Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province in northeastern China (Manchuria) and the largest city in the region, with a population of 9 million — the city where the Qing Dynasty was founded and from which its emperors set out to conquer China and rule it for 268 years (1644-1912). Shenyang (called Mukden in Manchu, the name that survived in European languages through the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and the Mukden Incident of 1931) contains the Mukden Palace (the Shenyang Imperial Palace — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built 1625-1636 by Nurhaci and Huang Taiji (the founders of the Qing dynasty) before the conquest of China; the palace is significant because it predates the Forbidden City of Beijing in its construction and because it represents the Manchu architectural synthesis of Chinese, Mongol and Shamanist elements that the purely Chinese Beijing Forbidden City does not show). The September 18th History Museum (the memorial to the Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931 — the Japanese Imperial Army's staged explosion on the Manchu Railway near Shenyang that served as the pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria; the beginning of what China calls the "14-year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression" (1931-1945); the incident is commemorated throughout the city every year on September 18 with air raid sirens at 9:18 am) is the most significant modern history museum in northeastern China. Shenyang is also the gateway to northeastern Chinese cuisine (dongbei cai — the hearty, pork-and-garlic-based cuisine of China's cold northeast, with the guo bao rou (the caramelised sweet-and-sour pork — the Shenyang version is the original), the sanxian dumpling (three-treasure: pork, shrimp and egg), the iron pot stew, and the Shenyang beer culture (northeastern Chinese beer consumption is the highest per capita in China).
The Shenyang Imperial Palace (Mukden Palace; Shenyang Gugong — the imperial palace complex built 1625-1636 by the Manchu founders of the Qing Dynasty before the conquest of Han China; UNESCO World Heritage in 2004; the palace predates and is architecturally distinct from the Beijing Forbidden City — the Qing palace shows the Manchu-Mongolian-Chinese architectural synthesis: the Dazheng Hall (the ten-sided ceremonial hall — a design unique in Chinese imperial architecture, influenced by the Manchu shamanic tent tradition), the Eight Banners Pavilions (the 10 Bian Dian arranged in a line — the ceremonial headquarters of the Eight Banners (Baqi), the military-administrative organization of the Manchu tribal confederation that conquered China); the Phoenix Tower (the highest building in Shenyang when built in 1636, with the collection of Qing imperial artefacts: Qing armour, jade, porcelain and the Qianlong Emperor's collection).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe North Tomb (Zhaoling — the Imperial Qing mausoleum in the Beiling Park of Shenyang; the burial site of Huang Taiji (1592-1643), the second Qing emperor who declared the founding of the Qing Dynasty in 1636 (renaming the Jin Dynasty founded by his father Nurhaci) and began the military campaigns that his son Shunzhi completed with the capture of Beijing in 1644; the mausoleum follows the traditional Ming-Qing imperial burial layout: the spirit way (shendao) flanked by stone animals and officials, the Red Gate (Hongmen), the Square City (Fangcheng) and the Crescent City (Bao Cheng) encircling the burial mound; the Beiling Park surrounding the mausoleum has one of the finest urban pine forests in China, with 1,000+ trees from the Qing imperial period).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe September 18th History Museum (the memorial museum at the site of the Liutiaohujing railway explosion of September 18, 1931 — the Japanese Kwantung Army's staged explosion on the South Manchurian Railway (a small bomb placed by Japanese officers caused negligible damage to the tracks but provided the pretext for immediate military action); the incident is the beginning of China's 14-year War of Resistance (1931-1945); the museum (the distinctive building shaped like a calendar frozen at September 18) covers the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932-1945) under the last Qing emperor Puyi as nominal head of state, the history of the resistance and the liberation in 1945; the museum is the most-visited historical memorial in northeastern China).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZhongshan Square (the circular Soviet-era Stalinist plaza in the centre of Shenyang — the 10 radial boulevards converging on the central roundabout with the 30 m Mao Zedong statue (the Shenyang Mao statue is one of the largest remaining bronze Mao statues in China, raised 1969 during the Cultural Revolution, facing south; the Soviet-Stalinist administrative buildings surrounding the square built in the early 1950s when Soviet urban planning was the Chinese standard are the finest example of this architectural period in any Chinese city); the Zhongshan commercial street (the night food market with the dongbei street food: guotie (the pan-fried dumplings), the malatang (the Sichuan-influenced spicy broth hot pot that has spread throughout China from the northeast), and the grilled lamb skewers (yangrou chuan) that are the Chinese street food equivalent of the kebab).
