Perched on the Liáodōng Peninsula and bordering the Yellow Sea, Dàlián is one of the most relaxed and liveable cities in the north-east, if not all of China. With manageable traffic and fresh air and an impressive coastline, complete with swimming beaches, it’s a charming city. With its restaurant and bar scene, a good shopping opportunities, it’s known as the ‘Hong Kong of the North’ – and is one of China’s top cities for tourism. It has a population of 6.2 million.
Dalian has a coastline of 1,906 km and its beautiful scenery attracts many tourists every year, visiting for its beautiful sea, beaches, museums, and its international ambience.
It’s a city which has a great enthusiasm for football. Since 1994, the Dalian team has won the first prize in the league matches eight times in China. Almost everyone in Dalian loves football and is proud of football! It’s also a famous fashion city. There is a saying that goes, “eating in Guangzhou, playing in Shanghai, while dressing in Dalian”. Dalian hosts the Dalian International Fashion Festival every September.
Dalian is a city with a great number of squares, the most in China by far. You will easily find one when you are in Dalian. It is said that a Russian designer who was keen on Paris laid out the whole structure of Dalian City, and then the city was built so that it resembled Paris!
Transport
Air
Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport is just 10 kilometers from downtown. It is a ten-minute ride by taxi and the cost is 10 yuan.
Railway
Dalian railway is connected with the railway network of Northeast China and North China. Everyday more than 50 trains leave Dalian for Beijing, Shenyang, Harbin and many other cities.
City Transportation
Dalian has a comprehensive bus system. There are hundreds of bus lines in the city and you can get anywhere by bus. Buses start operating at 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning and stop operating at 22:00 or 23:50 in the evening. A single ticket is 1 RMB.
Taxi
The fare is 8 RMB for a 3km ride, and 1.8 RMB per km after that. Evening fares (from 22:00 to 5:00 the next morning) are 30% higher. Dalian is not very large, and most places can be reached for around 20 RMB.
Climate
Dalian lies in a warm area with four distinct seasons. The average temperature is 10.5°C, while the highest temperatures reach 37.8°C. The annual precipitation is 550-950 millimeters, and annual sunshine duration is 2,500-2,800 hours.
Food
Dalian is famous for its delicious seafood with delicacies such as shrimp, sea cucumber, abalone, sea bream, and sea conch. You’ll also find a variety of international cuisines, and international fast food restaurants such as Pizza Hut!
Shopping
There are four shopping centers in Dalian; Qingniwa Bridge, Tianjin Street, Renmin Road and Xi’an Road..
Clothes
Being reputed as a Fashion City, Dalian hosts the annual International Fashion Festival. If you want to go shopping for clothes, September is the best time when the fashion festival is held.
Seafood
As a coastal city, Dalian provides excellent seafood products, including sea cucumber, abalone, scallop, prawn, mussel and oyster, etc.
Seashell Carvings
Dalian is popular for its varieties of artworks sculpted out of shells. The products included hanging paintings, screens, lamps and ornaments. These seashells carvings can be found in most of the shopping malls in Dalian.
Attractions
Charm of the Sea Square
“Charm of the Sea” Square is huge, covering an area of 380,000 km, with 30,000 km of decorated stone floors, 12,00km of greenery, and many sculptures – a great day out.
Dalian Shengya Ocean World
Dalian Shengya Ocean World, inside Xinhai Park, has the longest transparent underground sea channel in Asia. A moving passageway guides tourists through the tunnel to get a close up look at exotic fishes, sharks and other sea life. The main display area has more than 300 species of fish totalling more than 10,000. There are coral reefs and floating sea grasses, ferocious sharks, big-headed flying fish, colourful tropical fish, and many other rare species from around the world.
Dalian Golden Pebble Beach Tourist Resort
Dalian Golden Pebble Beach Tourist Resort occupies an area of 62km. There are four tourist centres: green centre, blue centre, silver centre, and the colour centre.
Green Centre
The main body of the Green Centre is the Golden Pebble golf club. Golden Pebble golf club is a member of both the American Gulf Association and World Tourism Association, and open from March to November
Blue Centre
The Blue Centre is a boating facility. Qinyi Lake there has berths for more than 50 pleasure boats. The bay there is named Holy Moon Bay.
Silver Centre
This centre has a hunting club, an Italian bar, displays of Russian wooden houses and Chinese farmyards, shooting range and target practice range.
Colour Centre
The Colour Centre is known for the growing, display and sales of flowers and plants from around the world. It is the largest of its kind in Northeast China.
Beaches
Dalian is famed for its beaches!
Xinghai Beach
The 2,625 ft Xinghai Beach is a man-made facility and the main attraction of Xinghai Park. With its moderate waves and depth, the bow-shaped beach is especially popular among swimmers as well as for a variety of water sports. Other attractions at the park include the Sun Asia Ocean World, an aquarium offering an underwater tunnel from which to view marine life up close.
Fujiazhuang Beach
Reefs, islands and forests are part of the scenic landscape in the vicinity of hugely-popular Fujiazhuang Beach. The 1,804 ft beach is one of Dalian’s major beach attractions despite its somewhat remote location. This beach is one of four sea water bathing places, offering clear, unpolluted, deep waters with visibility of around three meters and a low surface temperature.
Dalian Tiger Beach
Tiger Beach gets its name from a rock outcropping in the sea that resembles a sleeping tiger! This large recreational area offers visitors a coralarium, a polar aquarium that showcases more than 150 polar animals and 3,000 fish, and a world of birds in China’s largest bird reserve.
Bangchuidao Beach
Surrounded by hillsides of pine and cypress trees, Bangchuidao Beach is part of Bangchuidao Scenic Area located about 8km from the heart of the city. The area’s resort features include Banchuidao Islet, whose Chinese name, “Bangchui” alludes to its shape, like a wooden club used by some people as a washing tool.
Golden Pebble Beach
Golden Pebble Beach is off the beaten track, but worth the trip- in addition to the beach, other resort attractions include a golf club and course, hunting club, park, Chinese martial arts hall, waxworks hall and an international conference centre. The Dalian International Beach Culture Festival and the International Winter Swimming Festival are special annual beach and resort events.