In 1899, Polish-Russian architect Kazimierz Skolimowski, educated in Munich and St Petersburg, was invited to join the planning team for the Russian Dalni - a future port of world importance on the Chinese coast. Although the plan was signed by the chief engineer Vladimir Sakharov, it was Skolimowski who brought the most modern ideas of late 19th century urban planning, referring to the experience of metropolises such as Paris and London.

The city plan combines the axial baroque layouts familiar from Haussmann's Parisian transformation (from 1853) with the grid of the American 'grid', which, however, due to the terrain, was broken and replaced by a radial-concentric layout. The central point of Dalian becomes the circular Nikolaevsky Square (now Zhongshan Square), from which ten thoroughfares radially diverge. This kind of planning - both functional and monumental - is reminiscent of the concepts of a theatre city, where the urban space is also intended to create an impression of order and prestige.

At the same time, the inspiration of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City movement is discernible, although his concept was only published in 1898, the ideas of green belts and recreational zones were already present in European and American urban planning debates. In the Dalian plan, therefore, we find separate green zones, including an extensive urban park and strips separating residential areas. The city was also designed with functional spatial division in mind, with a clearly separated Chinese and European quarter - which unfortunately introduces the racial urban segregation typical of imperial designs of the era.

The plan shows strong assumptions of a hierarchy of space: from representative boulevards (Moscow Prospect, Kyiv Prospect), to monumental squares, to diverse types of development from commercial to public to residential. The geometric arrangement of the plots, numbered, suggests that the city was intended to be largely subject to land speculation - this was in keeping with the logic of port cities built for global trade.