Shenyang

辽宁，沈阳

Last but not least, Shenyang. This city is the capital of Liaoning province and is my last stop on this tour of the province.

I have a friend who was born and bred here so he did give me recommendations on what to see and eat. Some suggestions I did take on board, mainly the sightseeing ones whereas eating wise, I didn’t have much of an appetite at the time but hopefully I do get to try some genuine, local North East China cuisine if I do go again.

Shenyang definitely has an interesting history. Other than a war, it was the birth place of Qing Dynasty and you can see this history through its architecture. It was previously called Mukden and even has a its own mini (way smaller) version of the Forbidden City. Going at the end of August was ideal due to its cool summer weather whereas the rest of China was scorching hot.

There was a day where I was relaxing by the river and an adorable five year old girl playing next to me, then suddenly stood in front of me, staring directly at me. What had surprised me the most was that she noticed I was a foreigner. There’s me thinking, was it that obvious? On top of that, she thought I didn’t have a home and invited me over to hers and had even asked her father. This was probably the highlight of my whole trip.

Places featured in this post
Mukden Imperial Palace (沈阳故宫)
Former Residence of Marshal Zhang Xueliang (张氏帅府)
Beiling Park (北陵公园)
Zhaoling Tomb (昭陵)
Fangyuan Mansion (方圆大厦)
Youth Park (青年公园)
Qing Dynasty Street (清代一条街)
Olympic Park (奥林匹克公园)

Other places I’ve visited
Taiyuan Shopping Street (太原街商业步行街)
Middle Street (中街)

Places I didn’t get the chance to visit
Fuling Tomb (福陵)
9.18 Historical Museum (九一八历史博物馆))
The Strange Slope Scenic Area (怪坡风景区)
Qipan Mountain (棋盘山)
Wuli River Park (五里河公园)

and many more…