Blogs from Shenyang, Liaoning, China, Asia

30th Sept: The train journey to Shenyang wasn't too long. The station and the adjoining subway station was a sea of people. I managed to make my way to the ticket machine and onto the subway fairly quickly. The subway station that I alighted at was also packed, probably because it is a transfer station. It took about 10-15 minutes to reach my hostel. Even though it was rather early, I was able to check in. I loved my room. It was a dorm, but the beds felt like a mini room as there was a small patch of floor, a bedside table, curtains all around and space to hang stuff. It felt like a palace. I was rather hot and hungry so decided that lunch should be my first port of call. I looked online ... read more

We took a cab ride to Forum66, yet another way-way-up-upscale mall. On the way home we decided to walk at least part of the way and we came across a bustling, noisy city park that had all sorts of organized dancing, rides for kids, firecrackers, and (of course) people selling stuff. There were going to be videos here of the craziness, color, lights, and noise but this site has disabled their video server... that's a real shame. We'll post them on Facebook when we get access again. Turned out we walked far enough towards our hotel such that we could just hop on the subway a couple of stops and voila we were back at the Sofitel.... read more

Here we say good-bye to Beijing with a visit to the Legation Quarter and Wangfuxing Market, hop on an Air China flight to Shenyang, and discover that we have been upgraded to Club level at the hotel and get a special discount on dinner because it is Chinese Valentine's Day!... read more

We are all familiar Labor Day. For Canadians, at least the ones in Sudbury we call it the May 2/4 weekend. But here in China it’s called May Day. This year it landed on a Thursday, so I got that day plus Friday off. Although, I had to return to work on the following Sunday. So I took this opportunity to visit yet another place on my list of attractions for Shenyang. That place being Wu Le He Park but I only got to see a small portion of the park I plan on returning to see the rest of it another time. The weather seemed to be accommodating to the visitors to the park for it was sunny and warm. The sound of people chattering and laughter whiffed through the air, as I walked through ... read more

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 ... read more