[1][2] Located north of the city's railway station[3] and next to the port of Vladivostok,[4] Millionka was a neighbourhood densely occupied by three-story buildings with secret courtyards.

The Manchu people, who ruled China during the Qing dynasty, claimed much of the region as their ancestral homeland, until the land was conceded to Russia in 1860.

[10]: 177  The city council made up a plan to evict the Chinese and Koreans to a specialised Chinese-Korean settlement, or "Kitaysko-Koreyskaya slobodka", near Kuperovskaya Pad.

29 August 1899), the military governor of Khabarovsk province, Nikolai Chichagov, enacted a decree legalising the decision of the city council regarding the Chinese quarter.

The latter consulted the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which recognised the right of towns to evict Chinese to special quarters no other than[clarification needed] with the Emperor's permission.

29 September 1902), Nicholas II granted the right to city councils of the Far East to restrict the residence of Asiatic nationalities in special districts.

[16]: 63  As G. A. Sukhachova puts,[17] "Millionka” grew together with the city... At the beginning of 1893, the number of (the Han) Chinese immigrants increased at a rate of 10,000-11,000 people annually.

[17] The whole neighbourhood was extremely overcrowded and had poor ventilation and low levels of hygiene, which often caused local health authority to condemn the situation of the Chinese quarter in the city centre.

The Chinese in the city were described as a threat to public health:[13] “[T]housands of exhausted, dirty, poorly-dressed sons of China have flooded Vladivostok … and seized all the trade and occupations … The cleanliness of your premises and luxury of your clothes will not save you from cholera.

[18] The Soviet officials often described the neighbourhood as a hub for narcotics trafficking, opium dens, and prostitution networks, considering the area to be unsanitary, dangerous, and a massive fire hazard, which were then used as an excuse to deport the Chinese residents.

[20]: 105  The Central Committee of All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) further discussed the liquidation of Millionka on 17 June 1936, with a draft response to Chinese diplomats approved.

[20]: 105  Considering the negative impact of the Mutual Assistance Pact [ja] between the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic, which China deemed as a separatist government, the Soviet Politburo ordered the local government to avoid leaving the impression that the operation targeted Chinese and to finish the liquidation of Millionka by the end of 1936.

[23] In recent years, the neighbourhood was branded as Vladivostok's "Arbat" by the local tourist authorities, where there are upscale restaurants and boutique hotels, although there is no mention of the history of the old Chinatown.