A Historic Photographic Comparison

Then And Now In its short history of 100 years, Dalian has had many names (Dalny, Dairen, Luda). These names often reflected the period of rule by a foreign power, and those influences left behind on the city. Many American cities in the 1950s were guilty of a post-war drive to modernize, as old historic hand crafted homes gave way to futuristic looking mass produced concrete strip malls. Likewise, as today's Dalian rushes headlong to modernize (like so many other Chinese cities), it is erasing its unique past. This is in the name of progress, but also to heal old wounds that wish to be forgotten. Fortunately, some key places of significance still remain to give witness to Dalian's legacy. A photographic comparison of these locations is presented here, showing how landmarks looked from 1908 to 1938 with their current condition. These vintage picture postcards are used as reference materials, taken from the correspondence collection of Lin Baixue, as noted in the book "Blue Sky Red Tears." At that time, the Japanese colonial city was known as Dairen. Many locations, previously built by the Russians, also remain. The present day pictures are borrowed from the private collection of SongLi and used with permission.

A flash-based brochure of Dalian: then and now with samples from this collection is also available for viewing.

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