Understand
Capital of Liaoning Province and the largest city in the northeast of China, Shenyang is a city steeped in history. Nu'erhachi built his imperial palace and was laid to rest in one of the first two imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty, Fuling Tomb. His son is buried in Zhaoling tomb, which is the second of the first two imperial tombs. The imperial palace and the two tombs are all listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. It was in Shenyang that the Russian army was defeated by the Japanese in 1905. It was also here, on September 18th, 1931 that the Mukden incident ignited a war between China and Japan that would see the Japanese occupation of all of Northeast China. This city was also the home to the warlord Zhang Zuolin and his son Zhang Xueliang who ruled over the Northeast during the 1920's. The 20th century saw Shenyang develop as a major industrial centre. Today the city is rapidly losing its older structures with large scale construction throughout the city, like all cities in China.
