Dalian tips
 

Hi All,

I'll be in Dalian for 4 days in September and am looking for suggestions for fun / interesting things to do there. For me "fun" and "interesting" usually include authentic eating and food shopping (food markets and outside eating especially appreciated), places to see people doing what they do there, and shopping - especially for second-hand / old stuff. They don't usually include monuments or sports.

I'll be doing this tourism on my own.

All suggestions very welcome, and thanks!

JayCey

Great, clean city with a lousy airport. Also one of the few places in China to feature a tram line. The beaches are famous for Chinese standards but then everything is relative...None are especially quiet or serene but that wouldn't suit Chinese tastes anyway. ;)

You'll have to try the grilled fish and seafood at one of the street vendors,absolutely delicious. They're packed with locals so probably the produce should be quite ok.

I'd echo Mosburger's comments about the cleanliness of the city, seems like another country vs the rest of China in that respect.

Great seafood all throughout the city, my favorite is at Wanbao Haixianfang, across from Labor Park near the Kempinski and Swissotel.

Dalian has an interesting history, with Russia, England, and Japan all having controlled the area at various times, and remnants of old Russia architecture can still be found there (on Russia Culture Street, of course).

Dalian golf
 

A neat costal port city to visit in September. As others have said the seafood is great there.

For sports, if you like 'golf' there is a Ocean course called "Dalian Golden Pebble Beach" & its a top course. the course & tourist park are just north of the city.
I would play golf there and skip the local tourist park, but i am a golf nut & enjoy any good ocean type golf courses here in china. Only played about a dozen courses here in China, but this is one of the best !. ( You can pick your caddy there)

Dalian is a very nice city.Streets are clean and people are nice. Seafood is great,one of their specialty is sea cumber YUCK!

Take a trip to Russian street- Russian food and many side food kiosks and merchandise vendors.There Marine land( like a miniature Sea world) it is so so.
There are sightseeing boat trips cost a few bucks nice to go out on a hot day.Taxis are plentiful. Where are you staying?

Just get into the city, find a map from the hotel, and go from there. Great street eating (seafood and everything else you can think of).

Go down to the waterfront where the big bridge and amusement park are, great for walking around.

I've booked at the Shangri-La, and would love to hear people's comments about that Shangri-La (I've only ever used that hotel in Singapore before, where it is/was stellar).

Are there particularly good streets for street food (as there are in other cities in China)?

thanks all!

lousy airport because?

Hopefully its better than the IC.
Clueless staff managed by an incompetent GM.

Airport
 

Flew in Dalian a couple times.The city is very clean and the airport a bit old and not the cleanest, also very few shopping venues.It pretty small for the size of the city.It does makes baggage collecting and security a breeze. Cabs are easy to get and never found a dishonest one. Dalian is one of my favorite cities in China.

Ask your hotel when you get there. There is a pretty cool street near the Holiday Inn Express, I can't remember the name right now.

Also, lots of night action near the KTV close to the convention center. Then again, KTV = night action.