Liaoning is located in the southern part of China's Northeast. The Qin and Han dynasties were able to establish rule over much of what is Liaoning; later on governments headed by various people such as the Gojoseon, Xianbei, Goguryeo, Khitan and Jurchen ruled Liaoning. In the seventeenth century, the Manchus established their capital in modern Shenyang, Liaoning, before they conquered the rest of China and set up the Qing Dynasty in 1644.
In the last half of the seventeenth century the imperial government recruited migrants from Shandong to settle the relatively sparsely populated area. Many of the current residents of Liaoning trace their ancestry to these seventeenth century settlers. For the rest of the Manchu era, China's Northeast was off-limits to Han Chinese, and was ruled by three generals, one of whom, the General of Shengjing, ruled much of modern Liaoning.
In 1860, the Manchu government began to reopen the region to migration, which quickly resulted in Han Chinese becoming the dominant ethnic group in the region. In the twentieth century, the province of Fengtian was set up in what is Liaoning today. When Japan and Russia fought the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, many key battles took place in Liaoning, including the Battle of Port Arthur and the Battle of Mukden, which was, to that point, the largest land battle ever fought. During the Warlord Era in the early twentieth century, Liaoning was under the Fengtian Clique, including Zhang Zuolin and his son Zhang Xueliang; in 1931, Japan invaded and the area came under the rule of the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo. The Chinese Civil War that took place following Japanese defeat in 1945 had its first major battles (the Liaoshen Campaign) in and around Liaoning.
At the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Liaoning did not exist; instead there were two provinces, Liaodong and Liaoxi, as well as five municipalities, Shenyang, Luda, Anshan, Fushun, and Benxi. These were all merged together into "Liaoning" in 1954, and parts of former Rehe province were merged into Liaoning in 1955. During the Cultural Revolution Liaoning also took in a part of Inner Mongolia, though this was reversed later.
Liaoning was one of the first provinces in China to industrialize, first under Japanese occupation, and then even more in the 1950s and 1960s. The city of Anshan, for example, is home to one of the largest iron and steel complexes in China. In recent years this early focus on heavy industry has become a liability, as many of the large state-run enterprises have experienced economic difficulties. Recognizing the special difficulties faced by Liaoning and other provinces in Northeast China because of their heritage of heavy industry, the Chinese central government recently launched a "Revitalize the Northeast" Campaign.
Geography
It is possible to think of Liaoning as three approximate geographical regions: the highlands in the west, plains in the middle, and hills in the east.
The highlands in the west are dominated by the Nulu'erhu Mountains, which roughly follow the border between Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. The entire region is dominated by low hills.
The central part of Liaoning consists of the watersheds of rivers such as the Liao, Daliao, and their tributaries. This region is mostly flat and at low altitudes.
The eastern part of Liaoning is dominated by the Changbai Shan and Qian Shan ranges, which extends into the sea to form the Liaodong Peninsula. The highest point in Liaoning, Mount Huabozi (1336 m), is found in this region.
Liaoning has a continental monsoon climate, and rainfall averages to about 440 to 1130 mm annually. Summer is rainy while the other seasons are dry.
Central Liaoning city cluster
The Central Liaoning city cluster is a Megalopolis centering at Shenyang (urban population 4 million). Within its 150km radius, it has Anshan (urban population 1.3 million), Fushun (1.3 million), Yingkou (1.1 million), Benxi (0.95 million), Liaoyang (0.7 million), and Tieling (0.4 million).
Administrative divisions
Liaoning is composed of fourteen prefecture-level cities:
The sub-province-level cities:
* Dalian
* Shenyang
The prefecture-level cities:
* Anshan
* Benxi
* Chaoyang
* Dandong
* Fushun
* Fuxin
* Huludao
* Jinzhou
* Liaoyang
* Panjin
* Tieling
* Yingkou
These prefecture-level cities are in turn divided into 100 county-level divisions (17 county-level cities, 19 counties, eight autonomous counties, and 56 districts), which are then further subdivided into 1511 township-level divisions (613 towns, 301 townships, 77 ethnic townships, and 520 subdistricts).
Economy
Liaoning has the largest economy of North Eastern China. Its nominal GDP for 2006 was 925.7 billion yuan (US$117.2 billion) making it the 8th largest in China. Its per capita GDP was 21,802 yuan (US$2,760).
Agriculture
Main agricultural products of Liaoning include maize, sorghum, and soybeans. The region around Dalian produces three-quarters of China's exported apples and peaches. Cotton is also produced.
Liaoning's fruits include apples from Dalian and Yingkou, golden peaches from Dalian, pears from Beizhen of Jinzhou, white pears from Huludao and Suizhong, and apricots and plums from Gushan of Dandong.
Mining
Liaoning has the most iron, magnesite, diamond, and boron deposits among all province-level subdivisions of China. Liaoning is also an important source of petroleum and natural gas. Salt is produced along the coast.
Industry
Liaoning is one of China's most important industrial bases, covering a wide range of industries, such as machinery, electronics, metal refining, petroleum, chemical industries, construction materials, coal, and so on.
