Dalian History

Ancient

In the Qin and Han periods (221 B.C.-220 A.D.), the Dalian region was under the jurisdiction of Liaodong county. During the 3rd century through 5th century, when China was split into Sixteen Kingdoms, The Korean kingdom of Goguryeo maintained control of this region. 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).

Qing Dynasty

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, and it became a small town. At that time, Jinzhou, north of downtown Dalian, now Dalian City's District of Jinzhou was a walled town and the center of political and economic activities of this area.

British and Japanese Occupation, and the Soviet Union Lease

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. It is believed by the researchers in Dalian now that the name of Port Arthur comes from Prince Arthur, one of Queen Victoria's sons, who toured this area at that time.

While Japan's intention to lease Port Arthur and its surrounding areas based on the Treaty of Shimonoseki met with the Tripartite Intervention by France, Germany and Russia, the Russian Empire in 1898 succeeded in leasing the peninsula from the Qing Dynasty, and a modern city was laid out with the name of Dalny. Linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway's branch line, Dalny became Russia's primary port-city in Asia. Russian government contributed more than 10 million golden rubles (equivalent to 11, 5 bln today's rubles) into the city foundation and building.

Dalny was the main battlefield of the Russo-Japanese War (1905).

Both Dalny and Port Arthur were developed and heavily fortified by the Russians in the period prior to 1904. Consequently, some historians blame the fall of Port Arthur during the siege of Port Arthur on January 2, 1905 for the failure by Admiral Eugene Alexeyeff, to concentrate on the naval base and its fortifications, instead splitting 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, which is roughly the southern half (Jinzhou District and south) of the present-day Dalian City. 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 and the southern Ryojun.

Post-World War II

With the unconditional surrender of Japan in August 1945, Dalian, passed to the Soviets, who had liberated the city in advance of the end of hostilities and governed the city until 1950. During this period the Soviets and Chinese Communists cooperated in the further development of the city, its industrial infrastructure, and especially the port, which remained as the free port rented by the Soviet government. The city had been relatively undamaged during the war.

In 1950, the USSR presented Dalian to the Chinese Communist government without any compensation. Soviet troops left in 1955. After the departure of the Soviets, China made Dalian into a major shipbuilding center. In the 1990s the city benefited from the attention 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 motorcycles, 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 the former Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic.

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