Liaodong Peninsula - Geography

Geography

The peninsula is situated at the north of the Yellow Sea, between the Bohai Sea to the west and the Korea Bay to the east.

It forms the southern part of a mountain belt that continues northward in the Changbai Mountains. The part of the mountain range on the peninsula is known as the Qianshan Mountains, named after Qian Mountain in Anshan, which includes Dahei Mountain in Dalian.

There are two seaports: Dalian, which lies midway along the peninsula at its narrowest point, and Port Arthur/Lushun (now part of Dalian City), which is located at its southernmost point. Lüshun/Port Arthur has a large lake-like naturally-protected harbor and semi-sheltered outer roadstead making it very attractive to imperialist powers at the end of the nineteenth century. Dalny/Dairen/Dalian's harbor required greater investment, initially supplied by the Russians, but turned into a first class city under the Japanese period of administration (1905–1945). The two ports are about 25 miles (40 km) apart by rail, but about 40 nautical miles (70 km) apart by sea. Lüshun is 550 rail miles south of the Manchurian railroad hub city of Harbin on the historic Southern Manchurian Railway (today's China Far East Railway (CER), which construction was one of the underlying causes of the Russo-Japanese War).