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For business
reasons, I have been to Dalian for 5 times within just 5 months
since last October. Actually, Dalian was neither a hometown
nor a familiar place to the southerners as I, but I really
began to fall in love with her for its captivating intrinsic
attractions.
Some days
before the advent of Spring Festival, I had a chance to call
on Mr. Xilai Bo, Mayor of the city of Dalian, who was among
the few successful cadres of the Young Turks in China with
the dignified origin of being the son of Yibo Bo, an old cadre
of Chinese Communist Party. Mayor Bo began to speak heartily
to me about Dalian in great details, showing a profound vein
of confidence and pride in his words. "Dalian is a young
city at the age of no more than 100, but on the contrary,
we have the best harbors, largest vessels, sweetest apples,
freshest abalone, best-quality diamond and so on and so forth,
which are all the ones ranked top of the standings in China.
Aside from those forementioned ones, Dalian also enjoys the
good reputations of being the City of Soccer, the City of
Fashion and the Home to Track and FieldĄ" He paused
for a second at this, and then kept on to say "Dalian
citizens in nature are open-minded, straight and upright but
not at all conservative, modern-driven, initiative and invigorated;
in addition, Dalian citizens, out of their inherent nature
of hospitability and accommodation, are eager to make friends
with all people both home and abroad in hopes of co-sharing
the happiness and joy generated from the development potentials
in Dalian.
Greatly
touched by the impressive guest-entertaining practice
When
the time came for us to bidding farewell to each other, Mayor
Bo personally handed two exquisite gifts over to me. One of
them was a Dalian-shape bronze carving, delicate in craftsmanship
and eye-catching in outlook. And the other one was an adorable
mascot named Happy Clown, whose package looked extremely elegant
by having had four striking words "I love Da Lian"
embedded in. It's true that the four words "I Love Da
Lian" are just what I have had in my mind and am about
to blast out from the bottom of my heart. I can't help humming
out the self-made verse "I love ten of Dalian" in
the tune of Huangmei Opera.
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The Huangmei-tuned
verse was made by the style of a tune in the film "Chinese
Romeo and Juliet" starring Bo Ling, who was widely famous
in the sixties in China for the role of "Brother Liang"
in that film. I was so beguiled with the melodious tune that
I finally came up with an idea to make it over into an expression
of my innermost affections toward the city of Dalian.
Firstly,
I love Dalian's glorious history
Dalian, since
the ancient times back to its history, has been a strategically
significant site in terms of its richness. During the period
of Warring States (403 B.C.-221 B.C.), it was subordinated
to the state of Yan under the jurisdiction of Liaodong County.
Starting from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) on, for
the continuous warfare reasons, some people from Shandong
and Hebei had moved and settled here, giving rise to the incubation
of the funny phenomenon of Shandong dialect dominating over
the local Northeastern dialect. In the modern history, Dalian,
under the colonial rules of the Tsarist Russia and Japanese
imperialists for nearly half a century, reinstated its independent
status and returned to its motherland's bosom after the Anti-Japanese
War (1937 A.D.-1945 A.D.). Now, Dalian is assuming the stance
of one of the Opening-Up Coastal Cities and Economically-Favorable
Municipalities in China, enjoying the preference of economically
administrative jurisdiction at the provincial level.
Secondly,
I love Dalian's agreeable climate
As a man having
once lived on the edge of the scorching equator area and the
frigid Arctic Circle respectively for nearly 20 years, I have
a much clearer sense of the unbearably hot and cold weather.
However, upon my arrival in Dalian sometime in late autumn
or mid winter, which I had anticipated to be very cold at
that time, I, to my great astonishment, didn't have myself
harassed by the expected piercingly cold weather. It was as
if I were in a spring day in Canada when I was taking my walk
in the broad and clean road in my overcoat, with the breeze
with a smattering of sea smell caressing me in the cheek.
To date, I haven't got the chance to go seeing the captivating
sights of its spring and summer, but I have learnt a great
deal from a report that Dalian is agreeable in climate with
the distinctive changing of the seasons every year, neither
extremely hot in summer nor cold in winter, which I believe
is absolutely true.
