121 years ago today, July 13, 1904 (June 1, 1904 in the lunar calendar), the Siberian Railway was completed. On July 13, 1904, after 13 years of construction, the Trans-Siberian Railway was finally opened to traffic. The railway connects the Pacific coast of the Ural Mountains from Cheryabinsk to Vladivostok and has a total length of 407 miles. A large amount of research and demonstration work began since the mid-19th century. Based on these studies, it was decided to build this railway in 1891. In May of that year, ground was first broken north from Vladivostok, and in July 1892, it was built east from Cheryabinsk. To build the railway, the Russians had to overcome countless difficulties: wide rivers and steep slopes in the area around Lake Baikal, permafrost in eastern Siberia, and severe cold and scorching heat. By 1898, the line had stretched from Irkutsk to Khabarovsk. At the same time, the Russian government negotiated a treaty with China (1896) allowing the Russians to build a Middle East railway that would more directly connect Vladivostok and Lake Baikal over a shorter distance through Manchuria. The Russians built more than 1000 stations. The distance between stations was mainly determined based on the soil quality, but basically every station was 27 miles apart. It is believed that the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway is the best way to increase Siberia's population and develop trade. From 1896 to 1900, the number of people traveling to the Far East doubled to 1 million, and many of them played a big role in opening up the China market.