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
The Eastern-Siberian Inland Navigation Company Company has the most high-powered river fleet in the Eastern-Siberian region and fleet repairing bases, network of branch offices. The capacity range allows conveying about 500 thousands people during one season. There are two main quays in Irkutsk, where the trips begin from: the quay "Raketa" and "Gagarin" (Nizhnjaya Naberezhnaya Street). The quay "Raketa", situated in Solnechny microdistrict on bank of Chertugeevskiy Zaliv, is the starting point of all trips along the Angara River and on Lake Baikal. The ESINC's logotype is a blue-white conventionalized ship against the background of waves. The Eastern-Siberian Inland Navigation Company (ESINC) is a public