Although I lived in the Park for a month, I never seen or paid for a ticket. But today I came across this guy’s blog, that visited Kingdom of Discovery in 2006.  He has some nice pics there, including one with the tickets:

At that time, the price for a ticket was 160RMB.   You can check out his Kingdom of Discovery experience here.

Besides all the rides and fun stuff that is available in the park all day long, there are a few special shows like “The Water Stage Show”, “The stunt show”, “The Parade”, “The Night Show” and “Romeo and Juliet”.

The first show starts at 10.30a.m.  It is called the “Water Stage Show”. A few girls, a few costumes and a few good dances.

Next is The stunt show. The show runs four times a day, everyday(except Tuesdays),  the first one starts at 11.00a.m.  and the last one at 04.00pm. It’s a parody,  very funny. The show has a lot of great stunts: car stunts, motorcycle stunts, high jumps, explosions and fire stunts.

At 14.00 starts the Kingdom of Discovery Parade.

Around 16.00 there’s a special show. During the time I was there, in July, they made the “Water show”. Something similar to the Parade, but with a lot of water … The girls in the show are dressed as mermaids, have water guns and are shooting at people. You can buy a water gun and start shooting back. At one point, everybody is watering everybody. This is the reason I have no pictures with this show.  So keep your gadgets safe.

At night, there are two shows. Five nights a week there’s the Night Show. It has clowns, Shaolin priests demonstration, nice dances(traditional dances, break dance, pop dances) and many more. The song in the end of this show is great … Irene Cara – Fame. I love it.

Of course, the show ends with fireworks.  And a special moment, due to the Olympic Games that were about to start in Beijing:

The other show is called “Romeo and Juliet”. This show runs in the Castle, only 2days a week(on weekends, when is more crowded). This is the best Kingdom of Discovery dance show. There’s lots of dances and entertaining moments.

In the end of this show there’s a little disco moment … the band starts singing and everybody comes on the stage and starts dancing.

Besides all this, Kingdom of Discovery has a live band that sings 4-5times a day(in the Castle Zone).

There is also a real church in the park and some people go there to get married.

So, if you get to Dalian anytime soon, don’t hesitate to visit Kingdom of Discovery.  You’ll have a full day of fun!

Check out the full Kingdom of Discovery Photo Gallery

It is called “The Great Diamond Heist”.

The show runs four times a day, everyday(except Tuesdays),  the first one starts at 11.00a.m.  and the last one at 4.30pm. (I hope I remember the hours right).

It’s a parody,  very funny. The show has a lot of great stunts: car stunts, motorcycle stunts, high jumps, explosions and fire stunts. The cast is made up of people coming from all around the world: Ukraine, Germany, Romania(my cousin), The United States and Australia.

I think I saw this show about 30 – 40 times in the month I stayed there. My cousin played a part in the show and I used to go to the set almost every day, before the last show. I never got bored of it.

All great guys. I had the pleasure to meet them personally.

If you ever get to Dalian and you want to visit  Kingdom of Discovery, don’t miss the stunt show(so, avoid going Tuesdays).

I’ve witnessed  a lot of stuff that surprised me, amused me, disgusted or scared me.

These are the top things that I remember:

