ASIA – Dalian, a major Chinese seaport, industrial, trade and tourism centre, located on the Liaodong Peninsula, has a new 146,000sqm convention centre, a building that includes an Opera House and an exhibition centre.
Designed by Austrian architect Coop Himmelblau, which designed BMW Welt in Munich and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, the convention centre has been four years in construction in the city in China’s north-east.
The design evokes a seashell and the surface contains a million separate aluminum plates, which change light reflection according to the time of the day or the weather.
“Dalian International Convention Center (DICC) is comparable to the world’s most famous modern buildings. It will also create a new urban lifestyle,” said Wolfgang Haid, the architect in charge of the project.
DICC has an underground level used as logistics and service space. There are four above-ground levels, including a multi-functional hall with a capacity of 1,800 people and six large meeting rooms with capacities ranging from 300 to 800 people.
On the fourth floor, there are 26 smaller meeting rooms, two 32-seat multi-functional VIP rooms and two multimedia meeting rooms.
The centre’s completion comes as Hainan Airlines launched the first direct air link from Northeast China to the United States with a service between Dalian and Seattle.
Recent research from Reed Travel Exhibitions showed that China was the most popular meetings destination in Asia among international conference buyers, with 62 per cent of those polled choosing it ahead of Hong Kong and Thailand.
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