9 December 98
Recovered from the wretched boat ride to find myself in quite a modern city. Dalian looked orderly and quite cosmopolitan; in fact, I could have mistaken it for a North American city. I managed to take in Xing Hai Park and drive past the convention center.
Another train ride took me to the capital of Liaoning province, Shenyang. The Manchurians who later formed the Qing dynasty had once made Shenyang their capital. The Imperial Palace which is more or less downtown is an anachronism in rapid urban development.
North Tomb
On the outskirts of the city one can find some respite in the North Tomb. The tomb was commissioned in 1643 and completed in 1651. Huang Taiji and his empress rest inside a grass mound covering 160,000 square meters; while the whole park takes up some 4.5 million square meters.
One less known sight in Shenyang is Strange Slope. The slope was discovered by locals who happened to notice that their bicycles were attracted uphill without any effort on their part. The area has been “ developed “ ( i.e. admission is charged ) and tourists can experience their vehicles being mysteriously attracted uphill.
3 June 1999
I had just finished touring the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, the Nature Reserve and volcano in Heilongjiang province and was heading south towards Beijing. Shenyang was along the way and afforded a chance to break up the long trip. My first stop was the Imperial Palace where I had made a friend on the last occasion.
Turns out I had arrived in time for an event that had been going on for the last 2 or 3 years. The Imperial Palace stages a performance every summer that depicts scenes from the Manchurian royal life: namely, the princess’s marriage; compilation of the royal anthology and tour of the city.