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Shenyang, formerly known by its Manchu language name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. It is the province's most populous city with a population of 9,070,093 as of the 2020 census, also making it the largest city in Manchuria by urban population, and the second-largest by metropolitan population (behind Harbin).. The Shenyang metropolitan area is one of the major megalopolises in China, with a population of over 23 million. The city's administrative region includes the ten metropolitan districts, the county-level city of Xinmin, and the counties of Kangping County and Faku County.
Shenyang has been controlled by numerous different states and peoples during its history. In the 14th century, the city came under the control of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), for whom it served as an important military stronghold. The 1621 Battle of Shen-Liao resulted in Shenyang briefly serving as the capital of the Jurchen Later Jin dynasty, the direct predecessor of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The 1905 Battle of Mukden took place south of Shenyang as part of the Russo-Japanese War. The subsequent Japanese victory allowed its annexation of the region west of the old city and the increase of Japanese influence in Shenyang. In 1931, the Mukden incident led to the Japanese invasion and occupation of the rest of Manchuria, and the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Shenyang remained a stronghold of the Kuomintang until its capture by the Communists in 1948 following the Liaoshen campaign.
Together with its surrounding cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and serves as the transportation and commercial hub of China's northeast—particularly involved in links with Japan, Russia, and Korea. A center of heavy industry in China since the 1930s, and the spearhead of the Chinese central government's Northeast Area Revitalization Plan, the city has been diversified its industry in the 21st century, including expanding into the service sector. Growing industries include software, automotive and electronics. Shenyang is also a major city for scientific research and education in Manchuria. , it was listed among the top 105 cities by scientific output in the world, as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to several major universities, notably Northeastern University and Liaoning University, listed as prestigious universities in the Double First-Class Construction.
The city now known as Shenyang was first established during the Warring States period by Yan general Qin Kai, who conquered the Liaodong region from Gojoseon. It was then named Hou City (). Around 350 years later, during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han, the city was sacked and burnt by the Donghu people nomads and subsequently abandoned. The area of modern Shenyang was divided between two commanderies called Liaodong and Xuantu . Liaodong was seized by a Han governor in 189. Liaodong and Xuantu were briefly united under Cao Wei and the Jin dynasty (266–420). The region was in disarray during the fourth century until the Goguryeo occupied both commanderies in 404. Under Goguryeo, the city was called Gaemo. They established the cities of Xuantucheng and Gaimoucheng in the region. The Sui dynasty recaptured the area and established a new Liaodong Commandery in what is now modern Shenyang. In 645, the Tang dynasty invaded Goguryeo and captured Xuantucheng and Gaimoucheng. Soon after, Liaodong was administratively reorganized and enjoyed nearly 250 years of stability and development.
In 916, the Shenyang region was captured by the Liao dynasty and was known as Shen Prefecture () until the end of Jin dynasty (who conquered the region in 1116). The area became known as the Shenyang Circuit () during the Yuan dynasty. After the fall of the Yuan, Shenyang came under the control of the Ming dynasty, and it was designated a guard town named Shenyang Central Guard (). During the Ming dynasty, Shenyang became one of the most important Chinese military strongholds beyond the Shanhai Pass.
After the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 and the routing of the Shun dynasty army in the Battle of Shanhai Pass just a day later, the Manchus successfully entered the Shanhai Pass to establish the Qing dynasty in China proper. The capital was subsequently relocated from Shenyang to Beijing. However, Shenyang retained considerable importance as the secondary capital and spiritual home of the Qing dynasty through the centuries. Treasures of the royal house were kept at its palaces, and the tombs of the early Qing rulers were once among the most famous monuments in China. In 1657, Fengtian Prefecture (; a=abkai imiyangga fu or a=fung tiyian) was established in the Shenyang area, and Fengtian was sometimes used synonymously with Shenyang/Mukden.
During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Mukden became the site of the Battle of Mukden from February 19 to March 10, 1905.
