History made this former Liaodong Peninsular fishing village a transational city, as it was taken from Russian control (1898-1905), to become a Japanese leased territory (1905-45), then a USSR-controlled zone in the People’s Republic of China until the end of the Soviet occupation in 1955. ‘One of the most rapidly growing and modern cities in the Far East’ wrote Carl Crow in his 1921 Handbook for China. Apparently, our British photographers did not find much of interest, focusing instead on either photographing the port’s impressive jetties, or the Russian buildings in the city streets.
Street in Dalian, 1923/4, Swire collection, Sw06-128