(CFP)

Lying on the east coast of Eurasia and the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsular in northeast China, Dalian stretches from 120°58' to 123°31' east longitude and 38°43' to 40°10' north latitude, covering an area of 12,574 square km. Dalian is the second largest city of Liaoning Province. With the Yellow Sea on the east, Bohai Sea on the west, Dalian is the marine gateway of north China. It is also an important port and a trade, industrial and tourism city. The permanent population of Dalian at the end of 2009 totaled 6.17 million.

Dalian's old city is 2,415 square km and this area abounds with mountains and hills, while plains and lowlands are rarely seen. The terrain, high and broad to the north, low and narrow to the south, tilts to the Yellow Sea on the southeast and the Bohai Sea to the northwest from the center. Mountain regions and long eroded foothills are widely dispersed within the region. Plains and lowlands are only interspersed near the confluence and in some valleys. Karst topography and sea erosion topography are everywhere.

Dalian's GDP in 2009 was 441.77 billion yuan ($65.0 billion), increasing by 15 percent over the previous year calculated at constant prices. Dalian's total output of aquatic products in 2009 was 2.3 million tons, up 5 percent from the previous year.

A 10-day international beer festival has been held in Dalian every summer for 12 years, attracting hundreds of thousands of beer lovers from around the world. Every September Dalian hosts the Dalian International Fashion Festival, where major Chinese and international fashion brands showcase their new products and find buyers. Other major festivals in the city include Dalian International Marathon, China International Software & Information Service Fair and Dalian International Auto Show.

(Source: www.dl.gov.cn)