Ocean Asia Polar Aquarium and the Flood

I should have known this place wouldn't be that great when the website advertised for Ocean Asia Polar Aquarium in the Focus on Dalian English travel guide was broken the day before we went. http://www.jdg.com.cn, of course it is working now. That's not to say there is anything in English, though!

At any rate, last Sunday August 8 (a very auspicious day, by the way - 8/8!), we decided to head downtown to go to what we heard was a great Polar Aquarium. Lucia loves fish and polar bears, so we'd been talking them up all week. Our driver told us that it was "goo-duh", and we figured that Sunday would be good for him as his overtime rates are the highest that day.

We headed out in the morning, and after an hour and a half of navigating the crowded streets full of wedding-goers, we finally made it to Ocean World. We thought that we were just going to the Polar Aquarium, but it turns out that you have to pay 190 RMB (an UNHEARD of price!) to get in to this area where there are several "theme parks" - and the Polar Aquarium is just one of them. I really really had to use the restroom at this point, and fortunately kids under 1 meter are free, so at least we just had to pay for Alex and me (Lucia is just shy of one meter, another inch and she'll be there!).

As an aside, my Chinese teacher told me later that if it rains on your wedding day, the man in the couple is "not a rich boy," and if it is a windy day, the woman is a "bad tempered girl." I told her that hopefully the auspicious date of 8/8 canceled out the fact that it was both rainy AND windy last Sunday, otherwise all those marriages were pretty much doomed!

Anyway, though it had rained all night and also that morning, there was a temporary lull as we went into the theme park, so we unfortunately forgot our umbrella. Here is the place inside when we first arrived:

From Blog All Two

We went into the Polar Aquarium, which was the furthest place on the left. We thought that since these animals and fish are used to arctic climates, it would be relatively cool indoors. Sadly, this proved false. It was hot, humid, and completely crowded inside! The poor animals in their small tanks or caged areas behind thick glass hopefully were in better climate control than we were, but man - it was MISERABLE inside that place. I don't know what we were expecting - probably something more like Sun Asia Ocean World (the place we went to on a whim the previous May) - but this place was too packed to even get close to the glass without shoving your way forward. Here is some footage:


Girls and Andrea trying to see past the people to an exhibit:

From Blog All Two

Can't even get a clear shot without people (though I'll admit that the Belugas were cool):

From Blog All Two

This one captures it best:

From Blog All Two

So we walk relatively quickly through the first floor exhibits, as there are so many people, it is challenging and irritating to linger. The second floor is not much better, but at least there is a show up there. We missed the one that started at 10:10 am, but it is now 11:05 and we figure that we could probably get a decent seat for the 11:30 show (I think they last 30-45 minutes). We wandered over to the auditorium to find it PACKED! And it was not still packed from the previous show, no sir! It was jam packed, standing room only, with several parents holding kids on their shoulders already for the next show. Needless to say, we opted out.

By this point, after spending the equivalent of $57 and one hour at the aquarium, we were ready to leave. The place was just NOT worth it. However, the deluge had begun again. It was POURING, and we had forgotten our umbrella in the car. So we decided to try and wait it out on the covered outdoor picnic seating area.

Here is Lucia checking out the downpour:

From Blog All Two

Another view:

From Blog All Two

OMG. It was pouring. We hung out and ate our snacks while watching the rain and lightning, and listening to the thunder crash. Lucia got a bit scared, and Alex ended up holding her for the most part, though Magdalena was cheerful as ever sitting on our changing pad on the disgustingly dirty picnic tables (we wiped it down with a baby wipe first, and it was BLACK. Interestingly, after we left, a lady came and wiped off our table with a wet rag... I wonder how often that is done, or if it was just for our benefit...?).

Finally around noon when the lunch crowd started showing up, we decided it was time to make a run for it. We texted our driver to let him know that we were DONE, and fought our way towards the exit. It was just pouring, and we were getting out the changing cover and a spit rag to attempt to shield the kids heads from the downpour, when who should appear but our Shi1 fu! (Alex says this is the word for Master, and we're supposed to call our driver this name).

Master Chen to the rescue! He somehow convinced the ticket gate people to let him in with three umbrellas, and was literally standing outside the exit as we prepared to flee. Thank GOODNESS for Chen - the girls stayed dry, though our feet and lower clothing got soaked. We made it to the car to dry out and take off.

Mama and Lucia thankful to be dry:

From Blog All Two

Magdalena thankful to be passed out:

From Blog All Two

At this point, we thought the worst was behind us, but alas! The roads and intersections were completely flooded! It took forever to get to the onramp just to get to the toll road. Here is some footage of what we drove through:

Photo of one intersection:

From Blog All Two

Biking probably won't work so well for you today, buddy:

From Blog All Two

Thanks to the cops for navigating us through this mess (and yes, there really are WAVES in this body of water):

From Blog All Two

Seriously, people drove through this - watch!


After we got to the onramp, we realized that something was going on. Chen turned on the weather report (previously did not want the radio to awaken the girls, as Lucia too had crashed out). We were stuck in this crazy long three lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic that was being diverted just before a tunnel to turn back. And yes, we spent over an hour just in this ridiculous mess - after spending another hour navigating through the flooded streets of downtown Dalain! Once we finally made it through, Alex took a video of us whizzing by the traffic jam we were just in - still very long despite the fact that the police finally cut off traffic entering the area - too late to save us, though.

Only one lane was allowed to U-turn at a time, which is why it took forever to get out of the jam we were in (this taken from the other side once we finally made it through):

From Blog All Two

And video of the same:


So after all this nightmare, Chen re-navigated the back roads of Dalian (stopping once so both he and Alex could relieve themselves on the side of the road - very Chinese) - and three and a half hours after leaving the theme park, we pulled into home. I told Alex that the only saving grace of the day was that at least Chen raked in a lot of overtime hours... the rest of the day seemed like a big waste of time and money.

Ah well, live and learn! Our big learnings were NOT to venture out of the house on a stormy day, and to stay away from theme parks in China in the summer on a weekend.