The East Tomb (Fuling — the mausoleum of Nurhaci (1559-1626), the founder of the Later Jin dynasty (later renamed Qing) who unified the Jurchen (Manchu) tribes and launched the military campaigns that his successors completed to conquer China; located in the Dongling Park forest 11 km east of the city; the Fuling mausoleum (UNESCO World Heritage 2004) shares the same Ming-Qing imperial burial format as the North Tomb — spirit way, stone animals, red gate, burial mound — but is set within an old-growth pine forest on the slopes of Tianzhu Mountain, giving it a more natural and impressive setting than the urban North Tomb; the Tianzhu Mountain (the mountain above the mausoleum was sacred to the Manchu before the mausoleum was built, associated with the shamanic practices of the Jurchen tribal religion).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGuo bao rou (锅包肉 — the caramelised sweet-and-sour crispy pork that is the signature dish of northeastern Chinese cuisine and was invented in Shenyang (the dish was created in the late Qing period at the Daotai Fu (the official residence of the governor of Shenyang) by the chef Zheng Xingwen to please Russian guests who found standard Chinese food too savoury; the original dish used rice vinegar and sugar creating a tangy caramel sauce over crispy pork; the version eaten in the rest of China (ketchup-based sweet and sour pork) is a much later adaptation); the Shenyang guo bao rou should be eaten at Laobian Dumplings (est. 1829 — the most famous restaurant in Shenyang, the originator of the Shenyang-style sanxian stuffed dumplings) or at one of the traditional dongbei restaurants of the Shengjing area.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Liaoning Provincial Museum (the principal art museum of northeastern China, in the Shenyang Museum District — the collection covers 3.5 billion years of geological history and 6,000 years of human cultural history in the Liaoning region; the highlights: the Hongshan Culture collection (Hongshan was a Neolithic culture 4700-2900 BC in the Liaoning/Inner Mongolia region that produced the most sophisticated pre-dynastic Chinese jade work — the pig-dragon (zhulong) and bird pendants are the finest examples of early Chinese jade carving; the Hongshan jade dragon is one of the most significant artefacts in Chinese pre-history); the Liao dynasty (907-1125 AD) collections from the Khitan empire that preceded the Jin and Qing in controlling northeastern China; the Qing imperial painting and calligraphy collection from the palace).
The Taiyang Street area and the northeast China evening food culture — the iron pot stew (tieguolu — the Shenyang-style slow-braised pork belly in an iron pot with tofu, glass noodles and dried mushrooms; the defining comfort food of the northeast Chinese winter, served boiling on the table in the cast iron pot it cooked in for 4 hours); the sanxian dumplings (three-treasure dumplings: pork, shrimp and egg — the Shenyang dumpling style is larger than Beijing jiaozi, with more filling and a thicker wrapper that holds up to the hearty filling; Shenyang claims to be the dumpling capital of China); the Northeast lager (Shenyang Beer (Shenbeer) or the more widely distributed Harbin Beer — the northeast has the highest per capita beer consumption in China).
Benxi Water Cave (60 km east of Shenyang, in the Benxi National Park — the world's longest underground navigable river: 5.8 km of underground waterway in a limestone cave carved by the Taiyu River over 20 million years; the boat tour travels 3 km through the illuminated cave chambers (the other 2.8 km navigable but without developed tourist access); the cave formations (the stalactites, stalagmites, cave pearls (spherical cave formations), and flowstone curtains are among the most spectacular in Asia; the water temperature stays at a constant 10°C year-round making the cave a natural refrigerator in summer; the cave was discovered accidentally in 1949 by coal miners drilling exploration tunnels — the cave entrance was behind a coal seam).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideQianshan (the Thousand Lotus Mountain, 100 km south of Shenyang — the national park and sacred mountain of northeastern China; the 44 peaks are covered with Buddhist and Taoist temples, pagodas and shrines (the mountain has been a place of Buddhist pilgrimage since the Tang dynasty in the 7th century; 9 Buddhist monasteries and 9 Taoist temples are clustered on the 1,000 m peaks along with the famous 23 m Maitreya Buddha carved from a single granite peak — the largest single-rock Buddha carving in China; the cable car from the base to the Zhonghui Temple gives the finest view of the lotus-flower-shaped rock arrangement that gives the mountain its name).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFushun (50 km east of Shenyang — the city built on the Fushun coalfield, which was the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia: 6.6 km long, 2.2 km wide, 400 m deep; the Western Open-Pit Mine (the larger of the two open pits; visible from the observation platform which offers the most dramatic industrial landscape in northeastern China; the mine was developed by the Japanese during the Manchukuo period (1932-1945) and greatly expanded by the Soviets and Chinese after 1945; the mine is now depleted and the pit is being partially converted to a lake; the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre (the prison where Japanese war criminals including captured generals were held after 1945 and where the last Qing emperor Puyi was re-educated 1950-1959 before his release as a model citizen; Puyi worked as a botanical garden assistant in Beijing after release).
Shenyang Zhongjie (the main historical commercial street of Shenyang — the 1.2 km pedestrianised shopping street running from Zhongshan Square; the finest example of Republican-era (1912-1949) commercial architecture in northeastern China, with the French Baroque and Art Deco bank buildings from the Zhang Zuolin warlord period (Zhang Zuolin (1875-1928) — the most powerful warlord in China in the 1920s, who ruled Manchuria from the Zhang family mansion (Dashuafu) in Shenyang and was assassinated by the Japanese Kwantung Army by bomb under his railway carriage in 1928); the Qing imperial snacks (naibing — the traditional Manchu milk cake; sachima — the fried dough-honey-sesame snack from the Manchu court cuisine; and the guaitiao — the Beijing-style savory sesame flatbread unique to the northeast).