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
Return of the Chinese Eastern Railway international trade with Russia and Eastern Europe. The two international railway interchanges with Russian Railways at Manzhouli and Suifenhe are heavily used with dozens of daily international freight and passenger trains. The CCR is also one of the main routes for Trans-Eurasia Logistics which connects Germany to China with daily container train service. On the passenger operations side, the "Vostok" (Russia Railway train 19/20, China Railways K19/K20) runs once a week from Beijing to Moscow via Harbin. In addition, the new Harbin–Qiqihar High Speed Railway, Harbin–Dalian High-speed Railway and the Beijing–Harbin High-Speed Railway parallel the CCR to connect those cities,