John,

Thank you for your reply. Let me dissect your dissect.

Re the climate, no comment.

Re Qingdao vs. Dalian, that is an old argument with no firm and determined reply.

Personally I find it just as nice as Qingdao and the Dalian-rin are a lot less obnoxious and much more laowei savvy...just IMHO. Never once in six years have I been called laowei in Dalian. Not once.

As for the set setting early, I have no idea what you mean .... from April to end of August, there is a median of 14-16 hours of daylight each day, sometimes much more. I personally believe that being more northerly than Shanghai, there is a difference between the two cities.

Also I do not go to the cheaper drinking bars, I hardly drink at all, and I have no idea about legal teachers. I do not know when the last time you were in Dalian or what you know about the current FT situation, but I will tell you this...when I refer to oversupply, I mean oversupply of qualified, documented, visa-qualified applicants at the major institutions. In those terms, Dalian ranks as very, very competitive ... not quite as competitive as Shanghai, Beijing nor Guangzhou, but still competitive enough to cause full time salaries for legal, qualified teachers to be considerably lower than the national average.

As for the Dalian PSB, the previous local head of the PSB was ousted under direct orders from Beijing under an Article 25 section, and he has been replaced by a rather to-the-line kind of PSB head. Crackdowns on illegals are numerous and brutally efficient these days and every school or institution can expect a visit once every six months, if not more often in case of a complaint.

And as I am happily married and not the leacherous type, I know nothing about banging Eastern European types.

Your sui generis remark about everywhere has no grounds ... you have not consulted everyone here as neither have I. And last October the Oktoberfest broke all records for attendance and it generated almost 15% of the city's entire tourist revenue for the year...so for a declining business, as you write, not bad at all.

In terms of not many Russians, again this is fallacious. There is a recently opened sub-consulate of the Russian Federation here in Dalian; it has opened a Russian Orthodox Church, open to its citizens. According to PSB figures, Russians do indeed rank third in overall number of foreigners. Again I PERSONALLY know many Japanese and Korean and Taiwanese businessman and families who are hardly alcoholics and sleazebags.

If I had to write about sleazebags in Dalian, and serious alcoholics and druggies, then again I would refer to the officially published PSB figures. Last year, in terms of arrests for possesion and sale of drugs and subsequent prison and deportation, the Brits were number one, followed by the Nigerians, and then the Americans. In terms of drunks and the like, those that I have PERSONALLY seen puking on the streets of Dalian have identified themselves as British, Irish, Australian and the like. So yes, there are sleaze bags here....

The Dalian subway is overcrowded? At what times have you ridden it? Perhaps during rush hours, during off-peak hours, it is hardly overcrowded...and having visited recently London and New York, I can tell you that the London system smells of piss everywhere and the New York system runs on permanent break-down and overcrowding. Contary to what you write, the system is well maintained, very affordable and accessible. Additionally, unlike London or New York, graffiti on the subway in Dalian is severely punished, as it should it, and last year, 10 foreigners, all of them either Brits or Northern Irish, were arrested and deported for either urinating on the subway or defacing subway property. Again public figures from the PSB published in all the local newspapers.

Again, in your last comments, you refer sui generis to everyone feels. That is hardly correct unless you have consulted everyone. From what I hear, many are pleased with what Bo Xilia accomplished but many are also appalled at the debt levels he created for the city. He was more viewed as an Elmer Gantry, Donald Trump kind of a trickster than anything else.

As I said, Dalian is about no. 5 on the list of places most FTs in China would like to work. It is pleasant, it is liveable, the cost of things are quite proportionate to ones salary, etc.

They just need to pay attention as to whether or not their perspective school is in Dalian proper or in the hinterlands of Dalian, which is another story.

And I forgot to mention that Dalian is also one of the regional hubs for the L and M trains...long before they reached Qingdao, Shenyang, and Harbin, they had reached Dalian. All of Northern China, including far-away Shanghai, is within striking distance for a weekend trip. Additionally, Guangzhou and Hong Kong are accessible for a four-day weekend.

And the international flights in-and-out of Dalian airport have been increasing considerably. Lufthansa recently applied for permission to fly a Dalian Frankfurt route.

And Korean Air and all the airlines of Taiwan fly in and out, plus Aeroflot seasonally, and all the major Chinese carriers.

Kind regards to you.