Involving more than 600,000 combat participants, it was the largest battle since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, and also the largest modern-era battle ever fought in Asia before World War II.Menning p.187 Following this Japanese victory, Mukden became one of the chief bases of Japanese presence and economic expansion into southern Manchuria. It also became the government seat of Fengtian province in 1910. Mukden became one of the main epicenters of the Manchurian plague (1910–1911), which ultimately resulted in approximately 60,000 deaths.
In the early 20th century, Shenyang began expanding out of its old city walls. The Shenyang Railway Station on the South Manchurian Railway and the Shenyang North Railway Station on the Jingfeng Railway, both west of the old city, became the new commercial centers of Shenyang. In the 1920s, Mukden was the capital of the warlord Zhang Zuolin, who was later assassinated when his train was blown up on 4 June 1928Hata 288 at a Japanese-guarded railway bridge. At the time, several factories were built by Zhang to manufacture ammunition in the northern and eastern suburbs. These factories laid the foundation for Shenyang's industrial development.
At around 10:20 pm on 18 September 1931, a small quantity of dynamite was detonated close to a railway line near Mukden owned by the Japanese South Manchuria Railway Company by Kwantung Army Lt. Kawamoto Suemori. The Cambridge History of Japan: The twentieth century, p. 294, Peter Duus, John Whitney Hall, Cambridge University Press: 1989. The Imperial Japanese Army, accusing Chinese dissidents of the act, then used the false flag explosion as pretext to launch a full attack on Mukden, and captured the city the following morning (September 19).
After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese further invaded and occupied the rest of Manchuria, and created the puppet state of Manchukuo with the deposed emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as the figurehead.Fenby, Jonathan. Chiang Kai-shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. Carroll & Graf: 2003, p. 202 During the Manchukuo era (1932–1945), the city was again called Fengtian (and Mukden in English), and was developed by the Japanese into a center of heavy industry. Japan was able to exploit resources in Manchuria using the extensive network of railroads. For example, vast expanses of Manchurian forest were chopped down. The development of Shenyang was also unbalanced in this period; municipal facilities were mostly located in Japanese residential areas, while Chinese residential areas had poor living conditions.
The Soviets were replaced by the Republic of China Army, who were flown in on U.S. transport planes. During the Chinese Civil War, Shenyang remained a Kuomintang stronghold supplied by Claire Lee Chennault's Civil Air Transport from 1946 to 1948, although the Chinese Communist Party controlled the surrounding countryside.
By February 1948 the city was suffering from drastic shortages, and by the summer 140,000 refugees per month were fleeing. It was captured by the People's Liberation Army on October 30, 1948, following a series of offensives led by Lin Biao known as the Liaoshen Campaign.Over the past 200 years or so, Shenyang managed to grow and increase its industrial might during consecutive wars with Russia and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Second World War, and China's Civil War (Shenyang became the main battleground between the Communists and Kuomintang).
Situated roughly within the area bounded by the four "Shuncheng" (labels=no) roads/streets in Shenhe District, the (now-demolished) square-shaped inner city wall marked the bounds of ancient Shenyang. The earliest wall was built in 926 during early Liao dynasty to settle Northern Song civilians the Khitan people abducted from raids to use as unfree labour, and was then made of rammed earth because the city was merely a small settlement at the time (historically the administrative center of the Liaodong region was at Liaoyang). However, in 1368, Hongwu Emperor of the newly founded Ming dynasty ordered a new regional military command—the Liaodong Regional Military Commission (labels=no)—to be established, and Shenyang was made a prominent regional "guard town" (labels=no). In 1388, Min Zhong (labels=no), the newly appointed city commissioner of the Shenyang Central Guard, wrote to Hongwu Emperor immediately upon his tenure requesting permission to upgrade the city wall, and the old wall was made taller and thoroughly reinforced with overlaid bricks. According to History of Ming, the reconstructed Ming-era wall was 2.5 zhàng () tall, more than 1 zhàng () wide at the top, and 9 li and 30 bu (about ) long. It has two layers of dug outside, each being 3 zhàng () wide and 8 chi () deep, fed with water from the Little Shen River (the present day South Canal). There were four , each at the center of one side, connected by two main roads that intersected at Central Temple of the city's center in a "+" fashion.
