Full coverage: Summer Davos Forum 2016

The World Economic Forum is known as the highest-level, unofficial meeting on the global economy.

The high-powered gathering was founded by German economist Klaus Schwab in 1971. It is best known for its annual meeting in the Swiss city of Davos.

China was invited to the forum in 1979. In September 2007, the Chinese port city of Dalian hosted the first annual meeting of the New Champions, or the Summer Davos, with the theme of "Changing the Power Equilibrium". It's the first time that the forum was held outside Switzerland.

Since then, the Summer Davos meeting has alternated between Dalian and Tianjin.