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 Orchestra 24 vocalists and dancers performing in sync for nearly 80,000 people. In the televised broadcast a week after the show but right before the actual performance, Paul O'Neill and Al Pitrelli admitted to being blindsided by non-stop rain and mud on the night before which removed any chance to check the staging until the actual show. Metal Recusants, which favorably reviewed the entire event said, "If all the above shows were spectacular and memorable the Savatage's and Trans-Siberian Orchestra show is a whole new level of shows...I have never seen such a thing take place before and it was definitely