Thirdly,
I love Dalian's advantageous location
In North America,
the most favorite cities to me are Vancouver and Seattle,
which are both washed by the Pacific Ocean on the west and
adjacent to the vast stretch of the North America hinterland
on the east. Dalian, in this sense, is similar to the two
cities, with its position lying on the nearly same latitude
as the two cities do. Located in the southernmost tip of the
Liaodong Peninsula, Dalian faces the Yellow Sea on its east,
and the Bohai Sea on its west, borders on the vast span of
the three provinces of the Northeast China and Inner Mongolia
on its north and overlooks the Shandong Peninsula across the
sea to its south, serving as a marine portal for Beijing and
Tianjin in North China. Thanks to the comprehensive roles
he has played as an important harbor and a city of trade,
industry and tourism in China, Dalian has more and more been
widely addressed as "Another Hong Kong in the North".
Moreover, in the regard of its blessed advantageous geographic
location, with itself centering in the trading circle of Northeast
Asia and neighboring Japan, South Korea and the Fareast Region
of the Russian Federation around its sides, Dalian stands
equal to its counterparts on the both sides of the North American
continent.
Fourthly,
I love Dalian's advanced concept
 It
is well known to me that the city layout planning of Dalian
is regularly carried out on the basis of extensive acceptance
of the experiences and suggestions of the experts from both
home and abroad. Once you are roaming in the streets of Dalian,
you will find yourself greatly taken aback by its layout,
architectures and patches of lawns strewn here and there,
without mentioning the conspicuously tidy and clean settings
hardly seen in some other cities. Recently the municipal government
has formulated a strategy for its future development stated
as "Develop port-featured economy by both further opening
up to the outside world and implementing the advancement in
technology and science so as to pursue the overall development
in all the regions". In line with the strategy, they
have also laid out their goal of realizing an increase of
11% in GDP for 1999 with the new economy-improvement orientations
extended to regional economy, non-public ownership economy,
hi-tech industry and tourism industry.
Fifthly,
I love Dalian's glamorous environment
The people
of Dalian have succeeded in face-lifting their beloved city
into a garden-style and square-scattering international cosmopolis
based on the principle of
"doing the best if not the biggest". So far, Dalian
has been embellished with five parks, 70 gardens and lawns
and 24 squares. Whether it is the fascinating sea-adjoining
Xinghai Square, or the crystal-globe-centered Youhao Square,
or the evergreen People Square, or the Music Theme Circle,
they are all the mouthpieces of the efforts and determinations
the government has made to better service its people and to
improve the people's living standard. Dalian, while she is
on her way to the best, is striving for the largest to the
fullest use of her top priority. Dalian brags herself to be
the largest vessel-exporting base and a shipyard manufacturing
the largest vessels in China.
Sixthly,
I love Dalian's abundant resources
Thanks to
the agreeable climate and the long coastline, Dalian stands
out as a major fruit and aquatic products breast basket in
China, with its fruits like apples, yellow peaches and its
aquatic products like abalone, prawn, sea cucumber and scallop
being widely recognized both in China and abroad. In respect
of natural resources, Dalian keeps a large reserve of super-quality
diamonds of nearly half of the total in China. Among the variety
of aquatic products, I prefer abalones best, which account
for half of the nation's total yield. During the session of
the two conferences (the Plenary Session of the National Peoples'
Congress and the Plenary Session of Chinese People's Political
Consultative Committee), I happened to get acquainted with
Mr. Wei Han in Beijing, who was an abalone magnate in Dalian.
He invited me to taste the rare delicacies along with him
someday in the future. How fascinating it is to me at the
thought of chance to savor what it is called "the world's
dainty".
Seventhly,
I love Dalian's genuine hospitality
The people
in the Northeastern part of China are well known for their
straightforward, upright and down-to-earth characters. It's
also true with the leaders of the Dalian government, who are
so far-sighted and accommodating that a great number of foreigners
have been to Dalian to make investment and start up.
