Dalian: Encyclopedia II - Dalian - History

Dalian - History

Part of the State of Yan in the Spring and Autumn Period, a minor fishing village Ch'ing-ni-wa became a small town in the 1880s, when the Qing Dynasty established bridges, cannon platforms and camps there. 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 Russians took the lease of the peninsular and established Port Arthur as ice-free headquarters of their Pacific Fleet and Dalnyi as a major commercial port. The city's name is derived from the Russian word "dalnyi", which means "distant (port)". Recently, some Chinese scholars pointed out that the Chinese form of the name, Dalian, had been used as early as October 1879, in a document by Li Hongzhang.

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 on 2 January 1905 for the failure by Admiral Eugen Alexeiev, to concentrate on the naval base and its fortifications. Instead, he split precious resources shipped 8000 kilometers 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 (Lüshunkou).

Image:Lüshunzhan.jpg

After World War II, Dalian was not returned to China, but taken over by Soviets with theoretical Chinese overlordship (see Yalta Conference), and was returned to full Chinese control in 1955, although the first communist Chinese mayor of the new Lüda Administrative Office (旅大行政公署) was appointed in 1945. The name Lüda was formed by combining the first characters of Lüshunkou and Dalian. Because of the sudden closure of many Japanese businesses, many Dalian residents were out of work for an extended period.

On 1 December 1950, Lüda was made into a city again. From 12 March 1953 to 1 August 1954 it became a municipality. The city's name was changed back from Lüda to Dalian on 5 March 1981, after the State Council approved it on 9 February. It was upgraded from a prefecture-level city to a sub-provincial city in 1994, with no change in its administrative subdivisions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki