Zhongshan Square Modern Architecture Complex

"Gallery of World Architecture": ten grand banks around a lawn roundabout (ten European-style bank/consulate buildings built 1908-1937: Dalian Hotel / People's Culture Club, etc.), the Japanese colonial era's "Grand Square". Zhongshan Square is the heart of Dalian's modern urban design: between 1908 and 1937, ten European-style bank, consulate and trading-house buildings rose in turn around this lawn roundabout—Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles each given their own expression by architects of different countries, earning the name "Gallery of World Architecture"; the Dalian Hotel (formerly the Yamato Hotel) and the People's Culture Club still serve their original purposes today. In the Japanese colonial period the square was called "Grand Square", with radial roads extending from it across the whole city—the origin point for understanding Dalian's "city of squares" planning; today the old bank buildings still gleam resplendent, one loop of the roundabout is about one kilometer—read the building plaques by day, watch the dome silhouettes under the lights by night; free and remarkably information-dense.

Getting there: Metro Line 2, Zhongshan Square Station