Lushunkou

Lüshunkou (in Chinese, 旅顺口区in Traditional Chinese, 旅順口區; pinyin, Lǚshùnkǒu Qū), also called Lüshun, formerly Port Arthur (Russian: Порт-Арту́р), is a city-district under the direct administration of the city-subprovincial of Dalian. It is located at the southern end of the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in the territory of the current People's Republic of China. At the beginning of the 20th century it was a Russian colonial port. The place is famous for having been the scene of the Battle of the Yellow Sea in the framework of the Russo-Japanese War between 1904 and 1905.

Surrounded by ocean on three sides, this strategic naval port was known as Port Arthur (Порт Артур) through Imperial Russian administration and later as Ryojun (旅順) under Japanese rule. In 1898, Russia forced China to lease the port for twenty-five years. Over the next five years, the Russians stationed their Pacific fleet there and made it the outpost of their imperial expansion into the Far East. The city finally returned to Chinese hands after World War II.

Toponymy

Names in China through the 19th century and early 20th century are rare, as they were based in how they were reported in Western literature and history. All the colonial powers of the Belle Époque gave it their own name and transferred it in their own way to the Latin alphabet. It is worth saying that the name of a Russian admiral had 6 different translations into English.

Japanese and then Soviet administration continued until 1953. Western diplomats, in the news and historical writings, knew it as Port Arthur, and during the period controlled and administered by Japan it was called Ryojun (旅顺).

History

Given its strategic location at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, the town has been a historically prominent military outpost. In the century VII, during the reign of the Tang dynasty, already had military shipyards. In the 15th century, it was a Ming dynasty naval base.

Port Arthur took its name from a British Royal Army lieutenant named William C. Arthur, but the city was known to the Chinese as Lüshun before then. In August 1860, during the Second Opium War, Lieutenant Arthur had to take shelter with his weakened frigate in the port of Lüshun, at that time a poor fishing village, to carry out repairs. The Russians and the rest of the Western powers later adopted the British name.

In 1878, the Qing dynasty established the first naval base of the new modern Imperial Navy there. The port, however, had its drawbacks: shallow draft, too shallow for the new warships of the early 1900s 20th century and lacked sufficient funding to become the center of Russian imperialism in the region.

Colonial Period

Cruise of the Russian Imperial Navy in the port of Port Arhur.

Port Arthur's first entry onto the international scene was during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Following the Chinese troops stationed in Pyongyang in September 1894, the Japanese First and Second Army converged on the Liaodong Peninsula by land and sea. Japanese officials planned, ambitious for control of the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur, being mindful of the strategic position of this point north of the Yellow Sea, in the middle of the trade routes to Tianjin.

Following their path, meeting only resistance during November 20 and 21, 1894, Japanese troops entered the defeated city on the morning of November 21. Various contemporary Western newspapers were informing the public of false violence by the victorious Japanese army on the Chinese population. One of these journalists was James Creelman of the New York World.

Japan occupied Port Arthur along with the rest of the Liaodong Peninsula as a war indemnity. Thanks to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki at the end of the war, Japan obtained the government over the Liaodong Peninsula, but it had to cede it later when it was diplomatically forced due to pressure from Russia, Germany and France, members of the Triple Intervention in 1895 in exchange for additional compensation to Japan in the amount of thirty million taels.

Two years later, Russia obtained the protectorate of a part of the Liadong peninsula from China and the concession to link the peninsula with eastern China by rail, with rails running from Port Arthur and passing Dalian to the central city of Harbin. In turn he began to systematically fortify the town and harbor of Port Arthur. All of this was a disgrace to an already wounded Japan.

The Russian city of Dalian was undeveloped at that time before 1898 when Tsar Nicholas II of Russia financed and founded the city and established it as a port with many improvements and cultural attractions. In 1902, the Russian viceroy brought Western style to Dalian, building a palace and cultural buildings, while Port Arthur remained a purely commercial and industrial town.

Russian-Japanese War

The PobedaA Russian Navy ship in the Russian-Japanese War.

Ten years later Port Arthur played a central role in a war in the Far East. The Russo-Japanese War was a battle for possession of Port Arthur and the concession over its railroad. After the Boxer uprising was stopped by an international coalition of troops, Russia refused to withdraw its reinforcements from Manchuria and instead began garrisoning the entire route along the South Manchurian Railway. Seeing what was happening, Japan proposed a conference between the two powers and the agreement of their respective powers in Eastern Manchuria, seen by both powers as part of their sphere of influence.

