Dalian Sun Valley

Dalian Sun Valley

Lushunkou District is an "open-air museum" of modern history for both China and the world. In the film and entertainment industry, there’s a long-standing saying: if you want to shoot a modern drama, choose Dalian; if you want to shoot a period drama, choose Lushun’s Sun Valley. In Sun Valley, Lushun, you can spot old houses everywhere—Puyi, Kawashima Yoshiko, Luo Zhenyu… You might not realize it, but some unassuming old building nearby could have once been visited by a historical figure.

In 1898, facing the newly established Lushunkou base, Russia’s first military and civil governor, Major General Sukhotin, wanted to demolish the old city streets left from the Li Hongzhang era and build a new European-style city on that foundation. Lushunkou District can be called "half of China’s modern history," and in recent years has become an important filming location for TV dramas and movies. Sun Valley, Lushun, with its unique historical architecture and landscapes, has become a scenic highlight. It was here that Alexeyev, the illegitimate son of Tsar Alexander II and brother of Alexander III, came to take office as the head of the “Guandong Governorate.”

A brand-new European-style city was to be built along the seashore west of the Long River in Sun Valley. Over the following two to three years, public buildings such as the Ministry of Finance, the Military Government Office, the Russian Army Headquarters, the Post and Telegraph Bureau, the Local Court, the Russo-Chinese Bank, and the Officers’ Club were erected one after another around the central square. In just a few short years, a small European-style town capable of housing 40,000 to 50,000 Russian troops and support staff was built from scratch on the wasteland.

Scenic Area Address: Chuncheng Road, Lushunkou District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Transportation: Take a bus from Dalian to Lushunkou, then transfer to bus routes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 18, or 19 to reach the area.