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
Jubilee Medal "100 Years of the Trans-Siberian Railway" the relief inscription "100 Years of the Trans-Siberian Railway" (). The reverse center bears the relief inscription "1901 2001" with the image of a crossed hammer and wrench. The medal is suspended by a ring through the award's suspension loop to a standard Russian pentagonal mount covered with an overlapping 24mm wide silk moiré ribbon with three equal 8mm wide stripes of green, black and silver. The individuals listed below were awarded the current Russian Federation Jubilee Medal "100 Years of the Trans-Siberian Railway": Jubilee Medal "100 Years of the Trans-Siberian Railway" The Jubilee Medal "100 Years of the Trans-Siberian