Port of Dalian (Dairen)

The Port of Dalian (大連港, Japanese: Dairen-kō) is situated at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in what is now Liaoning Province, China. It is the northernmost major ice-free port on the Chinese coast, a geographic advantage that made it strategically vital for controlling trade in northeast Asia.

The port's modern history began in 1898 when Imperial Russia secured a 25-year lease on the Liaodong Peninsula through the Pavlov Agreement with the Qing Dynasty. Tsar Nicholas II ordered the construction of a commercial port city named Dal'nii ("faraway"), with plans for a grand European-style urban center. Construction of port facilities began in 1899 and the port opened in 1902, connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway via the Chinese Eastern Railway's southern branch. Russia envisioned Dalian as the Pacific terminus of its transcontinental rail network.

Following Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), the Treaty of Portsmouth transferred the Liaodong leasehold and the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japanese control. In 1906, Japan designated the leased territory as the Kwantung Leased Territory (関東州) and in 1907 established the South Manchuria Railway Company (南満洲鉄道株式会社, commonly known as Mantetsu) to manage the railway and port operations. Mantetsu largely followed the original Russian construction plans while implementing significant expansions, including additional breakwaters, wharves, and rail connections.

Major infrastructure development continued through the 1920s: a third wharf was completed in 1920, the second wharf was renovated in 1923 to accommodate vessels up to 30,000 tons, and a grand passenger terminal building integrating maritime and railway services was completed in 1924. The port administrative office building was finished in 1926. By the early 1930s, Dalian had become Manchuria's dominant trade gateway. After the establishment of Manchukuo in 1932, approximately 75% of the puppet state's international commerce passed through Dalian, with massive shipments of coal from Fushun, steel, soybeans, and other raw materials bound for Japan.

During the Pacific War, port operations were placed under wartime mobilization. In 1942, the Japan-Manchuria liaison shipping service was transferred to a state-controlled shipping management company under the National Mobilization Law. The port continued to function as a critical logistics node for the Japanese war effort until the Soviet invasion of Manchuria on August 9, 1945. Soviet forces took over Dalian and its port on August 21–22, 1945, and administered the port until February 1951. Between December 1946 and March 1947, approximately 200,000 Japanese civilians (203,765 by one count) were repatriated from Dalian, boarding ships at the same wharves that had once welcomed settlers arriving in Manchuria.

Today, the Port of Dalian remains one of China's busiest commercial ports. Several colonial-era structures survive, including the former Dalian Wharf Office of the South Manchuria Railway, which stands as a tangible reminder of the port's Japanese colonial past.