It took place on 21 November 1894, in Lüshunkou, Manchuria (later called Port Arthur, in present-day Liaoning Province, China) between the forces of the Empire of Japan and the Qing dynasty.

[4] At Port Arthur the Chinese defenses were considerably more extensive consisting of:[2] There were also over 50 guns and mortars of varying calibres, broadly 75-88mm of the positional and field types.

In addition 78 naval mines were present at Port Arthur[4] The forts and Land defenses in total should have had 22,000 soldiers instead of the 14,000 maximum stationed when the fighting reached the Liaodong Peninsula.

The Liaodong Peninsula narrowed to only a 2.5-mile (4 km) width just past Jinzhou, so with the town in Japan's hands, Lüshunkou became isolated from its landward approaches.

The intact capture of the dock facilities greatly facilitated Japanese supply lines, as in their haste to depart, the defenders had even left behind plans to the minefields and details to the defenses of Lüshunkou.

Worse still, when withdrawing from Lüshunkou, the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, the battleship Zhenyuan, struck rocks at the entrance of Weihaiwei harbor and had to be beached.

When the Japanese forces entered the city, they were fired upon from houses where Chinese soldiers had hidden themselves and had put on civilian dress so as to better blend in with the local population.

The speed of the Japanese victory at Lüshunkou was regarded as a turning point in the war by contemporary Western observers and was a strong blow to the prestige of the Qing government.