Constructed loading bridges and fortifications with built-in cannons，and set up mining camps on the northern coast of today's Dalian Gulf，making it a small town. After the Russina Empire occupied the region，it was called Dalny(Qing Niwa).Dalian took its present name in 1899.

During the periods of the first and second Opium Wars，the British armed forces carried on their invasion to the Dalian region. As the main battlefields of both the first Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Dalian was plunged into two big wars in its modern history and for half a century，it was a colony of Russia and Japan with Japan's reigning for 40 years. In August 1945，owing to the victory of antifascist war, Dalian was liberated and ended the colonial ruling.