Shenyang

Shenyang (simplified Chinese: 沈阳; traditional Chinese: 瀋陽; pinyin: Shěnyáng), formerly known as Fengtian or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in north-central Liaoning province, China. It is the provincial capital of Liaoning and the province's most populous city with a population of 9,070,093 at the 2020 census, also making it the largest city in Northeast China by urban population and the second-largest by metropolitan population (behind Harbin).

Shenyang is the central city of one of the major megalopolises in China, the Greater Shenyang Metropolitan Area, with a population over 23 million. The city's administrative region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties: Kangping and Faku.

Shenyang has passed through the control of many states and peoples in history. In the 14th century, Shenyang came under the control of the Ming dynasty. The city served as an important Chinese military stronghold during the Ming period. The Manchu people conquered Shenyang from the Ming in the 17th century and briefly used it as the capital of Qing dynasty China. In 1905, the Battle of Mukden took place south of Shenyang during the Russo-Japanese War. Japan's subsequent victory allowed Tokyo to annex the region west of the old city and to increase Japanese influence on Shenyang; in 1931, the Mukden Incident led the Japanese to further invade and occupy the rest of Northeast China, forming the puppet state of Manchukuo. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Shenyang remained a Kuomintang stronghold, but the Communists captured it in 1948 after the Liaoshen Campaign.

Along with its nearby 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 diversifying its industry, 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 Northeast China. As of 2023, it was list among the top 125 science cities in the world as tracked by the Nature Index. The city is home to several major universities, notably Northeastern University and Liaoning University, members of China's prestigious universities in the Double First Class University Plan.