Dalian Development Area

Dalian Development Area (DDA; Chinese: 大连开发区) is located in Jinzhou District, Dalian, Liaoning province, China as the first Economic and Technological Development Zones nationwide in 1984.

History

It was established in September, 1984 under the former name is Dalian Economic and technological Development Zone (Chinese: 大连经济技术开发区) or Dalian Development Zone (DDZ), but has been changed to this new name for several years, due to the much extended range of the territory, including Dalian Free Trade Zone (Chinese: 大连保税区) to its south and Dalian DD Port (Chinese: 双D港) to its east, and the economy level. Now DDA is a fast-expanded city, in a territory of 338 square kilometers, with a population of 360,000, which includes 31 ethnic groups, including the Han, Man, Hui, Chaoxian( Korean), Mongolian and other nationalities.

Location

DDA is located to the north of Dalian's urban area. The distance between Dalian and DDA is about 30 kilometers. The city is within Jinzhou District, east of Jinzhou's urban center.

Dalian Free Trade Zone

To the south of the Development Zone was created Dalian Free Trade Zone.

Dalian DD Port

To the east of the Development Zone, on the way to Jinshitan, was established Dalian DD Port, so named from Digital and DNAof the Bio industry.

Economy

DDA had a GDP of 70.31 billion yuan in 2007, this number is 2000 times more than the number it had when it was established 23 years ago in 1984. The total volume of import and export trade is 14.92 billion dollars, which accounts for a quarter of the whole Liaoning Province's, or a half of the whole Dalian's. According to the statistics in 2006, DDA created a total of 1.4 billion yuan, or 0.15 billion yuan per square kilometer.

Most of the enterprises in DDA are factories owned by foreign capital, especially from Japan, South Korea, Germany and USA, such as Canon, Pfizer, Toshiba, Volkswagen and Intel. There are also some big factories invested by domestic capital. For instance, the biggest household appliance manufacturer of China and the fourth biggest in the world, Haier, has a factory in DDA.

Nowadays, as the whole economy is developing fast, the DDA-owned industry is getting stronger as well. A group of enterprises controlled by DDAers are approaching a high level.

Shopping

Shopping is now easier, on Jinma Road and Benxi Street, at Mykal and New Mart department stores, and other supermarket and specialty stores. There are many Western, Japanese and Korean restaurants as well as Chinese restaurants.

Entertainment

Hotels

There are good hotels on the main Jinma road in DDA. Dalian Inn Fine Hotel, Dongfang Mansion, Kerren Hotel, Jinyuan Hotel to name a few. Prices are reasonable and services are good. Most of these hotels have coffee shops and cafes that are open 24 hours.

Gugeng International Service Apartment is located in a high rise building situated on Jinma road. The service apartments can be hired with prices ranging from budget to luxury. These service apartments are popular among expatriates who visit Dalian for intermediate periods as it has a Japanese restaurant, a coffee shop and a golf simulator within this service apartment complex.

Education

Colleges and Universities

• Dalian University
• Dalian University of Nationalities
• Continuous Education School and Software School, Dalian University of Technology
• DDA School, Dalian University of Foreign Languages

Other Special Schools^[1]

• Dalian Maple Leaf International School
• Dalian Korean International School
• Dalian School for Models

Entertainment

Nearby to the east of DDA is Dalian Jinshitan National Tourist Holiday Resort, where there are: Gilden Pebble Beach (Jinshitan) International Golf Course, Discovery Kingdom, etc..

Transportation

It takes about 30 minutes to reach DDA from Dalian by car. There is Dalian Metro which connects DDA with the Dalian city center. Its extension to Jinzhou has started service in december 2008 and to Lüshun is in the plan.

See also

• Dalian
• Jinzhou District
• Dalian High-Tech Zone
• Dalian Software Park

References

1. ^ Dalian Japanese School is away in Dalian's city center, on the Yellow Sea coast called Fujiazhuan.

External links

• Official Website