For beginners, Anobo ski resort offers suitable runs for beginners and intermediates. Facilities are well run and the ski school offers reasonably good coaches. Advanced skiers will find the place boring as it offers no advanced runs nor adequate distance for anyone with skills. Overall, the resort is better operated then others.
The best route to get there from Dalian is via Pulandian. A new road was readily built last year, which take you from Pulandian straight to Anbo within an hour.
The boom of ITO and BPO businesses in the software park, since its debut in 2003, has attracted thousands of expatriates to relocate their families to this beautiful coastal city, Dalian. Despite the incremental inflow of expatriates, there aren't many good western restaurants available in the city for them to choose. Among those few I used to give Riveria the highest rating followed by Cafe Iggosso.
As recommended by Curtis, I paid my first visit to City One 86 in early January last year. Since then my wife and I visited the place two or three times a week. Initially, we ordered only the Cantonese style dishes, such as pork knuckle, salty cold duck, fish head in hot pot, ...., and even the world most favorite shark fin soup. These are yummy!
Last night, we and another couple picked a few dishes from their western menu, including salami pizza, seafood spagetti, lamb cutlet, sirloin steak, and then we finished by sharing an O'riel cake and a walnut pie. The other couple gave full mark to the food, especially the steak, while my wife rated the O'riel cake the highest. According to the owner, their beef was sourced from a local farm in Pulandian where a special breed of Japanese cattles were fed the same way as the cattles for Kobe (or Matsusaka) beef.
The owner also gave us a heads-up that the restaurant will offer promotional set menu during the week between Valentine's Day Feb 14 and Lanterns Festival Day (Chinese Valentine's Day) Feb 21. Economic sets for two will cost less than rmb 200 (with two glasses of beer or wine), and romantic sets for two will cost less than rmb 600 (with a bottle of imported French wine!). The restaurant will also put iceing on the cake by offering a mysterious gift for a lady guest per set. For these quality food at these prices, I'm sure that this special offer will be value for money. My personal advice is booking in advance to avoid disappointment. Happy Valentine's!
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