1. The Chinese are absolutely crazy about white people. This is the main reason that 90% of the Kingdom of Discovery’s entertainers are white – to attract Chinese people. And it works perfectly. I  was asked lots of times by the locals to take a picture with them. And I am not that good looking   .  The usual formula you’ll hear is “Can I make a take a picture with you?“.  Very, very funny )).  This can happen anywhere … on the beach, on the street, in a restaurant. It makes you feel good about yourself.
2. The road infrastructure is impressing. Even the smallest cities are linked by highways… Good roads,  but the driving is absolutely crazy.  At one point we took a cab between two cities and that guy some how thought that we were in a hurry … We thought we were going to die. There is no driving conduit … everyone is driving with any speed on any lane … on the highway … There are no rules.  It’s really scary.
3. In China  you have motorcycles as taxis. This is probably the most scary stuff I saw.  20years old motorcycles, most of them with no lights or any signaling, and nobody is wearing a helmet. And you can see them on the highway, day or night. Many of the friends I made there  had at least one motorcycle accident. The motorcycle taxi fare is half compared to a car taxi and they can carry up to 3people with luggage besides the driver, so they are popular.    For a car taxi, the price is 4Yuans per  kilometer.  The minimum cab fare is 12Yuans( that’s 3km).
4. You will see many funny English signs. They have a lot of written signs and welcome messages also translated into English. Most of the times the translation is wrong. One of the funniest translation I saw was at the entrance of Kingdom of Discovery. There is big sign there that says:  “WELCOME TO HERE”.
5. I had my first Starbucks coffee in QuaiFaChu . Relatively small , non-touristic city. I payed for a coffee 37Yuans, that’s 3.7Euros.  This is more than the minimum salary for a day’s work in China(normal people make 2-3Euros a day).
6. So many malls.  There are malls just everywhere. In Dalian, all the center of the city has a big mall underneath, like 3-4 floors in the ground, that connects to all the malls in the area, that have 7-8 floors. You need more than a week to visit every mall.  There are 3-4types of malls/stores: First are the malls with the original big brands, that have European prices. Second are the malls with smaller brands, that have more accessible prices.  Third are the malls/stores with fake brands, that have written “No bargaining“. These are the malls that usually have good and very good prices for stuff. And last, there are the malls that have no prices listed and you have to ask the seller for the price. These are the “bargaining malls“. Read more about shopping in Dalian.
7. Chinese people are scared of water.  I think about 99% of them can’t swim.  Almost everyone enters the water with a swim belt.

First are the malls for the rich people, with original big brands, that have European prices. There, everything is very expensive.

Second are the stores with good clothes, that do not belong to a known brand. These stores have more accessible prices.

Third are the malls/stores with fake brands, that have written at the entry “No bargaining“ and have prices displayed for every item … These are the malls that usually have good and very good prices for stuff.

And last, there are the  “bargaining malls“. Most of these malls have no prices displayed and you have to ask the seller for the price. These kinds of malls have savage employees.  You don’t even need to glance at  someones boutique and the seller will run after you with all kind of stuff in his hands, telling you again and again “very gooda, very gooda”. You will constantly have 5-10 sellers in your face that will try to convince you to buy from their store. Very loud and very impolite. First time I entered in this type of mall I was more than confused … I didn’t know what to do, how to react  … good thing that I was with my cousin. She was used to this and told me what to do:  display a mean face and start cursing them:))) … very efficient method to keep them away.  She also thought me how to bargain here.

Important rule: Never ever ever pay the amount of money the seller is asking, especially if you are white(be certain that they will try to take as much money as they can from you). My advice is to ask somebody that knows how “things work”  to come with you on your first shopping spree. Perfect would be to go with a Chinese person that you can trust. You will surely not be ripped off.

These sellers usually are asking three times more than the actual price. Here is the bargaining/buying procedure:

1. You see something you like;

2. You ask for the price;

3. The seller is typing his price on a calculator and shows; Only 1% of the sellers I met knew English.

4. Here two things can happen:  The wrong thing – You can pay the amount the seller is asking, take your stuff and go on. Or you can do the right thing - Make a very surprised face like it is way to expensive and  try and turn to go away from his shop;

5. In 99% cases the seller will do anything to stop you and will hand you the calculator to input the price you would pay for the item. Always, always keep in mind that the product you want to buy, can be found in many other places.

6. Input  a price that is around 3 times smaller that his original price.

7. The seller will first act totally surprised and will try to tell you that it’s no way you will get the item for that price. And will take the calculator from you and will input a price that is just a little smaller that the original price.

