Dalian Yifang threw away a two-goal lead to leave Bernd Schuster still looking for his first win since taking over as head coach of the second division champions, who were pegged back to a 2-2 draw by Chongqing Lifan in the Chinese Super League on Saturday.
Nicolas Gaitan set up Wang Jinxian to open the scoring after just 18 minutes before the Argentinian put his side further in front 11 minutes into the second half.
But Zhu Xiaogang's sending off on the hour mark for a second bookable offence threw Dalian into disarray and soon after Fernando Silva pulled one back for Chongqing to leave Cao Dong to score the equaliser with just six minutes remaining.
The draw was Dalian's second in a row since Schuster arrived to replace Ma Lin, who was fired after three defeats in a row to kick off the league campaign.
"I think we saw a very good team in the first half, we had an overwhelming advantage and led 2-0," said Schuster. "The game was under our control.
"But we lost the possibility of winning the game and celebrating with our fans with the red card. That's very regrettable. We deserved to win the game, but football matches happen this way. I saw many positive things. We are on the right path."
Meanwhile, Hebei China Fortune bounced back from last weekend's loss to Shanghai Shenhua as Manuel Pellegrini's side handed Changchun Yatai a 2-1 defeat.
Goals from Gui Hong and Ezequiel Lavezzi either side of half time put Hebei in control before Du Zhenyu claimed a late consolation for Changchun, as Hebei moved on to seven points from their first five games of the season.
"We need to strengthen our tactical principals and focus on what we're doing in training on a daily basis so we can have more confidence," said Pellegrini.
"I always ask my team to maintain a good attitude and we have to take that mentality into the game. But perhaps we need to improve. When we didn't score the third goal we needed to not be too anxious. This is where we need to improve."