The Manchurian Imperial Capital — the northeastern city where the Manchu Qing dynasty's earliest emperors built a palace complex rivalling the Forbidden City, the tomb mausoleums of Nurhaci and Huang Taiji rise from pine forests, and the great northeastern Chinese (dongbei) food tradition — dumplings, BBQ lamb, sour cabbage stew — is at its most authentic
Shenyang (formerly known as Mukden in Western sources) is the capital of Liaoning Province and the largest city in Northeast China (Dongbei) — a major industrial city of 8 million that is also the cradle of the Qing dynasty, China's last imperial dynasty (1644–1912). Before the Qing conquest of Beijing in 1644, Shenyang was the Qing imperial capital — and the Shenyang Imperial Palace (Mukden Palace) built here by the first two Qing emperors is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: a fully intact imperial palace complex from the early 17th century, significantly smaller but architecturally related to…
The Shenyang area has been inhabited since Neolithic times. The city (then called Shenzhou) came under Jin dynasty (Jurchen) control in the 12th century CE. In 1625, Nurhaci — founder of the Later Jin (which became the Qing dynasty) — moved his capital to Shenyang and renamed it Shengjing. His son Hong Taiji (Huang Taiji) proclaimed the Qing dynasty in 1636 and expanded the palace complex. When the Qing forces entered Beijing through the Shanhai Pass in 1644, Shenyang remained the 'second capital' — Chinese emperors made ritual pilgrimage visits to the imperial mausoleums. The city, known as…