these clothes and then being locked up in their respective prison cells.

DSCN5658This was where the prisoners being locked up. There were a lot of prison cells. As we were walking down this corridor, I could feel the horrible-ness of this place. We were able to look into each cell. We were not disallowed to take pictures. However, to respect the dead, I did not take pictures of the cells.

DSCN5659This is a switchboard, being used by a guard to control every ward and factory.

DSCN5660 I believe you know the use of the equipment above; to prevent the prisoners from escaping the prison.

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And also this; to prevent the prisoners to know where they are.

DSCN5662 This is where the prisoners were punished. Either they were chained or sealed to get beaten by the chosen sticks. From my understand (from the tour guide), the chosen ones were deadly beaten. Once fainted, they were poured with a cold water and the beating continued. The unfortunate ones would be brought here again, to be beaten, the next day and the next day and the next like there was no tomorrow.

DSCN5665See this guard stand? From here, the guards can watch over three corridors of prison cells.

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Corridor #1

DSCN5667Corridor #2 

DSCN5669And corridor #3

Later, we were brought to the prison’s common sickroom. Due to having lack of technology, those with the light injuries and diseases were lucky. The unlucky ones would be those with serious injuries and diseases. They were left to die.

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There were pictures and testimonials from the survivors; telling us about their lives in this common sickroom. 

The last room we visited before we left was the hanging room. The chosen ones were hanged to their very last breath in that room. Since the room reminded people of the most horrible event, I did not take pictures of the room.

Three ropes were tied onto the ceiling and therefore, it is understood that it is not one person being hanged but three, at the same time. They were to kneel on this trap door where it would be opened and the chosen ones would be hanged in the midair and await the Death God to come and pick them up to catch the next Death Train. Below the trap door was a tall wooden barrel. This was where the corpses being stored. Yes, not one corpse was stored but multiple corpses. Also, in the ancient days, the Chinese would not bow their heads to their enemies. Therefore, the corpses were positioned bowing their heads down in the barrels. It was like a curse of not able to lift their heads forever.

The weather got worsened as the rain never stopped. The fog was very thick and lesser pictures were taken today. We were brought to take a look at JunGan but thanks to the fog, I could not see anything. After lunch, we were brought to Xinghai Park (XingHai Gong Yuan) but the weather was too cold and foggy so, this site was forgone as well as Xinghai Square (XingHai Guang Chang).

Below are one of the places that I actually walked out of the bus and toured.

DSCN5687I forgot the name of this place.

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In fact, I never asked the tour guide where we were.

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And I just toured the place not knowing where I was –_- 

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Also, as a matter of fact, there were around 5 people who decided to descend the bus while the remaining 13 stayed inside the bus. Now you can tell how freaking cold the day was. And how annoying rain can be.

DSCN5692As I were saying, five went down and guess what? Only two walked to the very end.

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And that’s me and the skater boy lol

Before we called it day and went for dinner, Laohu Tan was where we were going. Majority (including me) was more interested of looking out for toilet instead of this big statue of four tigers lol

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Guess what’s for our dinner. You wouldn’t believe it. I could not believe it either. We had BBQ/steamboat for dinner –__- I was totally speechless.

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Honestly speaking, there aren’t many attractions in Dalian, well, apart from enjoying its freezing cold weather. Maybe we went at the wrong timing. Still, at least we know how Dalian looks like.

p/s: I received an advice from a citizen of China that I got to know back in Qingdao. He told me that if I were to visit Qingdao, there isn’t any need to visit Dalian anymore because they are the same. Beaches and sea. So this advice is very useful for you readers as well.

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