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. 

早在6000年前，我们的祖先就开发了大连地区。秦汉时期，大连地区属辽东郡辖区。唐朝初期，大连地区属安东都护府积利州的辖区。辽代时大连地区属东京通辽阳府的辖区。大连地区在魏晋时称三山，唐朝时称三山浦，明清时称三山海口、青泥洼口。十九世纪八十年代，清朝于今大连湾岸建海港栈桥、筑炮台、设水雷营，一时成为小镇。沙俄侵占后，称青泥洼。1899年始称大连市。

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. 

第一、二次鸦片战争期间，英军对大连地区进行了侵扰。作为甲午战争和日俄战争的主要战场，大连在近代史上曾遭受两次大的战争浩劫，沦为俄、日殖民地近半个世纪，其中日本的殖民统治达40年。1945年8月，大连从反法西斯战争的胜利中获得解放，结束了殖民统治。 

Dalian was declared one of the first batch of open coastal cities in 1984. In 1999，Dalian held its centennial celebration，and on the occasion of the ceremony, Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the CPC, wrote an epigraph reading“going through the hardships in the past 100 years, the pearl of Northern China looks even brighter" to praise the city. 

1984年，国务院批准大连为首批沿海开放城市。1999年，大连举行百年庆典，中共中央总书一记江泽民同志挥笔写下了“百年风雨洗礼，北方明珠生辉”的题词，对这座城市给予了充分的赞誉。