This Ming wall was heavily damaged in 1625 when the Manchus laid siege and captured the city, with only the north wall and gate tower (which had undergone reinforcing reconstructions in 1545 under the orders of Jiajing Emperor) remained intact. The Manchu leader Nurhachi however saw the city's strategic value and decided to formally relocate his Qing dynasty capital from Liaoyang to Shenyang, and ordered the wall to be rebuilt. According to Annals of Mukden (labels=no), the new city wall was a standard black brick defensive wall standing at a height of 3.5 zhàng (about ), a width of 1.8 zhàng (about ) and a total length of 9 li and 332 bu (about ), complete with 12 fortified tower (8 gates and 4 corners) and a widened 14.5- zhàng (about ) moat. The city gates were increased from four to eight, though the old Ming-era north gate tower was preserved but sealed shut, later known as the "Ninth Gate" (labels=no).
The outer city wall, called the "peripheral wall" (labels=no) or "fortification wall" (labels=no), was actually a rammed earth rampart built in 1680 to expand the urban area outside the inner city. It was almost round in shape, standing at a height of 7.5 chi (around ) and an overall length of 32 li and 24 bu (about ), and also had eight towerless gates known as the "peripheral gates" (labels=no). The corresponding inner and outer gates were linked by roads that intersected within the inner city in a "#" pattern around the Mukden Palace.
Nearly all of these city walls and gates were demolished after 1949. Two gates and one corner tower of the inner wall were rebuilt during the 1990s. There had, however, been proposals to rebuild the other gates and towers in preparation to the 12th National Games in 2013.
Around outside Shenyang's former outer wall, there were four each located within an associated Tibetan Buddhism temple, namely the East Pagoda in Yongguang Temple (labels=no), the South Pagoda in Guangci Temple (labels=no), the West Pagoda in Yanshou Temple (labels=no) and the North Pagoda in Falun Temple (labels=no). They were built in 1643 and completed in 1645. The four pagodas are identical white Buddha- as tall as . Nowadays only the temple for the North Pagoda is well preserved, the East and South has only the pagodas left, and the temple for the West Pagoda was rebuilt in 1998.
Both the Temple of Heaven and Temple of Earth were also to be found in the old city during the Qing dynasty. They were smaller replicas of Beijing's counterparts. Neither exists today.
The city's main urban area is located to the north of Hun River, formerly the largest tributary of the Liao River proper and often locally referred as the city's "mother river". The central urban area is surrounded by three canal — respectively the South Canal (南运河) from the south and southeast, the Xinkai River (新开河, formerly the North Canal) from the north and northeast, and the Weigong River (卫工河, formerly the Weigong Nullah) from the west, all interconnected by channels as a continuous waterway. The South Canal in particular, famous for the series of and gardens along it, was canalized from the old course of the Wanquan River (labels=no), historically also called the Little Shen River (labels=no) or Wuli River (labels=no), which was a principal water source for the old city. These are reinforced on the peripheries by smaller rivers such as Xi River (细河), Puhe River (蒲河) and Mantang River (满堂河), and drains into the Hun River at three different locations on the southeast, due south and southwest side of the city. There was also previously another canal on the east side called Huishan Nullah (辉山明渠) that drains into Xinkai River's lower section, but is now no longer existent due to land reclamation from urban constructions.
According to the Shenyang Environmental Protection Bureau, winter usage of coal by boiler stations for hydronic district heating is the source of 30 percent of the air pollution in Shenyang. Half of the 16 million metric tons of coal consumed by the city during the winter of 2013–2014 were used for heating. Other major factors include dust from construction sites (20 percent), vehicle exhaust (20 percent), industrial emissions (10 percent) and extraterritorial dust (20 percent, mostly yellow dust from Gobi Desert). However, air quality was described by the Bureau as "slowly improving".
Out of the rural counties, the Xinmin County was upgraded to a county-level city in 1993, and the Liaozhong County was incorporated into a new suburban district in 2016 as part of the provincial/national development plan.
