With the acceleration of China's population ageing process, community-based elderly care has emerged as a vital model for addressing demographic pressures and enhancing the quality of life for older adults. The traditional government-led, single-service provision model is increasingly inadequate to meet the diverse and multi-tiered needs of the elderly. This paper employs the ‘Five Community Linkage’ framework to explore how innovating this mechanism can enhance the efficacy of community elderly care services in Dalian City. The article first analyses the current state of community-based elderly care services in Dalian and the preliminary implementation of the ‘Five Community Linkage’ initiative. It then delves into prominent issues within the existing mechanism, such as inadequate coordination, insufficient resource integration, shortages of professional personnel, and weak sustainability. Subsequently, it proposes targeted, systematic solutions, including establishing an integrated coordination platform, stimulating the vitality of diverse stakeholders, strengthening the development of professional talent pools, and improving the safeguards for sustainable development. Finally, the conclusion emphasises that innovating the ‘Five Community Linkage’ mechanism is crucial for overcoming bottlenecks in Dalian's community-based elderly care development. This holds significant theoretical and practical implications for establishing a high-quality community care system with distinctive Dalian characteristics.