Chinese Eastern Railway

The Railway was a concession to Russia, and later the Soviet Union, granted by the Qing dynasty government of Imperial China.

In 1896 China granted a construction concession through northern Manchuria under the supervision of Vice Minister of Public Works Xu Jingcheng.

Work on the CER began in July 1897 along the line Tarskaya (east of Chita) — Hailar — Harbin — Nikolsk-Ussuriski, and accelerated drastically after Russia concluded a 25-year lease of Liaodong from China in 1898.

In 1898, construction of a 550-mile (880 km) spur line, most of which later formed the South Manchuria Railway, began at Harbin, leading southwards through Eastern Manchuria, along the Liaodong Peninsula, to the ice-free deep-water port at Lüshun, which Russia was fortifying and developing into a first-class strategic naval base and marine coaling station for its Far East Fleet and Merchant Marine.

The Chinese Eastern Railway was essentially completed in 1902, a few years earlier than the stretch around Lake Baikal.

Until the Circumbaikal portion was completed (1904–1905; double-tracked, 1914), goods carried on the Trans-Siberian Railway had to be trans-shipped by ferry almost a hundred kilometers across the lake (from Port Baikal to Mysovaya).

After the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Russia gained the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria.

The rail line from Changchun to Lüshun — transferred to Japanese control — became the South Manchuria Railway.

After World War II the Soviet government insisted on occupying the Liaodong Peninsula but allowed joint control over the Southern branch with China; all this together received the name of the "Chinese Changchun Railway" (Russian: Кита́йская Чанчу́ньская желе́зная доро́га).

In 1952, the Soviet Union transferred (free of charge) all of its rights to the Chinese Changchun Railway to the People's Republic of China.