As a result, Shenyang now officially has direct jurisdiction over 10 city districts, 1 satellite city and 2 rural counties:
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| City proper | ||||||
| Shenhe District | 沈河区 | 716,417 | 60 | 12,037 | ||
| Heping District | 和平区 | 645,399 | 59 | 10,849 | ||
| Dadong District | 大东区 | 689,576 | 100 | 6,887 | ||
| Huanggu District | 皇姑区 | 817,288 | 66 | 12,349 | ||
| Tiexi District | 铁西区 | 907,091 | 286 | 3,171 | ||
| Suburban | ||||||
| Hunnan District | 浑南区 | 324,074 | 734 | 442 | ||
| Sujiatun District | 苏家屯区 | 428,859 | 782 | 548 | ||
| Shenbei New Area | 沈北新区 | 320,370 | 884 | 362 | ||
| Yuhong District | 于洪区 | 435,333 | 499 | 872 | ||
| Liaozhong District | 辽中区 | 532,900 | 1,645 | 324 | ||
| Satellite city | ||||||
| Xinmin City | 新民市 | 690,703 | 3,297 | 210 | ||
| Rural | ||||||
| Kangping County | 康平县 | 352,434 | 2,167 | 163 | ||
| Faku County | 法库县 | 447,952 | 2,281 | 196 | ||
Shenhe District is the site of the Mukden Palace, just south of the Central Temple. It is also the site of Zhang Zuolin's former home and headquarters, Shengjing Ancient Cultural Street. In the western Shenhe District there is a Muslim town, and the South Pagoda (labels=no) is located in southern Shenhe District. There are a lot of high-end hotels located in Shenhe District, such as Sheraton, Kempinski, Lexington, Marriott (which is the first Marriott Hotel directly named "Marriott" in mainland China, but due to finance conflicts is not administered by Marriott International). The major thoroughfare of Youths Avenue (labels=no), the city's primary north–south arterial road that traverses past the City Government Square (labels=no) at the modern center of the city linking Beiling Park to the Taoxian Airport, separates the southern portion of Shenhe District from the neighbouring southern Heping District. The iconic Liaoning Broadcast and TV Tower is situated alongside this avenue.
Shenhe District is also home to Manchuria's main railway hub, the Shenyang North Railway Station (locally known as the "North Station"). The railways leading to the station forms the border between Shenhe District and the neighbouring eastern portion of Huanggu District. The station building has recently undergone a major overhaul and extension.
The district, better known as the downtown, sprung up around Shenyang Railway Station (known locally as the "South Station" in contrast to the "North Station" in Shenhe District), the former hub of the South Manchurian Railway. At the center of the district is Zhongshan Square (labels=no), which features one of China's largest statues of Chairman Mao—a record of the era of the Cultural Revolution. Northwest of Zhongshan Square lies the West Pagoda Korean Neighborhood or Koreatown. Many of the boulevards in this area are lined of very large ginkgo trees, which become golden in color and produce their distinctive fruits in autumn.
Heping District is also the core area for many political institutions in the Northeast, including CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee, headquarters of the Northern Theater Command (previously the Shenyang Military Region), General Logistics Department and the consulate of the United States, Japan. South Korea, North Korea and other countries. Northeast Electricity, China Post, railways, other such industrial hubs and many media outlets such as Liaoning Radio and Television, Shenyang Radio and Television and Shenyang Daily newspaper are also located in this district.
The district contains popular tourist landmarks such as the Mukden Incident Historical Museum, the North and East Pagodas, Bawang Temple and the Wanquan Park. The oldest airfield in Shenyang, the now-defunct East Pagoda Airport, is also located in Dadong District.
The district is the site of Beiling park, the large historical mausoleum of Qing dynasty emperor Huang Taiji, as well as the Liaoning Mansion Hotel. It also hosts the seat of the Provincial Government of Liaoning.
