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History
Both the naval base and port were leased to Russia (which needed an ice-free naval base) in 1898; under the Russian lease the port was also known as Dalny. Lüshun was under Japanese siege from June 1904 until January 1905, and it was ceded to Japan after the Russo-Japanese War, along with the port. Dalian was developed and partly colonized by the Japanese, who named it Dairen, and by 1938 its population had risen to 500,000.
After World War II Lüshun was occupied by Russian airborne troops, but it was returned to China in 1955 and Russia was granted shared facilities at Dalian; this ended on the deterioration of Sino-Russian relations in 1955.