LU-SHUN

Pinyin Lshun, formerly Port Arthur city and naval port in Liaoning sheng (province), China. Situated at the southern tip of the Liaotung Peninsula, L-shun has a good deepwater harbour that is ice-free throughout the year. It is in an extremely important strategic position, commanding the entrance to the Po Hai (Gulf of Chihli) and access to Tientsin. Historically it has been an important port of entry for southern Manchuria (now known as the Northeast), and it was used as a staging post in the 2nd century BC by colonists of the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) in northern Korea and by the T'ang dynasty (618907) in campaigns in the 7th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, under the Ming dynasty (13681644), it was a fortified port for Chinese settlements in the Liaotung area. It was captured by the Manchus in 1633 and became the headquarters of a coastal defense unit under the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911). In 1878 it was chosen as the chief base for the Peiyang fleet, China's first modern naval force, and was again fortified. Captured by the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War of 189495, it was leased to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the war, but after the intervention of the Western powers that followed, it was returned to China. Russia, however, which was anxious to acquire an ice-free port on the Pacific, occupied the Liaotung Peninsula in 1897 after the Germans had taken Chiao-chou (Kiaochow) on the southern side of the Shantung Peninsula. In 1898 Russia acquired a lease of the Liaotung Peninsula and the right to build a railway connecting with the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin, and thus with the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The Russians constructed a heavily fortified naval base for their Pacific fleet at Port Arthur, began the development of a commercial port in nearby Dalny (Dairen; now Ta-lien), and in 1903 completed the rail link to Harbin. During the Russo-Japanese War of 190405, Port Arthur was one of the principal Japanese objectives. In May 1904 the Japanese army cut off the Liaotung Peninsula from the mainland and seized the port of Dairen. The Russian forces withdrew to their supposedly impregnable base at Port Arthur, which was eventually taken by the Japanese. The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905), which concluded the war, transferred Port Arthur to Japan. The Japanese renamed it Ryojun and made it the administrative and military headquarters of their Kwantung Provincial Government (later transferred to Dairen) and of the Kwantung army command (later transferred to Mukden [now Shen-yang]). The naval base was strengthened, becoming a base for Japanese military operations not only in Manchuria but also in northern China. The Yalta Conference had envisioned the return of the Liaotung territory to the Soviet Union after World War II, and, under a treaty of friendship and alliance concluded in Moscow in 1945 between China and the Soviet Union, it was agreed that the Port Arthur naval base should be used jointly by the two countries for 30 years, but that the Soviet Union should be responsible for its defense, and that the Russians should have control of the peninsula, apart from the port of Dairen. Soviet forces finally withdrew from Port Arthur in 1955, after which it became an important Chinese naval base. L-shun today is a fine city laid out on Western lines. It consists of two separate parts, the old (eastern) town, which contains the port installations, and the new (western) town, which is largely residential. Pop. (mid-1980s est.) 10,00050,000.