Page "Kwantung Leased Territory" Paragraph 2

The name Kwantung, or Guāndōng ( 關東 ) in pinyin, means " east of Shanhai Pass ", a reference to part of Qinhuangdao in today's Hebei province, at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China.

The name originally referred to all of Manchuria but later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the leased territory.