8. Here there are three ways of dealing with this …  one is to input another price(but not more than half of the original price), second is to turn around and leave. Third way is the bad way – to pay what the seller is asking;

9. If you input another price, step 7 and 8 will repeat.   If you turn around an leave two things can happen. One is when the seller is happy with the price you are willing to pay and realizes that he can’t get more from you. And says  Ok! Ok! – you got the item for your last price offer. Second is when the seller isn’t happy with your price and let’s you go.

10. If he lets you go, be sure that he is mad now and will not sell you the item with less than what he initially asked, even if first he was willing to sell you for less at start.  So you need to go to another  store and repeat these steps, but be sure to raise a little the price you offered the first seller – you are now sure that the item you want to buy costs more that the price you were trying to get.

From my bargaining  experience in Dalian, I can say that  about 50% of all the things I wanted to buy/bought, I got/could of gotten them for three times less that the initial price.  About 45% of them I got for a price between 1/3 and half the initial price. And the rest with a pretty big cut of the price.  So when you agree to pay more than half  the initial price, you will almost certainly be riped off.

Let me give you some examples of things that I bought and the prices I payed.

First thing I bought was a fake Rolex, you can find Rolex watches anywhere. I payed 80Yuani for it.  The guy initially asked for 200Yuani. I knew that all the watches were fakes, but anyways … it was cool to have one. They have an efficient method to make you think there are valuable watches:  They have some normal watches on sale, and when they see a foreigner checking out their store, they bring out a shiny suitcase, with big brand watches, like Rolex, Mont Blank, Philip Patek, Bvlgari and other. Most of them, very good replicas. They will ask for 400-600Yuani(40-60Euros) depending on the watch and your attitude.   But none of them cost more than 100Yuani. There are only few watches that are amazing  replicas and can get to 200 or even 250Yuani, but you will find those only in some malls, in some private rooms in the back(destined for foreigners), full with well made fakes(thousands of dvds, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton bags, Armani stuff, Rolex watches, etc.). But you must know somebody to have access there.

I bought a charger for my camera. Funny story …  He first asked for 30Yuani, I said 10, he said 25 and I got it for 15. I was happy about myself for that bargaining. 15Yuani is 1.5Euros … pretty cheap for a charger, right?  But, the next day, in other store, I saw the same charger at 6Yuani. I felt a little stupid.

The day before I left, I bought a medium/big troller for all the stuff I bought there(I went to China only with a small backpack ). I payed 100Yuans for it, after a pretty big bargaining. The initial price was 350Yuans. Good deal.

If you happen to go to Dalian, or anywhere else in China, I hope that by reading this article you  will save some money. Happy shopping!

So what do you need to do if you want to visit China ?

Get the Visa

Check the web site of the Chinese Embassy in your country to see if you meet the reqirements to apply for a visa.

For my country, on the website was clearly written: to get a Chinese visa you need:

• the plane ticket(I think a plane reservation is good too);
• the passport( must have at least 2 empty pages  and must be valid for at least 6months at the time of your departure;
• two passport type photos;
• some money – the tax is $25, ( + extra  $30 if you want to get the visa the same day);

When I got to the Embassy, I was told that I also need a hotel reservation. I was going to stay at a friend so I didn’t have any hotel reservation…  The Chinese Embassy   is open to public for 4-5hours, two days a week  and I could not get the visa that day.  I found a nice online portal where I managed to make a hotel reservation without giving any credit card details.   And the second time to the Embassy, I got my visa.

The visa must be issued at least 7 days before you part.

The Plane Ticket

If you’re flying  from Europe, the main airline companies that have flights to China are: Air France(From France), KLM(Holland), Aeroflot(Russia) and British Airways(Great Britain). The best price I’ve found for my flight(Bucharest – Amsterdam – Shanghai – Dalian  and back) was with KLM.  About 800Euro. I bought the ticket through   TerminalA.com. I was very pleased with their services.