Dalian Huayi

Promotion out of China League Two at the end of the 2024 season put the side into the second tier, and the year that took them there was also the year the name on the shirt changed. In February 2024 Dalian Huayi became Dalian K'un City. Supporters who had followed the first two seasons kept using the old name for a while.

The club came out of the Liaoning Pilot Free Trade Zone's Dalian area in May 2022. Its route up began in the third-tier Chinese Champions League, where the 2023 campaign ended in the knockout stage against Rizhao Yuqi — a 1-1 draw settled 3-2 on penalties, and seventh place overall.

The more durable record from that season came off the pitch. On 3 September 2023, against Binzhou Huilong, 25,696 people came through the turnstiles at Jinzhou Stadium, the highest attendance the third tier had recorded. The ground sits in Jinzhou District and holds 30,775.

Zhang Yaokun, who took the first head coach's job and now works as general manager, played for Dalian Shide and for China, as do the head coach Yang Lin and the fitness coach Zhu Ting.

That lineage explains who the fixtures are built around. Dalian Yingbo provide the city derby. Liaoning Tieren carry the provincial argument, and both matches ask the same question of a club that has existed for four years.