How many people live in Dalian?

Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 3:51 p.m. by Chris Amico in The Dalian Life

On certain days, according to certain people, Dalian has a population somewhere around 2 million. The next day, if you ask someone else, more than 6 million live in the city. So, really, how many people live in Dalian?

Well, Alex finally did some much needed digging for our new site and posted the breakdown. Turns out both numbers are right, sort of, because Dalian isn't really just Dalian. Consider:

Zhongshan District (中山区 zhōngshān qū), Xi Gang District (西岗区 xīgǎng qū), Sha He Kou District (沙河口区 shāhékǒu qū), Gang Jing Zi District (甘井子区 gānjǐngzǐ qū) and slightly further afield: Lushun Kou District (旅顺口区 lǚshùnkǒu qū), Jinzhou District (金州区 jīnzhōu qū) plus Kai Fa Qu (开发区) and Jin Shi Tan (金石滩 jīnshítān) lying within the region of Jinzhou District. The Dalian Region further consists: Wafangdian County (瓦房店市), Pulandian County (普兰店市) and Zhuganghe County (庄河市 zhuānghé shì). Note the Chinese character '市' means city, in English these would be county-level cities. There are also some outlying islands, Chang Hai County.
What does it add up to? Two million in what I'd properly call the city. Six million in Greater Dalian. A full explanation is at DalianDalian.com.

Comments:

jun 20, 2007 at 2:54 a.m. // Kevin S. said:

I had a similar problem when I lived in Weifang. I would ask people the population of Weifang, and if I got any response at all it was 8 million. Well, there's no way the city is that large, so I'm assuming people are referring to all of Weifang county with that figure. However, when I would ask about the city proper, as opposed to the county, people would either say 8 million or shrug. I think it's safe to say that the city itself is somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000.

jun 20, 2007 at 6:07 a.m. // Chris said:

One hundred thousand to one million? That's a huge spread. Did you type that right?

Dandong is about 700,000 and ZhuangHe, technically part of Dalian, is 900,000, so anything close to 100,000 sounds like a farming village (in China, anyway).

jun 20, 2007 at 10:07 p.m. // Kevin S. said:

This way I've got a pretty good chance of being right. :)

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