Dairen - Dalian - Dalny
Yamato Hotel
(Dalian Hotel)
From a 1927 travel book:
he visitor to Dairen, South Manchuria, who steps down from a drosky in front of the Yamato Hotel, scarcely realizes that he is in China, especially in a part of the once Celestial Empire that thirty years ago was in an almost primitive state. The marquis over the entrance and the great majestic façade itself give one the impression that he is in Paris. This Yamato Hotel is one of the chain of five large hotels maintained by the South Manchurian Railway in its effort to modernize and open up this richly endowed part of China which is now under the “Open Door Policy,” with Japan exercising control as a lessee.
These hotels, all of them known as Yamato Hotels, have been established in Dairen, Port Arthur, Mukden, and all of them are modern to the last word. That at Dairen, the headquarters city of the railway, is the largest and most imposing, but all of them are attractive architecturally, with no trace of the oriental in their design. These houses have all been erected within the last ten years, and would be creditable to any European or American city
There were three Yamato hotels in Dairen, now called Dalian. (Yamato was the name of an old Japanese province, and because of its importance, at one time stood for all of Japan.)
The first hotel, called simply No.1, was built in 1914 on the main traffic circle. Dairen, originally called Dalny, was established in 1899 by the czar of Russia but was lost in 1905 to the Japanese, who ruled it for the next 40 years, during which time it became an efficient, orderly city, expanding on the Russian plans for circles, parks and well-laid streets. After the war it was reclaimed by the Russians, who gave it back to the Chinese in 1955.
Today, now called Dalian, it is a vibrant port city of 5.5 million in one of the most heavily developed industrial areas of China. The city also has the reputation of being one of the cleanest. The Yamato Hotel, now called the Dalian Hotel, still stands on Zhongshan Square, formerly the Great Square. It is a protected national monument.
G.H. Thomas wrote of Dairen in January 1937
We walked a short distance down a wide avenue and across a park circle reminiscent of Washington, D.C., The people in the streets were about equally divided between Japanese and Chinese, the Japanese women as usual dominating the scene as far as color was concerned.
We spent an hour or so in the bar of the Yamato over some beer, chatting and watching a billliard game. The billiard attendants were attractive Japanese in kimono, obi and tabi.
Note: images on this page are not included in the book “An American in China.”
Site still under construction
Lobby of the Yamato Hotel in early 20th century in turn-of-the-
century style, potted palms and all.
View of Great Square from roof of Yamato Hotel in 1920’s-30’s.
Building with domes is Yokohama Specie Bank,
but now houses Bank of China.
The Great Square today, now called Zhongshan Square.
The building with green domes at left of the circle was
the Yokohama Specie Bank.
Dairen Wharf in 1930s.
Street in Old Dairen, looking toward the second Yamato Hotel
now the Dalian Museum.
Yokohama Specie Bank
Surely one of the finest old buildings in Dairen,
the Yokohama Specie Bank was designed in 1909 by the Japanese architect Ota Tsuyoshi in the familiar Specie Bank style with three green domes. Branches of this bank were built all over the East with this characteristic feature.
The Dairen Police Station
Also located
on the Great Square, now called Zhongshan, it is still standing.
now called Zhong
This charming gingerbread mansion used to be the
South Manchurian Railway's shipping department.
It was built in 1902, when Dairen was called Dalny and under Russian
control , by a team of Russian and German architects.
It is still standing today.
It w It was primarily the Russians who laid out the city with broad avenues
and a circular grid. Here is an old bridge however built by the Japanese
and a magical view of the sea and mountains beyond.
Several scenes in Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Last Emperor"
were shot in Dairen, now called Dalian. Above the Yokohama Specie Bank, built in 1909. Much has changed since the filming
in 1987.
in front is the back of the famed Yamato Hotel, where the author played billiards in 1937.
The once impressive prewar buildings now look dwarfed by the high-rises.
For a photographic tour of the truly extraordinary modern city of Dalian, visit Skyscraper City Web Site