According to Chinese naming tradition, a river's north bank and a mountain's south slope are angled more towards direct sunlight and thus are considered the "sunny", or "yang", side.

The city now known as Shenyang was first established c. 300 BCE during the Warring States period by Yan general Qin Kai, who conquered the Liaodong region from Gojoseon.

[17] After the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japan coerced the annexation of the Liaodong Peninsula with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, but had to give it up due to diplomatic pressure from the 1895 Triple Intervention.

[30][31] The Imperial Japanese Army, accusing Chinese dissidents of the act, then used the false flag explosion as pretext to launch a full attack on Mukden, and captured the city the following morning (September 19).

[31][32] After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese further invaded and occupied the rest of Northeast China, and created the puppet state of Manchukuo with the deposed emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as the figurehead.

[35] Under Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky, the Far East Command[38] of the Red Army occupied Manchuria in early August 1945 following the surrender of Japan.

The earliest wall was built in 926 during early Liao dynasty to settle Northern Song civilians the Khitans abducted from raids to use as slave labourers[citation needed], and was then made of rammed earth because the city was merely a small settlement at the time (historically the administrative center of the Liaodong region was at Liaoyang).

[citation needed] The Manchu leader Nurhachi however saw the city's strategic value and decided to formally relocate his Later Jin capital from Liaoyang to Shenyang, and ordered the wall to be rebuilt.

There was also previously another canal on the east side called Huishan Nullah (辉山明渠) that drains into Xinkai River's lower section, but is now no longer existent due to land reclamation from urban constructions.

It comprises 6 large parks and 18 riverside gardens covering an area of approximately 1,400,000 m2 (350 acres), with exotic variety of vegetations such as rose, apricot, bladder cherry, honeylocust, natal lily, scarlet sage, morning glory and black-eyed-Susan, and extensive greenspaces of peach, pear, crabapples, ginkgos, weeping willows, pines and black locusts.

Shenhe District is also home to the famous Wu'ai Market (五爱市场; Wǔài Shìchǎng), the largest light industry wholesale trading center in the entire Bohai Economic Rim.

[citation needed] At the center of the district is Zhongshan Square (中山广场; Zhōngshān Guǎngchǎng), which features one of China's largest statues of Chairman Mao—a record of the era of the Cultural Revolution.

[citation needed] Heping District is also the core area for many political institutions in the Northeast, including CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee, headquarters of the Northern Theater Command (previously the Shenyang Military Region), General Logistics Department and the consulates-general of the United States, Japan.

[73] The district is the site of Beiling park, the large historical mausoleum of Qing dynasty emperor Huang Taiji, as well as the Liaoning Mansion Hotel.

The large suburban district is located on the east and southeast side of urban Shenyang, with most of its territory south of the Hun River, hence its current name.

The 37 minority groups are Manchu, Korean, Hui, Xibo, Mongolian, Zhuang, Miao, Tujia, Dong, Daur, Bai, Uyghur, Tibetan, Yi, Taiwanese Aboriginal People, She, Bouyei, Yao, Akha, Kazakh, Dai, Li, Shui, Nakhi, Jingpo, Kyrgyz, Tu, Mulao, Qiang, Maonan, Gelao, Russian, Evenks, Tatars, Oroqen, Nanai and Lhoba.

[86][87][88] Nonetheless, the economy of the city has revived significantly in recent years, thanks to the central government's "Revitalize Northeast China" campaign and the rapid development of software and auto manufacture industries.

[96] As the transport hub of Northeast China, Shenyang is served by air, rail, a currently Five-line subway system and an extensive network of streets and expressways, with bus services throughout the city.

The Harbin–Dalian high-speed railway opened in late 2012 and connects Shenyang with other major cities in Northeast China such as Harbin, Changchun and Dalian at speeds of up to 300 km/h (190 mph).

The original South Square (南广场) outside the Main Station Building was rebuilt into a multi-levelled complex, with two above ground forming an elevated airport-style drop-off zone and a large ground-level area for bus stops, as well as a three-level underground city providing shopping malls, parking lots, taxi pick-up and interchange with Subway Line 2, while also capable of rapid conversion into an air raid shelter if needed.

It was built by the Russians in 1899 on the eastern side of the South Manchurian Railway and was named the Fengtian Station (Chinese: 奉天站; pinyin: Fèngtiān Zhàn) at the time.

Today, the station focuses on regular-speed passenger service and is being refurbished with a large archway and new terminal, reducing access to the boarding platforms by rerouting customers under and over ground while construction is completed.

Since 2011, a daily direct container rail service has carried automotive parts 11,000 km (6,800 mi) from Leipzig, Germany to Shenyang through Siberia with a 23-day transit time.

In addition to the grid streets, Shenyang also was developing several ring road systems, going back as early as the "Fengtian City Plan" (奉天都邑計劃) proposed by the Japanese-controlled puppet Manchukuo government in 1932.

It suffered major disruptions during the Chinese Civil War from power outage and Kuomintang bombings, but quickly resumed operation after the conclusion of the Liaoshen Campaign.

[112] In December 2011, the Shenyang city government announced plans to rebuild the light rail transit network in 2012, comprising 4 lines with 60 km (37 mi) distance in the Hunnan New District.

In 2014, South Korea and China agreed to repatriate the remains of 400 People's Volunteer Army soldiers killed during the Korean War, which had been buried in Paju, and scheduled to be reburied in a state military cemetery in Shenyang.

[120][121] 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.

[122][123] The Big Stage Theatre (大舞台剧场) near Middle Street is famous for its Errenzhuan and Chinese comedy skit performances by Zhao Benshan and his students.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.