Shenyang

The three northeastern provinces of China (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang) are collectively referred to as Northeast China (Manchuria). The central lowlands of this region contain several major cites that are known for their heavy industries. The largest of these cities is Shenyang, which lies on the Hun He (Hun River), a tributary of the Liao He (Liao River). The Liao He is the primary river of southern Northeast China.

During much of the Qing Dynasty, Shenyang lay within the Willow Palisade, a trench-and-tree “barricade” that served as the boundary for the migration of Han Chinese from the south. This barricade delineated the region of Manchuria in which existing Han Chinese migrants might live (Mongol areas lay to the east, Manchu-controlled regions to the north, and Korean areas to the west). Shenyang was referred to as Mukden for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period during which the city was under Russian, and later, Japanese control. Shenyang served as a base for the Communist invasion of mainland China after the city was wrested from the control of Chinese Nationalist troops in the fall of 1948.

After the Communists came to power, Shenyang became a center of state-owned heavy industry and one of the top manufacturing centers in all of China. However, in the 1980s, when China moved away from a centrally planned economy to a market-based one, Shenyang, and the Northeast as a whole, lost ground relative to southern parts of the nation. Today, Shenyang’s economy remains heavily invested in industry, although it is more diversified than in the past. In 2003, the government launched the “Rejuvenate the Northeast” initiative. This project aimed at using state, internal, and foreign investment to launch projects to help wean Shenyang and other Northeast cities away from the often outdated, less competitive public industries.

Since then, foreign investment has increased dramatically for Shenyang businesses (over 15.4 million yuan, or USD 2 billion in 2005).