Shenyang
Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province. The largest industrial city in northeast China, it has a population of 3.3 million.
The most important historic site in the city is Shenyang Imperial Palace, the former
residence of the Qing Dynasty founder Nurhachi and his successor Huangtaiji and the place where Emperor Shun Zhi, founding monarch of the Qing imperial rule had himself crowned.
In 1644, the Qing government moved its capital to Beijing and since then, Shenyang Imperial Palace and Shengjing (Shenyang) came to be known merely as the "sacred place where the dragon took on wing".
During their lifetime Qing rulers from Emperor Kang Xi to Emperor Dao Guang had come on eleven occasions to offer sacrifices to their ancestors in Shenyang.
The second largest imperial palace only next to the former Imperial Palace in Beijing, Shenyang Imperial Palace is by itself a grand architectural conglomeration of halls, pavilions, towers and temples with carved beams and painted columns architectural styles of the Mongolian, Han and Manchu nationalities. The Zhaoling (or Northern Mausoleum) is the cemetery of Huangtaiji and his wife Borjigid and the Fuling (or Eastern Mausoleum) is where Nurhachi and his wife Yihnaran were buried.
Tranquility and solemnity reign over the two burial grounds with the Tianzhu Mountain at the back and the Hunhe River extending in front of the tombs. Some 100 kilometers southeast of the city is Qianshan Mountain known as a scenic area with temples pavilions and exquisite sculpture.
Notes:
1. Shenyang Imperial Palace 沈阳故宫
2. Northern Mausoleum 北陵
3. Eastern Mausoleum 东陵
