Back to feed
Society
Reading a City: Overseas Chinese Media Tour Visits the Dalian Urban Planning Exhibition Center
Reporter 王子龙
On September 18, the 2026 'Chasing the Chinese Dream, Discovering Liaoning' overseas Chinese-language media delegation visited the Dalian Urban Planning Exhibition Center. Representatives from 17 overseas Chinese-language media outlets across 12 countries and regions, together with central Chinese media outlets, toured the large public-service facility that combines planning exhibitions, public participation and planning exchange under one roof. The center is a branch of the Dalian Planning and Surveying Affairs Service Center, an institution under the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources, and serves as a key window for promoting Dalian to domestic and international audiences and showcasing the city's historical transformation, present conditions and future development.
The delegation learned that the center covers a site area of about 10,000 square meters and a total floor area of roughly 30,000 square meters, with four floors above ground and one below: floors one through three house the exhibition halls, the fourth floor holds offices and meeting rooms, and the basement contains equipment and civil-defense facilities. Construction began in July 2013, the center began trial operation in April 2016, and it formally opened to the public in March 2018.
The delegation first entered the first-floor exhibition hall, themed 'Looking Back on the City's History, Sensing Dalian's Cultural Heritage,' which uses a wealth of historical photographs, footage and artifacts to systematically trace the development of Dalian's urban construction.
In the 'Fangcheng Liaonan' section, a guide used restored models of the ancient walled cities and historical maps to walk the delegation through the evolution of Dalian's site selection and urban layout, from the ancient towns of Jinzhou and Lüshunkou to the city's opening as a treaty port in the modern era; the hall also displays actual tramcars and archival footage from Dalian's history — from the earliest models to the self-designed Type 8000 tram introduced in 1997 and the Type 621 tram that kept running until around 2014 after the era of reform and opening-up — with these 'little trams' stringing together a century of changing streetscapes across the city.
Moving up to the second floor, the exhibition hall — themed 'Interpreting Urban Planning, Leading Dalian's Future' — concentrates on the city's latest planning and construction achievements and its blueprint for the future, pairing physical planning models with digital displays so visitors can intuitively grasp the city's spatial layout and direction of growth.
At the center of the second-floor hall, a large digital city model shows Dalian's geography in real time — bordered by the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west — with roads, rail transit and built-up areas layered in light to vividly trace the city's spatial structure. Display boards around the model also present planning models for major projects such as the Dalian International Conference Center and the Sports Center, as well as the new development model for the Dalian Taipingwan Cooperation Innovation Zone — built around 'innovation-driven growth, dual domestic-international circulation, central state-owned enterprise clusters and Northeast China's revitalization' — showcasing the city's forward-looking industrial layout and frontier of opening-up.
Walking from the historical images on the first floor to the planning model on the second, what struck this reporter was that the center does more than turn urban planning into wall panels — from the texture of old streets in archival photographs to the city skyline taking shape on the model table, the visitor route itself reads like a timeline for 'reading the city,' letting the visiting overseas Chinese-language media grasp, in half an hour, the logic behind Dalian's transformation from a port town into a modern metropolis.
On the third floor, the exhibition theme shifts to 'Caring for the Urban Ecology, Showcasing Dalian's Wisdom,' presenting the city's distinctive ecological strengths alongside its development philosophy of putting people's livelihoods first and building quality into the city — underscoring the connection between urban planning, ecological protection and public well-being.
The delegation was told that since opening, the center has received numerous honors, including recognition as a popular-science base of the Ministry of Natural Resources, a civilized work unit of Liaoning Province, a volunteer service base of the Communist Youth League Liaoning Provincial Committee, a social science popularization demonstration base of Liaoning Province, a Party member ideological education base of the Dalian Municipal Committee's Organization Department, a journalist practice base of the Dalian Municipal Committee's Publicity Department, as well as a teaching practice base for several local universities, an off-campus classroom for patriotic education, and an off-campus teaching base designated by the Dalian Municipal Education Bureau.
The center sits next to the Dalian municipal government on the east side of People's Square, making it easily accessible: Exit A of Yierjiu Jie Station on Metro Line 2 leads directly to it, and numerous bus routes — including 406, 701, 23, 531, 43, 505, 707, 11, 515, 22, 24, 517, 708, 710, 405, 16, 15, 532, 533, 19, 303 and 702 — stop nearby.
The Dalian Urban Planning Exhibition Center is understood to have become an important window for the public to understand the city's development since its official opening in 2018, and it remains free to the public on a long-term basis. A center representative said it will continue to welcome visitors from China and abroad to tour and exchange ideas, jointly bearing witness to the port city's journey toward becoming a modern metropolis.
