Dalian, municipality, Northeast China, located in Liaoning Province, on the Liaodong Peninsula. It includes Lüshun (Port Arthur), the major seaport town, at the southwestern tip of the peninsula; Dalian, a port on Korea Bay; the offshore Changshan Islands; and adjacent agricultural regions. Lüshun is an important ice-free naval base guarding the entrance to the gulf of Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli). Dalian, the main commercial port for industrialized northeastern China (and also ice-free), is the leading petroleum-exporting point for the productive Daqing oil field. It can accommodate supertankers and has large shipyards; manufactures include refined petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer, machinery, iron and steel, and transportation equipment.
Lüshun was an important port as early as the 6th century AD. It was occupied (1858) by the British and was fortified as a naval base by the Chinese in the 1880s. It was attacked and briefly held by the Japanese in 1895; subsequently it was granted, with adjacent parts of the peninsula, to Russia as part of the Liaodong lease. While under Russian control (1898-1905), Lüshun was renamed Port Arthur. It was valued by the Russians for its year-round access to the Pacific Ocean and was extensively refortified for naval use. Dalian was transformed during the same period from a minor fishing port into a modern commercial port and was given the Russian name Dalny.
