Published in Hang Lung Properties’ i66 magazine Spring 2007
In order to understand our present we need to know our past.
As Stephen Fry, that acerbic British actor, comedian and writer, observed in a highly-acclaimed speech to promote the study of history: “How can we understand our present or glimpse our future if we cannot understand our past? How can we know who we are if we don’t know who we were?”
Shenyang, capital city of the northeastern Liaoning Province, is a living repository of much of China’s history. As the birthplace of China’s final and longest-lasting imperial reign, the Manchu dynasty, and the subsequent scene of much struggle and skirmish between various contending parties, Shenyang holds the key to an insight into former times.
The city has the kind of weather and land conditions that forge strength and toughness in its people. Its summers are blazingly hot, its winters frighteningly cold, and the land broad and rough. Much of the early Manchu success was built on the back of this robust spirit.
It was here in northeast China that the Manchurians first rose to prominence. Shenyang was where they consolidated themselves into a force unified enough to defeat the Ming emperors, the last of China’s ethnic Han rulers.
When the Manchu ‘Dragon Tiger’ general, Nurhachi, toppled the Ming dynasty in 1625, he crowned Shenyang the new capital of China, and by doing so propelled the city into its glory years. Nurhachi re-named it Shengjing, while the public preferred it by its Manchurian name, Mukden.
By this time, the city had already metamorphosised through several name changes, starting with Houchen County around 206 BC, Shenzou during the years 907 to 1234 and then Shenyang in 1297.
Shengjing, however, did not hold the Manchurians for long. By 1644, they decided to march onward to Beijing where they strengthened their rule over all of China under the Qing Dynasty, which, according to history books lasted from 1644 to 1911.
As a consolation, they declared Shenyang the second capital of China and re-named it yet again, this time to Fengtian. The people, on the other hand, kept to their practice of referring to it as Mukden. Old habits die hard.
While the Manchurians were in Shenyang they built the Imperial Palace, today the only existing royal palace in China besides Beijing’s famous Forbidden City. Although just one-twelfth the size of the Forbidden City, it features more than 300 rooms and 20 massive courtyards. The palace took 11 years to build, with the main structure constructed by Nurhachi in 1625 and the rest of the buildings completed by his son, Abahai, also known as Huang taiji, in 1636.
Today, a museum and Shenyang’s most famous tourist attraction, the Imperial Palace contains many ancient cultural relics from the Manchu era. It’s architectural style reflects the Han, Manchu and Mongol cultures, with the building designs originating from the shape of a simple nomadic tent.
In the 19th century, the Liaoning Province, then known as Manchuria, became a hotbed of contention with the Russians, Japanese and Chinese squabbling over territory and resources. The Russians dominated the area for many years as leaseholders of the Chinese warm water port of Lushun or Port Arthur, Shenyang’s coastal neighbour.
Russian influences crept into Shenyang and contributed towards its modernisation. Within a few years, Shenyang had blossomed into one of Asia’s largest manufacturing centres.
But Japanese resentment over the Russian domination was seething underneath the surface. This precipitated into the Russo-Japanese war of 1904, with the result that the Russians capitulated and signed over their leasehold rights of Port Arthur to the Japanese.
Later in 1931, in what is referred to as the September 18 incident, the Japanese used a railroad explosion north of Shenyang as an excuse to invade the city and seize all of Northeast China.
They established Manchukuo, regarded by the Chinese and their allies as a puppet state, and installed the last Qing dynasty emperor, Pu Yi, as the figurehead emperor. It was not until the Japanese were defeated in World War II that Japan was finally driven out of the area.
Shenyang was returned to the Chinese, but once again became the scene of battle when civil war raged between Mao Tse-tung’s communists and the Kuomintangs. The turning point of this bitter domestic war came in 1948 when the Communists declared victory and seized control of the entire nation. Peace at last returned to Shenyang.
The World Bank now regards Shenyang as one of the most competitive cities in the world, ranking it 5th among all Chinese cities in terms of overall strength. It is one of the nation’s largest metropolis, with a seven million population, and is an education centre with over 30 colleges and universities.
Shenyang has the largest railroad hub in northeast China and is an industrial giant manufacturing textiles, transformers, chemicals, medicines, tractors, motor vehicles and heavy machinery.
In 2008, it will make history once again when, together with Tianjin, Shanghai and Qinhuangdao, Shenyang will play host to the men’s and women’s football matches of the Beijing Olympics. This time the battles will be friendly ones.
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