Chengdu doesn't have a fab and is hardly in the middle of nowhere. Normal logistic costs.
Dalian is in a highly industrialized liaoning province, again highly populated and lots of resources. Again, normal logistic costs.
If they put it in the middle of gansu or qinghai or maybe Northern Yunnan or southern Sichuan (pretty much the Tibetan plateau), that would be the middle of nowhere.
As far as I know (which is admittedly very little), Intel's fabs require massive amounts of stable electricity and clean water. Maybe proximity to such resources is their driver in this case.
Chengdu doesn't have a fab and is hardly in the middle of nowhere. Normal logistic costs.
Dalian is in a highly industrialized liaoning province, again highly populated and lots of resources. Again, normal logistic costs.
If they put it in the middle of gansu or qinghai or maybe Northern Yunnan or southern Sichuan (pretty much the Tibetan plateau), that would be the middle of nowhere.