The district is featured in a 9-hour epic documentary film by a young filmmaker Wang Bing. It shows the transition in this rust belt district—a palimpsest of not only Chinese but also world history. The first factories of this place were built in 1934 by the Japanese to produce war goods for the Imperial Army and nationalized after World War II. As late as the early 1980s, the factories here employed about one million workers, but all of them went jobless in the 1990s.
Hunnan District hosts the city's only operational commercial airport, the Taoxian International Airport, and is rapidly becoming high-end residential areas with luxury apartments, fine neighbourhoods and commercial developments, as Hunnan becomes the new center of Shenyang steadily with the new government being developed there. The district is traversed by two corridors along two major highways, one leading to the Eastern Mausoleum and the neighbouring city of Fushun, and the other leading to the airport.
Launched in 1988 as the Shenyang National New and High-Tech Industrial Development Zone and elevated to a national-level zone in 1991, the Hunnan New Area (浑南新区) focuses on electronic and information technology products such as software, computers, network systems, communication equipment and audio/visual equipment; advanced manufacturing technologies, especially for automobiles, medical equipment; advanced materials and biological and pharmaceutical products. Foreign companies such as the General Electric Co., Tyco International, and Mitsubishi Group operate in the zone.
The large southwestern part of the neighbouring Tiexi District also used to belong to Yuhong District, but in May 2002, the southwestern part of Yuhong District was ceded on order of the city government to establish the Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone, and the administration of the region was later transferred to Tiexi District instead. This annexation of land left an exclave territory lying between Tiexi District, Heping District and Sujiatun District, separated from the main body of Yuhong District, hence making the Tiexi District flanked at the "neck" by the two parts of Yuhong.
Shenyang has numerous , , churches and other religious places of worship.
The services sector—especially banking—has been developing in Shenyang. Shenyang has several foreign banks, such as South Korea's Hana Bank, Japan's Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia, Singapore's United Overseas Bank and the Britain-based HSBC. In 2006, the city hosted a total of 1,063 banks and bank branches and 144 insurance-related companies. By 2010, it aims to attract 30 foreign banks and 60 non-bank financial institutions.
The city has been identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the November 2010 Access China White Paper as a member of the CHAMPS (Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Maanshan, Pingdingshan and Shenyang), an economic profile of the top 20 emerging cities in China.
Shenyang has three development zones:
Numerous major industrial companies have their headquarters in Shenyang. Brilliance Auto is a major Chinese automobile manufacturer, and most of its production plants are also located in Shenyang. Shenyang Aircraft Corporation produces airplanes for civilian use as well as for the PLAAF. Neusoft Group is the biggest software company in China. Shenyang Machine Tool Group is the largest machine tool manufacturer in China. Tyco International, General Motors and Michelin Shenyang Tyre Corporation are expanding their operations in Shenyang.
The GDP per capita of the city of Shenyang is 78,490 yuan in 2009 (ranked 3rd out of all 58 cities and counties in Liaoning province).
Shenyang has two major railway stations: the Shenyang North railway station in Shenhe District, and the Shenyang railway station in Heping District.中国铁道出版社地图制作中心 编. 中华人民共和国铁路地图集. 2008. The Shenyang North Railway Station (p=Shěnyáng Běi Zhàn) was formerly the Liaoning General Station (labels=no) before 1946, and colloquially known as the "Old North Station". The original station building (now an MHCSPNL-listed heritage building), initially named the Fengtian City Station (labels=no) at the time of completion, was built in 1927 at the terminal point of Jingfeng Railway, about southwest of the current station site, on the orders of warlord Zhang Zuolin to compete with the then Japanese-administered Shenyang Railway Station. The Main Station Building (labels=no) of the current "New North Station" began construction in 1986 and was commissioned for operation in December 1990, and became one of the five most important railway hubs in China, earning itself the nickname " Northeast's No. 1 Station" (labels=no). In 2011, a huge expansion project known as the "North Station Transport Hub Reconstruction Project" (labels=no) was initiated in response to the growing demand of floor area posed by the increasing passenger traffic after introduction of the high-speed rail service. The station now has an additional 3-storey "Sub-Station Building" (labels=no) and a "North Square" (labels=no) on the northern (Huanggu District) side of the railways, while the old waiting lounge in the original 16-storey Main Station Building is now relocated to a large elevated concourse that bridges over the rail tracks, with a pillar-less roof (the largest in mainland China) doming the platforms. The original South Square (labels=no) outside the Main Station Building was rebuilt into a multi-levelled complex, with two above ground forming an elevated airport-style drop-off zone and a large ground-level area for bus stops, as well as a three-level underground city providing shopping malls, parking lots, taxi pick-up and interchange with Subway Line 2, while also capable of rapid conversion into an air raid shelter if needed.
