August 9, 2017

Shenyang Surprise

I had a week-long placement in the capital city of Liaoning province, and while I looked forward to this, I didn't really know what to expect. It turned out great!

Shenyang is about 625 km / 390 miles northeast of Beijing. I got there late Saturday afternoon, and even before landing on a runway, I noticed that the local environment wouldn't be anything like what I saw in China so far. Once the plane made its way through a thick layer of clouds, it revealed a wavy, saturated green landscape dotted with industrial facilities as far as one could see. I was thrilled to take a closer look at all that.

The city welcomed me with pleasant outside temperatures and nice weather in general.

Crossing the Hun River by the Sanhao Bridge on the way from the airport.

I was lucky to get a neat hotel, which tempted me to kick back and relax in a comfy bed; however, I was ready to do some exploring! "Nice hotels are all over the planet, whereas Shenyang is only one, only here," I thought and just tossed my backpack into my room and headed out. While I looked up some of Shenyang's points of interest in advance, I had nothing for this neighborhood. But from the hotel, I saw a local heating plant coined with an elegant concrete smokestack, so the first stop was suddenly clear.

The term "concrete jungle" reached new heights here.

After the heating plant, I just opted for my favorite strategy: let the streets dictate my direction and observe as many details of local life as I can. The area had an interesting mix of brand new, shiny housing estates contrasting with old blocks of flats; some streets didn't even have pavement, others were filled with big Audis and BMWs, another with rickshaws and roosters.

I even got the "kick back and relax" thing. Only more of an authentic version, I guess.

The sun quickly descended, changing the city's atmosphere into a different world.

With the darkness, people went out to exercise, eat, shop, watch an outdoor movie screening.. you name it.

I returned by the riverside to witness pretty sunset colors above the cityscape. Good stuff!

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Sanhao Bridge at night.

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a decent place for fishing, I'd say.

There was a spot from where I anticipated a nice view, but while trying to reach it, I nearly stuck my head into a net with several good-sized spiders.

This made me think twice about where to climb, what to touch, what to taste.. Still, the riverside offered an abundance of scenery to enjoy – so the hours flew by.

New developments in a full swing

As the day was gradually coming to its end, the intensity of my excitement had increasing tendencies. It reached the pinnacle when I found this gem:

Liaoning Grand Theatre

Shengjing Theater. (also pictured atop of this article)

While I kept going for a bit longer, I eventually got back on track to home. Here are a few photos I took along the way.

As of the first impression, Shenyang did exceptionally. And the following days were no less interesting – read about them in separate posts here.



If you liked this article, you might also enjoy my previous stories about Chinese cities:

"Nanjing,

Nanjing

Suzhou, China

Suzhou

Alternatively, visit my Blog Archives for more places and topics. Thanks for reading!

Published by: Jakub Stepanovic in Stories

 

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