The sea off Dalian abounds with quality seafood, such as abalones, sea cucumbers, scallops, prawns, crabs, and sea urchins. The big fish of Dandong, the jellyfish of Yingkou, and the clams of Panjin are known worldwide for their good tastes right from the sea and in products made in Liaoning for export domestically and internationally.
Trade
The cities of Dalian and Yingkou have been developed as major ports and economic gateways to all of northeast China.
The Party Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Li Keqiang, initiated the development of a strategy entitled “5 Points and One Line”, which he first proposed on a visit to Yingkou in late 2005. Liaoning Province formally launched the development strategy for the entire Liaoning coastline in early 2006, so as to re-invigorate the provincial economy from its traditional status as the “rustbelt” of Chinese State Owned Enterprises.
The "Five Points" indicate five key development areas in the province and cover seven zones: the Changxing Island Harbor Industrial Zone in Dalian; Yingkou Coastal Industrial Base; Liaoxi Jinzhou Bay Coastal Economic Zone; Dandong, and the Zhuanghe Huayuankou Industrial Zone.
The five zones together cover a planned area of nearly 500 square kilometres.
The "One Line" mentioned in the strategy represents a new motorway along the coast. The coastline of 1,433 kilometers will become the connection between the five above zones, through which 6 provincial cities, 21 counties and 113 towns will be interlinked. The new coastal motorway will directly connect the entire rim of five zones around the Bohai sea, and will be completed by 2009.
Demographics
The population of Liaoning is mostly Han Chinese with minorities of Manchus, Mongols, Hui, Koreans and Xibe.
Culture
Liaoning's culture is part of a culture of Northeast China that is quite homogeneous across all of the northeastern China. See Manchuria#Culture for a detailed description.
In paleontology, Liaoning is well known for its extraordinary fossils from the Lower Cretaceous period; e.g., the early 'placental' mammal known as Eomaia. The first widely acknowledged feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx prima, was discovered in Liaoning and unveiled at a scientific meeting in 1996. Other notable discoveries have been an intact embryo of a pterosaur, Repenomamus robustus—a cat-sized mammal who ate dinosaurs, and Sinornithosaurus millenii, nicknamed "Dave the Fuzzy Raptor".
Tourism
The Mukden Palace was the palace of the Qing Dynasty emperors before they conquered the rest of China and moved their capital to Beijing. Though not as large nor as famous as its counterpart (the Forbidden City) in Beijing, the Mukden palace is significant for its representation of palace architecture at the time, and has recently been included on the UNESCO World Heritage Site as an extension of the Imperial Palace site in Beijing.
In addition, three imperial tombs dating from the Qing Dynasty are located in Liaoning. These tomb sites have been grouped with other Ming and Qing Dynasties tombs (such as the Ming Dynasty Tombs in Beijing, and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing) as a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Wunu Mountain City, a Goguryeo site found in Huanren Manchu Autonomous County, is part of a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site that also includes sites in Ji'an, Jilin.
Benxi offers a boat ride though a stalagmite filled cave and underground river.
Anshan boasts the Anshan Jade Buddha, the largest Buddha statue made of jade in the world.
Liaoyang, one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in northeast China, has a number of historical sites, including the White Pagoda (Baita), that dates to the Yuan Dynasty.
The port city of Dalian, located on the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, is a tourist destination in its own right, with beaches, resorts, zoos, seafood, shopping, Russian- and Japanese-era architecture, and streetcars, a rare sight in China.
Dandong, on the border with North Korea, is a medium-sized city that offers a cross-river view of the North Korean city of Siniju.
Bijia Mountain is a curious island which joins to the mainland at low tide by a land bridge.
Education
Colleges and universities
Under the national Ministry of Education:
* Dalian University of Technology
* Northeastern University
Under various other national agencies:
* China Criminal Police College
* Dalian Maritime University
* Dalian Nationalities University
Under the provincial government:
* Anshan University of Science and Technology
* Anshan Normal University
* Bohai University
* China Medical University
* Dalian Jiaotong University
* Dalian Medical University
* Dalian University
* Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
* Liaoning Institute of Technology
* Liaoning Normal University
* Liaoning Technical University
* Liaoning University
* Liaoning University of Petroleum and Chemical Technology
* Shenyang Agricultural University
* Shenyang Institute of Aeronautical Engineering
* Shenyang Institute of Chemical Technology
* Shenyang Jianzhu University
* Shenyang Ligong University
* Shenyang Pharmaceutical University
* Shenyang University
* Shenyang University of Technology
Paleontology
Liaoning contains one of the foremost paleontological sites in the world since the discovery of Sinosauropteryx, a small feathered meat-eating dinosaur, from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation. Since the 1990s dozens of groundbreaking finds have been discovered there, including the earliest flower, placental mammal, and marsupial, as well as several birds and feathered dinosaurs, including one that was found in a sleeping position. These have added further evidence that birds and dinosaurs may be directly related.
Sports
Professional sports teams based in Liaoning include:
* Chinese Football Association Super League
* Liaoning FC
* Shenyang Jinde
* Dalian Shide
* Chinese Football Association Jia League
* Dalian Changbo
* Chinese Basketball Association
* Liaoning Panpan Hunters
