It's often discussed by expats here how difficult it is to get people in our home countries to understand the magnitude of change occurring in China. Despite the coming Olympics and growing news coverage of Chinese affairs, old stereotypes persist.

"We've had people show up here expecting to see dusty streets and Chinese farmers in pointy hats," said Victor Jansson, who works in the business development division of the Dalian Software Park. It's his job to promote China's biggest software park, and wining and dining first-time visitors from around the world is part of his job.

Dalian is off the radar for most people, a city that most have either never heard of or have no idea of its whereabouts. For the record, it's on a peninsula about an hour flight northeast of Beijing, and this scenic waterfront city is continually rated as China's most livable.

Dalian is making a name for itself as China's outsourcing headquarters. According to the vice-president of the China Sourcing website, which works to link Chinese providers with overseas buyers, China drew just over $2 billion US last year in revenue from the outsourcing industry, compared to India's $40 billion.

But the industry in China is on a strong upward trajectory thanks to a high number of low-cost talent with strong university educations and good English skills. The average salary of an IT professional is under $500 US a month.

British Telecommunications opened in the park last September, and it's gone so well they have since put a claim on another building for planned expansion. BT has joined HP, GE, IBM, Sony, Dell, Toshiba, and others who are already in the park, bringing the total to nearly 400 companies.

The first and second phases of the park are complete, and cover more than three square kilometres. When everything is finished -- including two new huge developments and a resort and leisure area for employees -- it will spread out over 30 square kilometres, taking up roughly half of Dalian.

"Clients are shocked when they arrive to see state-of-the-art technologies, beautiful offices, and well-dressed staff speaking perfect English," Jansson notes, which makes his job of selling the zone a whole lot easier.

Although once one sees Dalian, most of the sales job is already complete. Since arriving in the seaside city, I've been pleasantly surprised with what I've seen: A well-developed, modern town that already seems beyond China's furious pace of construction. Cranes are few and far between, the boulevards are clean, the grass green. It's a rare sight: A Chinese city where everything seems already finished.

"When we were preparing to come to China, we were looking in Beijing and Shanghai because those were the only two cities we heard of," an English teacher named Jeff, told me. "We were set to come to Beijing, but got an offer from Dalian at the last minute. This city is great, and having visited Beijing, I think we made the right choice," he said.

Jeff is from Indianapolis and said he and his wife planned on staying in Dalian for one year. Almost two years have passed, and at this point, Jeff says he has no plans to leave: "The lifestyle here is great."

If you have heard of Dalian, it may be from last year's Davos Summer Forum, which was held in Dalian last August. The world's best and brightest -- along with a huge number of international media -- descended on the town for the forum, and gave Dalian its moment in the spotlight. The conference centre that hosted the forum is a giant state-of-the-art all-glass building in beautiful Xinghai Square, which locals told me is Asia's largest square.

There are downsides to the city; being on the north coast means cold winters, although nothing that would scare Canadians, surely.

Thanks to the lack of manufacturing in Dalian, pollution is hardly visible at all, making Dalian a rare Chinese city with regular blue-sky days. It's already nearly overrun with Japanese business people and companies, and hearing the language on Dalian's streets is common. (Dalian was under Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and many here still speak Japanese.) It also has some good Japanese and western restaurants to compliment Dalian's famous seafood, although, executives at the Software Park told me, more are needed.

Because China is so large, and so much is happening in nearly every region of this country, stories like the development of Dalian often fail to make the headlines. But for those who live here, keeping Dalian a secret seems all right with them.

<-- pagination start -->