Dalian, China Tourism

... More

contraction formed from Lüshun and Dalian), boasts one of the largest trading ports in China. It has shipyards, engineering and rolling-stock works, as well as steel, chemicals, petro-chemicals, cement, textiles and canned foods.

Dalian is famed for its apples, which the Chinese prefer to any other fruit, and because of its mild climate and many sandy beaches it has become one of the most popular summer holiday resorts in northern China.

It is uncertain when the town was founded. All that is known is that after 108 BC, when Emperor Han Wudi opened a shipping line between the Liaodong and Shandong peninsulas, it expanded considerably. In the late 19th C. the Manchurian government set up a naval base in Dalian which gave it a further economic boost. From 1894 onwards the town was under Russian control, and was expanded and docks built. In 1905 the Japanese took it over, and it was returned to the Soviet Union in 1945. Since 1949 it has grown in importance as an industrial town. In 1976 a large oil-harbor was built.