When I was in Beijing, I got a chance to meet with Mr. Qingmin
Lin, Chairman of Dalian Political Consultative Committee,
on an invitation of a friend of mine. Then and there, Chairman
Lin began to elaborate to me on the local cultures and constructions
of Dalian, whose easygoing talking manner left me a deep impression
about him.
Afterwards during my inspection tour around Dalian, I was
again deeply impressed and touched by the hospitable and enthusiastic
leaders and supervisors from Dalian Economic and Technological
Development Zone and Dalian Hi-Tech Zone. They should have
been the rivals in business promotions, but on the contrary
they were so warmhearted as to offer the investors a good
comparative analysis with reference to the counterpart's advantages
and even voluntarily took us to drop by them. This phenomenon
rarely seen elsewhere is truly a solid evidence of their faithful
dedications to devote all themselves to the development of
the investment industry of Dalian.
Eighthly,
I love Dalian's vigorous girls
Due to the benign climate and the high-level education, Dalian
girls are lovely and charming in appearance. Nevertheless,
they are also in possession of a sort of quality and spirit
of which the people of Dalian are quite proud.
The female leaders are open-minded in character and outspoken
in talk as much as a man behaves; the female directors in
charge of business promotions are no less elegant in speech
and refined in conduct than a noted female entrepreneur is;
the female rangers are so peerlessly dashing in look that
they are widely accepted as the "Spectacle of Dalian";
even the young ladies working in Karaoke cabarets are not
only excellent in singing and dancing but also so well-educated
as to be able to speak a few foreign languages or local dialects,
among which Japanese, English, Cantonese and Taiwan dialects
are commonly used. They are all the girls of gentleness and
grace.
Ninthly,
I love Dalian's colorful cultures
Every year,
a wide variety of international culture-exchanging events
are held in Dalian, of which the world-famous Dalian International
Fashion Festival ranks the highest in reputation. Besides,
some other big events such as the Spring Fireworks Festival,
Dalian Acacia Festival, Dalian International Marathon Race,
Bingyu Ice Lantern Festival, etc. have enriched the cultural
lives of the Dalian People to a great extent.
The People of Dalian have been systematically and well cultivated
since they are in the very young ages. Mayor Bo once showed
me a collection of calligraphy by the pupils of South Hill
Elementary School, in which different famous styles of calligraphy
were included such as the styles of Yan, Zhao, Ou and Liu.
Although the handwritings came out of the hands of the pupils
and were a little bit immature, I still thought they came
out having strictly followed the styles. Of all of them I
liked one copy handwritten by a pupil of eleven years best,
which was a seven-character quatrain titled On the Mountain
Holiday by Wei Wang of the Tang Dynasty (618A.D.-907 A.D.).
It went like this: All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day. When brothers carry dogwood
up the mountain,
each of them a branch -- and my branch missing.
I was deeply moved to tears at the four lines, for it was
the heartfelt expression of how much I, who grew up in Vietnam,
went for education in Taiwan, established career in Canada
and made contributions in China Mainland, was missing my old
friends and dear relatives.
Tenthly,
I love Dalian's exemplary roles
The great
achievements and the progress Dalian has made so far are widely
accepted nationwide. One day I asked a leader in a city of
Shandong Province to compare his city with Dalian. Full of
praise and jealousy in his words, he replied with "modeling
on Shanghai to the south and modeling on Dalian to the north".
Having covered nearly everywhere in China, I stand firmly
behind Dalian to have a credit for her good example set to
the other cities in China. Greatly thanks to both my personal
experiences in Dalian and the three documents offered by the
Dalian Municipal Government respectively named Dalian China,
Survey of Dalian and Around Dalian, I finally was able to
work out this article. However, on the other hand, I believe
it is too sketchy about Dalian to cover every corner of the
beautiful city on the earth. It is not until you have stayed
there for a period of time that you will be able to make out
how beautiful and appealing it is. It's not a bit overstated
to describe today's Dalian as the paradise on the earth.
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