A brief introduction to a nice coastal city in the northeast of China.

This blog entry is supposed to give you a brief introduction to Dalian. It is not supposed to be a complete “Wikipedia” article. It is more to give you an impression what the city is like.

Dalian is a city in North China, located in the province Liaoning and Bahai Sea (Yellow Sea). Including all the neighboring districts, it has around 7 Million inhabitants.

Nearest other cities are Shenyang (Capital of Liaoning) and Dandong (border to North Korea).

Dalian has a good public transport system (small subway system in the core city, and kind of a metro going to the outer districts). It has good high speed train connections and a new and modern train station (Dalian North). The airport is located near the city centre and offers good domestic connections as well as international connections, however most of them to Japan and South Korea, not US or Europe. Of course right now, due to COVID, most international flights are stopped. There is as well a second airport under construction (north of the city) however the construction just started (2020).

Located at the tip of a peninsula, Dalian is surrounded by water and build into hilly terrain mostly (which is great for hiking). Below pictures are most likely your first impressions of the city from above.

The climate in Dalian is similar to Central Europe (for me coming from south of Germany, the difference was not too big).

The summers are a little hotter and more humid, during July and August, the temperatures go up to 35°C with high humidity (I really learned to appreciate ACs).

During wintertime (November to March) the temperatures can drop down to below -10°C, but normally are around -5°. The wind can be very chilly from the seaside. The winters are very dry as well, I have not seen any significant snow in the last 2 years. Most apartments and houses have central heating and the heating period starts around end of October to end of March.

The most pleasant time of the year (at least for me) is September and October as well as April – June. Then you have around 20-25°C during the day, however it can be chilly in the mornings and evenings.

The air quality in Dalian is very good. From my impression, it has improved a lot during the last years due to the efforts of environmental protection issued by the central government. Since there is often a breeze from the sea, which brings in clean air, the “average” air quality is around 50 AQI (which is “green” according to the Air Quality Index, be sure to get the AirVisual APP). During bad days (especially in winter, due more coal power plants will be switched on for heating), it can go as bad as 200, but this is really not very frequent. On many (summer) days the quality is even below 30 AQI.

Dalian features one of the largest public squares in the world, Xinhai square. It is a beautifully maintained square with a length of over 1km. There are many very nice and well maintained parks in any area of the city.

As mentioned, due to its geographic location, there are many nice beaches scattered across the coastline. There are too many to be named.

There are also many small islands around Dalian, which can be reached by boat.

I would define the “Downtown area” near Zhongshang district and near Xinghai square (locals may have a different idea, though). This is were most of the things happen and some nice malls and restaurants are located.

Another major district is Kaifaqu (or DDA, Dalian Development Area). It is about 30km away of Dalian downtown, but kind of its own city. There are some international communities there, international grocery stores, international cafes, bars restaurants (i will dedicate another blog for details), nice malls (Wanda), Cinemas, Starbucks and basically all you need.

Dalian is (again due to geography) famous for its seafood and you should definitely try it.

If you plan on visiting Dalian, i would suggest to plan for a weekend or 3 days. This will be enough to cover the major “sights”.

If you are into hiking, there are several trails through the hills around downtown, Dalian Xijiao National Forest Park and other huge parks. There is also the “Big Black Mountain” near Kaifaqu, the biggest mountain in the area (663m elevation).

There is also a huge zoo, Dalian Forest Zoo, with many different animals and Pandas.

Of course you can extend a stay up to a week, there is Lvshun in the west (40 minute drive) with a nice historic port, “Little Guilin” (Zhuanghe) to the northeast (about 2 hours drive) or Dandong, a city on the boarder to North Korea (3,5 hours drive). Or the city of Anshan a nice historic temple about 3 hours to the north.