DalianDalian.com

For months Dalian's business gossip has been about Dalian hosting the 2009 Summer Davos, having already hosted in first 2007 meeting and this year's meeting in nearby Tianjin.

Xinhua reports:

The northeast China port city of Dalian is hoping to cement its place in the World Economic Forum (WEF) schedules by winning the third "Annual Meeting of the New Champions" in September next year, said Dalian Mayor Xia Deren

He said Dalian's selection for the third annual meeting of the New Champions indicated "a continuation of the cooperation between Dalian and the WEF and marked a new level of cooperation".  read more »

+graemetric- 發表相片：

Two women check their appearance in the one-way glass facade of a downtown skyscraper before returning to the office from their lunch break.

Dalian, China, June 2007.

An interesting story about offshore schools supporting Canada's higher education sector. [A proxy is necessary to visit as wordpress.com is blocked inside mainland China.]

Maple Leaf, in Dalian in 1997, pioneered Canada's Offshore Certification Program established by British Columbia in Canada. "This was initially set up as a pilot project with only a small number of students. Today the school has approximately 2,300 students and there are ten BC certified offshore schools; nine in China and one in Egypt."

Significantly, this is an example of a service export from the West that has huge potential for growth. The potential is not based on current profits, but from the chain it feeds:  read more »

+graemetric- posted a photo:  read more »

NOTE: This event is being held in Shenyang, not Dalian.

The 2007 Northeast Asia Advanced Technology Exposition will run from Sept. 19th through Sept. 22nd and there are a wide variety of events (you can choose which ones might be of interest; no need to attend them all.) I've attached a hastily translated copy of the agenda for your review. Besides the events themselves, the conference should be a good opportunity to network with government officials, and representatives from a significant number of foreign companies will also be in attendance, although I don't have a list of all of them. If you're interested, please reply to this email to let me know which events you would like to attend so that I can forward the RSVPs to my contact in the provincial government. She has asked that RSVPs be confirmed by next Tuesday, the 11th.  read more »