Dalian
is a
major port of northeastern China and a trading gateway for all of
northern China. Declared a Coastal Open City in 1984, it is home to
major shipyards, oil refineries, diesel engineering plants, and
factories for textile and chemical products.
The city is located
on the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, jutting out into the
Bohai Sea
in the northeast, between China and North Korea. It is 4 hours by train
south of Shenyang.
It has a population of
about 1.5 million, with a total of 5 million in the larger metropolitan
area.
The
Dalian area
– comprising Dalian and the nearby port/naval base of Lushun
(formerly called Port Arthur) farther south, and hence sometimes
called Luda
– has an ancient history as a shipping port, but only became
prominent in the late 19th century when the Qing dynasty established a
naval base there. A new harbor for oil tankers, at the terminus of an
oil pipeline from the Daqing oil fields, was completed in 1976. Dalian
was declared a Coastal Open City in 1984, with incentives for foreign
investment, and is now the third largest port in China.