The Shenyang Railway Station (p=Shěnyáng Zhàn) has a history of more than 100 years. It was built by the Russians in 1899 on the eastern side of the South Manchurian Railway and was named the Fengtian Station (p=Fèngtiān Zhàn) at the time. It was later expanded by the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War and renamed to Fengtian Yam (p=Fèngtiān Yì) until the end of the World War II. Before adopting its current name, the station was known as the Shenyang South Railway Station (p=Shěnyáng Nán Zhàn) or simply the "South Station" (in contrast to the forementioned "North Station") between 1945 and 1950, a name the locals still use colloquially to present days (though the current Shenyang South railway station is actually at the suburban junction between Hunnan and Sujiatun). Today, the station focuses on regular-speed passenger service and is being refurbished with a large archway and new terminal, reducing access to the boarding platforms by rerouting customers under and over ground while construction is completed. The station was expanded in 2010 with the addition of a new West Station Building (labels=no) and a West Square (labels=no) on the western side of the railways. The old East Station Building (labels=no) is currently on the provincial protected heritage list.
Since 2011, a daily direct container rail service has carried automotive parts from Leipzig, Germany to Shenyang through Siberia with a 23-day transit time. DB Schenker to launch daily freight train to China Railway Gazette International, 30 September 2011. Accessed: 4 October 2011.
In addition to the grid streets, Shenyang also was developing several ring road systems, going back as early as the "Fengtian City Plan" (labels=no) proposed by the Japanese-controlled puppet state Manchukuo government in 1932. Outside of the (now demolished) city walls, the city initially planned three , namely the "inner ring", "middle ring" and "outer ring" roads. Gradually with urban development, the inner ring idea faded away into the inner city grids, but the middle ring concept was retained and later transformed into the nowadays 1st Ring Road (labels=no, officially called the "Middle Ring Road" until 1995), and the outer ring morphed roughly into parts of the present day 2nd Ring Road (labels=no). The 3rd Ring Road (labels=no) was completed in 1995, and in 2013 was upgraded into an 8-lane, freeway—the G1501 Shenyang Ring Expressway (沈阳绕城高速公路). The 10-lane, 4th Ring Road (labels=no) is a limited-access highway about out from the 3rd Ring, completed in 2013. The planned 6-lane, 5th Ring Road (labels=no) and the proposed 6th Ring Road (labels=no), also known as the G91 Liaozhong Ring Expressway (labels=no), are both currently under construction.
Shenyang is connected to the other regions by several major expressways in radial pattern. The G15 Shenda Expressway (labels=no) to the southwest is the first expressway built in China and is an 8-lane, controlled-access highway with a maximum speed limit of , connecting Shenyang to Dalian, one of the largest port city in China. The Shendan Expressway (labels=no) to the southeast, part of the G1113 Dandong–Fuxin Expressway that traverses Shenyang from the northwest, is a 4-lane expressway leading to Benxi and Dandong, and also serves Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. The 4-lane G1212 Shenji Expressway (labels=no) to the east was completed in 2011, linking Shenyang to Jilin City via Fushun. The 8-lane Jingshen Expressway (labels=no) to the west is an integral part of the extended G1 Jingha Expressway (labels=no) beyond the northeast, and is a major interprovincial "trunk road" across the Shanhai Pass linking to the national capital Beijing some away. There are other smaller provincial-level expressways ("S routes") to other cities like Fushun, Liaoyang and Panjin, as well as many long-distance and express bus routes to Beijing and other large Northeastern regional centers via major national roads such as the China National Highways 101, 102, 203 and 304.
