Dalian is a wonderful city jutting out on the Liaodong peninsula on the Chinese coast directly east of Beijing.  Free of the pollution permeating most urban areas of China, it is perhaps the cleanest city I’ve seen in China, full of white buildings and grassy parklands - a welcome sight during the dreary gray Chinese winter.  But its most impressive feature is its coastline just to the south of the city, reminiscent of the California coastline, as seen here.

I was traveling this day with a number of friends, and our time was limited, so I only had the chance for a handful of pictures - including this one of a gorge that suddenly appeared beside the road we were driving.  My hope is to return to explore the coastline and the city further.

The beaches along this coastline are popular tourist attractions during warmer parts of the year.  We traveled along about ten miles of beaches from west to east, and while a number of housing developments were going up nearby, their numbers were surprisingly few considering the gorgeous expanse of coastline here.  I spotted this boat about midway through the drive; its fishing nets can be seen beyond the rocks.

Despite its rocky past century (during which the Russians, the Japanese and the Soviets occupied it), Dalian is a very successful and prosperous city, with the largest harbor in northeast China.  All of this along with its scenery contribute to the Chinese calling it “the Hong Kong of the north.”  Hopefully I’ll get to explore it all more during a second visit.

The city of Shenyang, on the other hand, won’t require a second visit; there’s not much there.  Capital of Liaoning province and located about 200 miles north of Dalian, Shenyang is a very industrial city, part of China’s “rust belt” - on the bitterly cold night that I arrived, the air was incredibly thick with burning charcoal.  The city does have a number of modest sites to visit, including Bei Ling, the North Tomb, where the founder of the Qing dynasty is burried.  This dragon appears on an entrance wall of that tomb.

Though it’s the most popular attraction in Shenyang, Bei Ling is modest at best.  Its features tend to copy those of other places in China.  The pathway to the tomb has animal statues along the way (such as the small white horse on the far right of this picture), much like the older Ming Tombs north of Beijing.  And the path leading to the tomb on this cold day was full of poorly made snow sculptures, imitating those made famous by the annual festival in Harbin (see the next page for much more on that).

The walls surrounding the tomb area, with elaborate sculptured tiles like this dragon, tend to be the most interesting sights at Bei Ling.

The Imperial Palace a few miles from Bei Ling has more to offer.  The palace was constructed by the man buried at Bei Ling: Huang Taiji, leader of the Manchu conquest of China in the mid-1600’s and founder of the Qing dynasty. He did not live to see that task through to completion, but he did complete this palace seven years before his death.  This is Dazheng Hall, the octagonal centerpiece of the palace complex.

A dragon guards the entrance to the hall.  The features of the palace are not Chinese, but Manchu.  Shenyang was the capital of the Manchu empire, and its emperor resided at this palace before invading China.  Once Beijing was overthrown and the Qing dynasty was established, Shenyang became a secondary capital of China.

A view west from the entrance of Dazheng Hall.  The layout of the palace complex is that of a very small Forbidden City, but no doubt after invading China the Manchu leaders were more impressed by their new home in Beijing.

Dragon ornamentation on a building near the central courtyard, west of Dazheng Hall.  Qianlong made additions to this area of the palace during his reign as emperor of the Qing dynasty during the 1700’s.  Shenyang’s few cultural offerings belie its importance to the establishment of China’s final dynasty.