Shenyang, the capital of the Liaoning Province, is an industrial center and transportation hub of Northeast China and is the largest political, economic, and cultural center of Northeast China. Rich resources of coal, iron and nonferrous ore throughout Liaoning Province make Shenyang one of China’s major industrial centers. As an important industrial and historical city, Shenyang is famous for its production of machine tools and other heavy duty equipments as well as its significance in China’s past as a railroad link with Russia.
Having a history of more than 7200 years, Shenyang has developed into a prosperous modern city. On December 8th 1986, Shenyang was listed as a national historical and cultural city by the State Department of China, possessing much heritage.
People native to Shenyang speak the Shenyang dialect, a variant of Northeastern Mandarin. It is similar to the other Northeastern dialects and also to the national standard of Mandarin, Putonghua, but is known as a form of Dongbeihua and has a wide range of vocabulary that is not part of the country's official language.
The city used to be known as Mukden, a name used by the Tartar people who once ruled the area. It has a history of more than 3,000 years. When the Manchurians seized Beijing in 1644 and established the Qing dynasty in Beijing, Mukden became its secondary capital which remained for 350 years.