Dalian.

Dalian faces the sea through several different histories. Around Zhongshan Square, banks, public offices and a railway hotel show how Russian planning and Japanese colonial institutions shaped a commercial port. The tram adds another scale: workshop ingenuity, driving skills and everyday movement. Farther southwest, Lüshun, historically known abroad as Port Arthur, brings the harbour, prison, museum and hilltop memorial into a more difficult conversation about empire and remembrance. Beyond the buildings, Jinshitan exposes sedimentary strata and microbial structures from deep time, while Laotieshan belongs to a migration landscape whose ecological connections reach far beyond Liaoning. The city’s wider territory brings these urban, historical and coastal landscapes into one peninsula.