History of Dalian
During the 1st and 2nd Opium War, Dalian was invaded and harassed by the British army. As the main battlefield of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and Japanese-Russian War, Dalian suffered great calamity in these two wars in modern history. Consequently, Dalian became Russian and Japanese colony for nearly half a century, meanwhile under the Japanese colonial rule for 40 years. The unconditional surrender of Japan on August of 1945 marks the liberation of Dalian in the anti-fascist war, thus ends 40 years' colonial rule over the city. From 1966 to 1976, Dalian experienced the Cultural Revolution. After 1976, Dalian entered the new period of socialist modernization construction. In 1984, Dalian was approved by the State Council to be the coastal open-up city and was designated as the city with separate economic plan in 1985, enjoying provincial level decision-making authority.