Chinese Eastern Railway Liaodong from China in 1898. Officially, traffic on the line started in November 1901, but regular passenger traffic from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok across the Trans-Siberian railway did not commence until July 1903. 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. This town was known in
Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. The panoramic painting itself still exists, in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the Hermitage announced plans to restore, document, and exhibit the painting. Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama The Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama was a simulated train ride, using a moving panorama, first exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition. The panorama itself is also known as "The Great Siberian Route: the Main Trans-Siberian Railway". The Railway Panorama was commissioned by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits, and shown in the Siberian section of the Exposition's Russian pavilion. It recreated the most interesting