Such talks were conducted between 1902 and 1904. While numerous offers and papers in agreement with each position were generated between the two powers, Russia continued de facto with the annexation of the territory by strengthening the city and the garrison of its troops, if not de jure in their negotiations. In the end, after more than two years of intensive negotiations that failed to get any clarification of each country's rights, prerogatives, and interests in inner Manchuria, Japan opted for war with Russia.

The Battle of Port Arthur marked the start of the Russo-Japanese War. On the night of February 8/9, 1904, the Japanese squadron attacked the Russian fleet anchored in Port Arthur with torpedoes, followed by land attacks on Russian positions, while the Japanese army occupied the Korean peninsula. The weakened Russian forces managed to prevent the fall of the important port, but the Japanese besieged the city on land, cutting off the supply source on the Harbin railway, while blockading it at sea. Virtually all battles of the war up to July 1904 were strategic battles for territorial gain or position leading to investment and the siege of the city's port.

The tightening of the siege forced the Russians to try to break the blockade in early August, which led to the Battle of the Yellow Sea, during which the Japanese squadron caused heavy damage to the Russian, forcing it to lock itself back in the port, which continued to be blocked. Port Arthur finally fell on January 2, 1905, after a series of brutal assaults and heavy casualties on both sides. Covering their rear, the Japanese army pressed north into Manchuria. The victories in the battles of Mukden and Tsushima would define the war in favor of Japan.

Under Japanese rule, the city was renamed Ryojun and numbered 40 wards.

Second World War

Since 1945

The city of Lüshun was established on November 25, 1945 instead of Ryojun. The city was a subdivision of the larger city of Lüda and had 40 settlements in 3 districts: Dazhong（(大众区), Wenhua (文化区), and Guangming (光明). In January 1946, Wenhua was incorporated into Dazhong, and the 40 settlements were reduced to 23 communes (坊). In January 1948, these districts were merged into one: Shinei (市内区), with 12 communes.

In January 1960, the city of Lüshun was renamed the district of Lüshunkou, still under Lüda. In 1985, 7 of the 9 settlements were upgraded to town status.

Administration

The city-district of Lüshunkou is divided into 6 sub-districts and 7 towns.

Geography

Dalian, a sub-provincial city, the prefectural capital, lies about forty miles further north on the coast, at the narrowest point of the Liaodong Peninsula, while Lushun occupies its southern tip. (If you look at the map you can see Lushun's strategic location around a lake, making it a highly desirable and important port for men of the century XIX).

The Liaodong Peninsula (formerly Liaotung) and its proximity to Korea, with the China Sea to its southeast, Korea Bay to its east, and the Bohai Sea to its west (can be seen on the map). Beijing is just as close, across the Bohai Sea, on which the port of this important trading city is located.

Climate

Due to its geographical position, the weather patterns in the following table are the same as those of Dalian.

Port Arthur's average climate parameters (1971–2000)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	−0.4	1.4	7.2	14.6	20.2	24.2	26.6	27.3	23.9	17.5	9.7	3.1	14.6
Temp. medium (°C)	−6.8	−5.0	0.2	6.6	12.2	17.2	21.0	21.6	17.4	10.6	2.8	−3.5	7.9
Total precipitation (mm)	8.9	5.8	12.1	24.7	47.0	83.2	140.1	155.4	65.1	29.0	20.0	10.6	601.9
Precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	3.3	2.9	3.7	5.4	7.0	9.3	11.8	9.2	6.0	5.2	5.3	3.4	72.5
Hours of sun	198.0	200.2	238.8	256.9	277.6	254.7	220.7	240.8	251.5	234.6	182.1	183.9	2739.8
Relative humidity (%)	56	56	55	56	61	73	84	81	69	62	60	58	64.3
Source: China Meteorological Administration

Education

Universities in downtown Dalian are being moved to Lushunkou. Dalian Jiaotong University, formerly Dalian Railway University, moved its Software School to the area near the new port, and Dalian University of Languages and Dalian University of Medicine moved their main campuses to the eastern slope of Baiying Mountain, next to the South Road of Lushun. Dalian Naval Industrial University is in the process of moving, and in Daheishi, off Lushun North Road, classes are held in English and Japanese.

Culture

The World Peace Park, opened on the western coast of Lushun, on the Bohai Sea, is a new point of visiting places of interest. The North Park was established in the Lushun Development Zone, as was the Lushun New Port, on Yangtou Bay, with a railway across the China Sea to Yantai being designed. There is concern that the Russian architectural heritage, which made the city special for tourism, is being destroyed to make way for modern constructions equal to those of any other Chinese city.