i saw a post about this but lost it again, so i'll just start a new topic.
basically, the three urban districts of Dalian city itself, plus Ganjingzi, half of which is now in an ever-expanding Dalian, are just lines on a map and not really any indication of character within a neighbourhood.
the areas around universities and the many squares perhaps provide more convenient focal points for neighbourhoods of a coherent character.
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the main districts of Dalian itself, not Lushun, Jinzhou or Kaifaqu, in terms of having clusters of high-rises, or an otherwise distinctive "community", are...
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High-Tech Zone - still only half-built but growing fast. many foreign IT companies and homegrown creative IT enterprises
Dongcai - university located here. it's also a newer regional shopping/restaurant hub for south-west
Shuma Square/software park - slick architecuire but a bit isolated right now, though infrastructure is rapidly going in, including the only (to my knowledge) 24 hour McDonalds
Heishijiao - site of japanese "village" by the sea and a long established regional shopping and restaurant hub in south-west. older tenements beginning to be cleared
Xinghai Square - centred around Asia's largest beauty spot/white elephant, this new business district is gaining a increasingly impressive skyline but lacks facilities right now as half the blocks are still empty
Peace Plaza - site of Dalian's tallest building outside the CBD, this area is now mostly new apartments and has a huge shopping and cinema complex
Malan River - an area undergoing rapid transition from smokestacks and derilict industry to new residential complexes. perhaps fittingly, it also has an enormous DIY shopping park.
Jiefang Square/Wuyi Road - an area of contrasts, built up with some new apartment blocks but also containing some really run-down seedy parts. no big shops but plenty restaurants and lots of glitzy "chinese style" coffee houses.
Xi'an Road/Wusi Square - becoming Dalian's "second CBD", or shopping district at least. this area has changed a lot recently with many tall glass buildings. variety of shops doesn't quite match the main CBD yet but it does have three department stores. no real nightlife yet here though.
Malan Square - ticked away in a valley between mountians, this is a regional shopping hub and close to Liaoning Normal University. it contains many older "working class" tenements and farmer's markets. more like a small town than the big city, but new apartments complexes are creeping in
Huabei Road - another definite "working class" area of Dalian, plenty restaurants and little markets among the crumbing tenements. this street is what you thought a Chinese city would look like before you came, but again, some new apartments are being built
Ganjingzi (Airport/Shandong Road/Dalian Wan) - an enormous sprawling area of mostly new but lowish-rise suburbs. some regional clusters of bars, coffee places and business units on Shandong Road
Zhongshan Park/Wuyi Square - mostly an area of newer tenements, with less big high-rises but the imposing TV tower at it's centre. vast area of old cleared tenements and Japanese buildings to the North-East. lst night i saw someone write in the shout box that it was Dalian's gay district ? useful info if that's your thing, but sadly others will need to confirm that one...
Xinkai Road - a somehow odd district, this densely built up cluster of residential and office buildings hasn't really got any shops. to the south are government buildings and beyond that, the pleasant green expanse of People's Square. north of the cluster is cleared land and indistrial detritus, to the east, directly under the new glass office blocks is one of Dalian's most charming Japanese-built districts, but it's still pretty run down to the point of being a slum and rather than spend money on preserve it as a living museum, it'll proabably be flattened soon
Olympic Square - a stadium, a hospital and many apartments surround this large square with astroturf pitches above a huge shopping mall, food court and electronics "city". less cleared blocks than there were but still sleazy on it's south side thanks to JD's nightclub (and of course the painted ladies who prowl the poorly lit tree-lined aveneue of Gaoerji Road by night)
Bayi Square - a large area of older government tenements snaking through the hills, but not as run down as the likes of Huabei Road, thanks to being "sheltered" from countryside sorts by the rest of Dalian
Fujiazhuang - if stony beaches, hotels and Russian tourists are your thing...
Tiger beach (Laohutan) - funfairs, holidaymakers, coastal drives but mainly residential and lacking amenities compared to the main downtown
Jiefang Road - bordered by mountians and heading down to the sea, this strip of run-down Japanese districts and older tenements is rapidly being cleared to make way for new high-rise apartments. still run-down on street level but the views must be lovely from the 35th floor
"Democracy" Square/Russian Street - some of the best Russian architecture around this part. run down and seedy to the north thanks to its proximity to the train station. built up and seedy towards the CBD thanks to the many hotels and Japanese businessmen bars.
Erqi Square to Donghai Park - another area of contrasts, this area is absolute prime real estate land, sandwiched between sea and mountians, but any prospective luxury condo developer first has the "problem" of having many thousand occupants run down districts to evict.
Children's Park/Dawai/Nanshan - tree-lined and mostly low-rise, this is one of Dalian's most pleasant urban districts to stroll through though shops and restaruants are few away from the area directly around the university which has a cluster of coffee houses. new houses (yes, houses !) are upmarket and though the larger houses here have a certain dilapidted grandeur, andare maybe the closest Dalian has to a gentrified area, they are still being cleared, often being replaced by imitation Japanese-style architecture. there is even newly built "Japanese Street". should we be bemoaning the contrived kitch of it all or welcoming it for its attempt at diplomacy and internationalism ?
there's also another urban strip based along the road, whose name i forget, that leads down the valley to Tiger Beach from the other side. it's mainly an area of older run-down government tenements interspersed newer luxury apartment complexes.
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and then the main CBD itself...roughly speaking it's divided into three parts.
West (shopping): Xiwang Square/Qingniwaqiao/Train Station/Labour Park)
Central (business plus Russian architecture): Youhao Square/Zhongshan Square/Renmin Road
East (Restaurants and nightlife)
Gangwan Square/Wuwu Road/Sanba Square
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ok. that's all i can think of. did i just really spend an hour and a half writing all this ?
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Albert
