Major Economic Indicators (2010)
In terms of population, Shenyang is the third-largest city in North-East China, after Harbin and Changchun, and is also the provincial capital of Liaoning Province.
Shenyang is located north of Liaoning Province’s centre. It is surrounded by eight industrial cities withinin a radius of 150 km, all of which focus on the elemental and processing industries.
Shenyang is one of China's most important railway hubs, due to its advantageous location at one of only two joint points between the rail networks of North-East China and the rest of the country. In addition, the Dalian Port and Yingkou Port, two major seaports in North-East China, are located within 400 km of Shenyang.
Shenyang facilitates excellent education conditions, and is home to the renowned North-Eastern University, which has provided an exceptional talent pool for in the employment industry of engineering.
Shenyang is a very old city with over 2,300 years of history. Given the name "Shengjing", it was the former capital of China's Qing Dynasty, and had a large Manchu population. After Beijing was established as the capital for Qing, Shenyang was considered an auxiliary capital.
Shenyang has several civil arts, including Shenyang Yangge, and the Drama of Twain Players. Shenyang Yangge, which is a street-performance carried out by street-performers in the early days of Shenyang, has now become the most well-known art form representative of Shenyang, differing from the common North-Eastern-style, Yangge, by utilizing stilts in the shows. The Drama of Twain Players is a song-and-dance duet, and is most popular in the North-East.
Being the auxiliary capital of Qing, Shenyang has many historical and scenic spots to encourage tourists, including the Shenyang Imperial Palace, the Fu Mausoleum and the Zhao Mausoleum. Other places with a high tourist turnover are the Taiqing Temple, the Xinle Relic, the Shisheng Temple, the Four Pagodas and Four Temples of the Early Qing Dynasty, the South Mosque and the Nanguan Church.
Cuisine in Shenyang is deeply influenced by the Manchu cooking style, in addition to many other foreign styles, such as Japanese, Korean and Russian foods. The stand-out features are the use of strong flavors, salt and oil. The Manchu-Han Banquet is the most famous cuisine in Shenyang, and is a dining process that gathers together the most wonderful dishes in Chinese cooking; however, it is incredibly expensive, usually thousands of dollars. Other well-known dishes in Shenyang cuisine are Laobian Dumplings and Haicheng Meat Pies.
By the end of 2010, Shenyang had 4 state-level development zones.
National Environmental Protection Model City (2004)-Ministry of Environmental Protection, PRC
National Forest City (2005)-State Forestry Administration, PRC
China Top 10 City (2005-2006)-National Bureau of Statistics, PRC
