Shenyang

---

My dear readers;

Once again I thought to give you some information about the city I am in. That city is Shenyang of Liaoning province. Shenyang is the largest city in Liaoning as well as Northeast China with a population of a little over 8.1 million people within its administrative area. The city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtian Prefecture. In the 17th century, Shenyang was conquered by the Manchu people and briefly used as the capital of the Qing Dynasty. It also serves as a transportation and commercial hub of Northeast China particularly with Japan, Russia and Korea.

The name of the city literally means, ‘The Yang side of the Shen River’. A reference to the Hun River which was formerly known as the Shen River is on the city’s south side. Archaeological findings show that humans resided in present-day Shenyang as early as 8,000 years ago. The remains of Xinle society was also found in modern day Shenyang. This society lived about 7200 years ago. The city was established in 300BCE during the warring states period of Chinas history. During the long history of the city it has been called by many different names.

As I briefly mentioned in the first paragraph it was conquered by the Manchu people. This was done e in 1625. When this happened the Manchu leader moved his capital to the city. At this point the name was changed to mean ‘rising capital’.

Over the last 200 years Shenyang was conquered and occupied several times. From the Manchu people to the Japanese (World War 2) and Russian (post World War 2). It continued to grow and prosper into an industrial might of Northeast China. It wasn't until the 1990s that Shenyang came into economic problems when a lot of the factories of the city went bankrupt and left millions jobless. But personally I feel this city has a lot to offer.



As for tourist attractions there are many to see in the city. A brief knowledge on some of them. There were four pagodas and four temples: East Pagoda/Yongguang Temple, South Pagoda/Guangci Temple, West Pagoda/Yanshou Temple, and North Pagoda/Falun Temple. They were built in 1643. The four Pagodas are identical Buddha-stupas as high as 26 m (85 ft). Only the North Pagoda and Temple is well preserved. As for the East and the South, only the pagodas are left. The West Pagoda was rebuilt in 1998. Shenyang has numerous temples, mosques, churches and other religious places of worship. Liaoning Provincial Museum, the largest museum in north-eastern China. The museum holds many relics from Manchuria's past, including a selection of inscriptions in Chinese and Khitan. Shenyang Steam Locomotive Museum, with 16 steam engines from America, Japan, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia and China. The 9.18 Historical Museum, a museum in memory of Mukden Incident on September 18, 1931. The museum has a shape of an opened calendar, and is located on the site where the Japanese troops destroyed the South Manchuria Railway, the prelude to the invasion of Manchuria. The Xinle Relic, located on the location where the Xinle civilisation was first discovered, containing a reconstructed Xinle settlement and housing artifacts discovered there. There are also numerous other sites you can visit that Shenyang has to offer. I hopefully can see a lot of the sites the city has to offer. It might take a lot of time in order to see but it will be worth it.

---