Short question to Dalian / Amount of westerners

[enimeni]

Hello everybody!

first, this is my first posting in generally, and therfore i want to say how great i think this forum is! I've read really lots of very usefull articles here about China.

So, and now to the reason of my posting. I'm thinking of going to Dalian next year and have a short question about the amount of westerners there. I've read in several postings (yes, i've used the search function! ;) ) about Dalian that one advantage of the city is the relatively low amount of westerners. Is this still so? Or has this changed significant in the meantime? How is the amount today in the city and at the universities?

Thanks in advance for answering this question,

enimeni

[roddy]

The foreign population in Dalian is mostly Korean and Japanese. There are quite a few westerners around, as there are a number of large foreign companies in the city, but not an overwhelming number.

[AxelManbow]

The semi-official number this spring was around 3000 Westerners, anecdote suggests that's fallen a little.

Many live in residences of hotels, a few hundred at least. Some others are students, some more teachers. Depending on the university or language school you attend you may or may not have English speaking class mates.

The Western population is sufficiently large to allow you to find friends with common interests, and sufficiently small to allow you to avoid any Western contact at all, should you so wish.