There are three other airports in Shenyang, none of them open to public. The East Pagoda Airport (labels=no) in Dadong District is the oldest airport in Shenyang, opened in 1920s and retired in the 1980s, though there has been proposals in 2013 to relocate and reopen it in Xinmin. The Beiling Airport (labels=no) in Huanggu District is used by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation for . The Yuhong Airport (labels=no) in Yuhong District is commissioned for military use only by the local Northern Theater Command garrisons.
Trams in Shenyang were introduced in 1924, and had 6 lines in operation up until 1945. It suffered major disruptions during the Chinese Civil War from power outage and Kuomintang bombings, but quickly resumed operation after the conclusion of the Liaoshen Campaign. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the tram network was gradually replaced by the buses and trolley buses, and eventually closed in 1974.
In December 2011, the Shenyang city government announced plans to rebuild the light rail transit network in 2012, comprising 4 lines with distance in the Hunnan New District. The Shenyang Modern Tram network started operation on August 15, 2013.Shenyang has been planning an underground rapid transit system since 1940, but was unable to materialize the idea due to the city's geology and engineering limitations. On November 18, 2005, the construction of the first Shenyang Metro line began and the construction of the second line started on November 18, 2006. The first (east–west) line was opened September 27, 2010, and the second (north–south) was opened on January 9, 2012. in 2023, the second line, running north to south, extended its southern portion to connect with the Shenyang Taoxian International airport. As of 2023, there are 5 running lines, with the latest of which (line 4) opening on September 29, 2023. Construction is difficult due to the granite-rich bedrock on which the city is built.
The China Medical University (labels=no) in Huanggu District is one of the top 10 in China and is IMED-listed. Its diplomas are accredited worldwide.
Shenyang is home to China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University 1st, 2nd (renamed Shengjing Hospital in 2003) and 4th Affiliated Hospital, 202 Hospital, Liaoning Tumor Hospital, Shenyang No.7 People's Hospital, Shenyang Orthopaedics Hospital, Shenyang Army General Hospital, North Hospital, and various other hospitals and clinics.
Shenyang is also famous for its defense industries, with the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), nicknamed "the cradle of Chinese jetfighters" (labels=no)", being the People's Republic's oldest and largest aircraft manufacturer, responsible for the design and manufacturing of the currently operational J-8, J-11, J-15, J-16 fighter aircraft and the in-development J-31 stealth aircraft. The Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute, a subdivision of SAC, is also responsible for designing the indigenous WS-10, WS-15 and WS-20 turbofan engines.
In 2014, South Korea and China agreed to repatriate the remains of 400 People's Volunteer Army soldiers killed during the Korean War, which had been buried in Paju, and scheduled to be reburied in a state military cemetery in Shenyang.;
Shenyang is home of many performance art organizations, such as Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe of China, Liaoning Song and Dance Ensemble, and Liaoning Ballet. Many artists are from Shenyang, such as Zimei, Na Ying and the pianist Lang Lang.
Shenyang also has one of the five full-length (400 m) speed skating rink in China, the Bayi Speed Skating Arena (labels=no).
Shenyang Sport University is a professional sports university, and acts as
Famous religious sites include:
Buddhism
Taoism
Christianity
Islam
Due to the sizeable Hui people population in Shenyang, halal foods are a common and also enjoyed by non-Muslim people.
Taiyuan Street (太原街) is another shopping area which is similar to Middle Street. Taiyuan Street many restaurants and theaters for people to enjoy. Many spend their holidays shopping on these two streets. There is also a very large underground shopping center, offering many items, especially fashion jewelries, accessories and clothing.
Another area, Wu'ai Market (五爱市场), features a large multi-story shopping center with a size comparable to that of many city blocks. It is famous for wholesaling cheap clothes and household items.
The information technology center is in Sanhao street (三好街) in the southern part of the city. There are large superstores located throughout the city that sell everything from meat and dairy to clothes and electronics.
Research institutes
Friendship cities
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