Dalian

From Rock in China Wiki

Dalian (Simplified Chinese: 大连; Traditional Chinese: 大連; pinyin: Dàlián; Japanese: Dairen; Russian: Далянь, Dalian or Дальний, Dalny) is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. Dalian is also China's northernmost ice-free seaport.

General information

History

In the Qin and Han periods (221 B.C.-220 A.D.), the Dalian region was under the jurisdiction of Liaodong county. In the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Dalian region was under the jurisdiction of Andong Prefecture in Jili state, and in the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), it was under the jurisdiction of Dong Jing Tong Liaoyang county. Dalian was named Sanshan in the period of Weijin (220-420), San Shanpu in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Sanshan Seaport in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Qing Niwakou in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the 1880s, the Qing government constructed loading bridges and fortifications with built-in cannons, and set up mining camps on the northern coast of Dalian Gulf, making it become a small town.

The settlement was occupied by the British in 1858, returned to the Chinese in the 1880s, and then occupied by Japan in 1895 during the first Sino-Japanese War.

In 1898, the Russian Empire leased the peninsula off the Qing Dynasty, and a modern city was laid out with the name of Dalny. Linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway, Dalny became Russia's primary port-city in Asia.

Dalny was the main battlefield of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and Russo-Japanese War (1905).

Both Dalny (Qingniwaqiao 青泥洼桥 of Zhongshan District, Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lüshunkou) were developed and heavily fortified by the Russians in the period prior to 1904. Consequently, some historians blame the fall of Port Arthur, a world shaking event of epic proportions, during the siege of Port Arthur on January 2, 1905 for the failure by Admiral Eugene Alexeieff, to concentrate on the naval base and its fortifications, instead spliting precious resources shipped 5,000 miles across the single tracked Trans-Siberian Railway and Manchurian railways.

After the Russo-Japanese war Port Arthur was conceded to Japan (Treaty of Portsmouth), who set up the Kwantung Leased Territory or Guandongzhou. Since the foundation of Manchukuo in 1932, the sovereignty of the territory moved from China to Manchukuo. Japan still leased it from Manchukuo. In 1937, the modern Dalian City was enlarged and modernized by the Japanese as two cities: the northern Dairen (Dalian) and the southern Ryojun (Lushun).

The unconditional surrender of Japan on August of 1945 marks the liberation of Dalian in the anti-fascist war, but the Soviets, who had taken possession of the city in advance of the end of hostilities, remained in the city until 1955. During this period the Soviets and Chinese Communists cooperated in the further development of the city, its industrial infrastructure, and especially the port. The city had been relatively undamaged during the war.

After the (friendly) departure of the Soviets, China made Dalian into a major shipbuilding center. In the 1990s the city benefitted from the attentions of Bo Xilai (son of the important first generation Party elder, Bo Yibo) who was both mayor of the city and provincial party official, who, among other things, banned bicycles, created large, lush parks in the city's many traffic circles, and generally built things up very attractively. He also preserved much of Dalian's interesting and attractive Japanese and Russian architectural heritage. His legacy, however, also includes the usual quota of empty buildings built with questionable loans, over-development, and corruption. He is now Minister of Commerce.

taken from Wikipedia.