My Trip To China: Shenyang

I live in Shenyang, my husband's home city. Just want to give you some information about Shenyang 沈阳 "the north side of Shen River" in Liaoning Province. It is the largest city in northeastern China. It is located around 635 km from Beijing 北京 the capital city. Shenyang has long been reputed as "the birthplace for one dynasty and the capital for two emperors". In 1625, Nuerhachi, the first emperor of Qing dynasty, moved its capital here, and renamed it Shengjing. It was the capital of the Qing Dynasty until the relocation of the capital to Beijing in 1644. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Shenyang known then as Mukden was the site of the Battle of Mukden from on 19 February 1905 – 10 March 1905. The Mukden Incident (18 September 1931), which gave the Japanese the pretext to create the Manchukuo state, took place near Shenyang. During the Manchukuo era (1932-1945) the city was called Fengtian. During the Japanese occupation, Shenyang was developed into a heavy industry center. Soviet forces occupied Shenyang in early August 1945 on the surrender of Japan. The Soviets were replaced by the Nationalist Chinese. During the Chinese Civil War, Shenyang remained a Kuomintang stronghold from 1946–1948. Since 1949, Shenyang became one of the most important heavy industry centers of China.

Middle Street in Shenyang (Zhong Jie)

In Shenyang there are around 7 milion people. There are a lot of minorities living here such as Koreans or even Russians. Maybe that is why when they see me they think I am Russian. By the way there are almost no non Asian looking people here so everybody stare at me. This is annoying most of the times but I think I will get use to that eventually. Nothing I can do unfortunately...

We stay in Huanggu District (皇姑区/皇姑區 Huánggū Qū) of the city with my husband’s family. Huanggu District is the site of the large, historical tomb of Huang Taiji (of the Qing Dynasty), called Beiling park 北陵公園. Beiling Park was the first city attraction I saw in Shenyang and I must say that I was impressed.