Over the weekend, I somewhat spontaneously planned a trip to meet Luke in Shenyang. Formerly known as Mukden, Shenyang is the most populous city in Northeastern China, with over 8 million people. It is a good midpoint between Beijing and Harbin and I’ve always been intrigued by the city’s history. It was the capital of the Qing Dynasty – ruled by the Manchus – in the 1600s. It was occupied by Russia at the turn of the 20th century and was a prominent battleground between the Chinese Nationalist and Communist parties during the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s. It was also a key player when Japan occupied China in the 1930s and 1940s. With all this history there should be a lot of cool places to see, right?
Well, sometimes you just have to go with the flow. In the past few decades, downtown Shenyang has taken a very different turn, and the historical places are now on the outskirts. On the train heading there, the guy next to me was insistent that there was nothing to do and it was a silly place to visit. I don’t agree with him, but I also didn’t find the historical vibe I was looking for.
Instead, the weekend started out in a taxi line of about 50 people – and zero taxis. From the very moment I left the train station, the way I’d describe Shenyang is “vast.” The streets are incredibly wide – even making Beijing’s multi-lane highways look skinny – the buildings are huge, there are neon lights and billboards everywhere, and with a relatively low air quality index, you can see skyscrapers way off in the distance. There’s also a lot of construction.
On Saturday (after a Chinese breakfast of rice, salted cucumbers, and tofu… and then a bag of baked goods and coffee from the bakery across the street) we set off to explore, and almost immediately came upon Zhong Jie – “middle street” – a huge pedestrian mall and a famous Chinese tourist spot. Wandering into random malls – six story monstrosities that were almost reminiscent of Hong Kong malls or weird, dark underground malls strung up with Christmas lights – took up much of the afternoon, and by the time we found the Qing imperial palace (not far from the shopping area), it was already closed. But went to a Chinese Walmart for the first time. Ridiculous, and I’d say an equally cultural experience.
沃尔玛
That evening we did accomplish one of the must-dos on my list: eat at a famous Shenyang restaurant. Food culture is very interesting in China; every city and every province are known for their own thing. This one was just dumplings, but at a famous restaurant (since 1829!) that I’d found in Lonely Planet. We had three types of dumplings (jiaozi), but they were all different from their menu descriptions. First was “Roasted Beijing duck” – which was actually just an ordinary beef/pork mixture, a very typical Beijing-style dumpling, boiled. Neat. Next we ordered steamed beef curry jiaozi – which did taste like curry, but it was a little weird – does curry usually have anise? Finally, I wanted to try the “pumpkin vegetarian” ones, steamed… and they turned out to be a mixture of egg, shrimp, and celery. They were good, but I don’t know why they bothered to even put labels on the menu. Despite being misleading, we had just the right amount of delicious food, and topped it off with a mango smoothie.
“guys, we’re going to open a milk tea place, we’re gonna get some cups printed.” “cool, what should they say?” “oh i don’t know, just throw some letters on there. it’ll be cool.”
By about 10 pm, the city had pretty much closed down. We found a bar – I was afraid we’d somehow get roped into karaoke, I daresay the most popular nightlife activity in China – and got two very expensive drinks with very little alcohol while watching some weird betting game where people bet the drinks from their table, and other tables got to keep them. It seemed screwy. The bar was very crowded, smoky, neon, with lots of gold chandeliers, and mostly Western music – e.g. songs from High School Musical.
Across the street from the hotel – thank goodness for KFC, just in case (but notice all the little street food carts packed around it, ha. Tradition fights back.)
The downside of visiting a city like Shenyang is not only that customs (such as hours of operation) are different than I’m used to, but also being the only foreigner. Apart from Luke, I saw one older white guy in Uniqlo. That meant that everyone stared and talked about us everywhere we went. People in restaurants were very polite, and we used our best Chinese… sometimes it’s easier to be able to blend in, but you can’t.
沈阳的中街
Zhongjie, Shenyang
Zhongjie by night
The next day – intended to be the museum/tourist attraction day, since everything historical closes at 3 and we’d wasted time on Zhong Jie on Saturday – went downhill quickly. It started when the bathroom flooded the entire hotel room and Luke wiped out.
naively, we didn’t think it would happen to us, but I guess the sign was there for a reason
We had Japanese ramen for lunch, and that was a high point, but afterwards decided to get a taxi to the Liaoning Provincial Museum and spent nearly an hour wandering around to different potential taxi areas. It was frustrating because they either refused to stop for foreigners or would slow down just enough to lean over and turn us down.
I finally decided we were smart enough to work out the bus system, and we’d just find an interesting stop instead. Well, there were no interesting stops, so we got off wherever, and while walking down a side street (where there were fish for sale in jars, bunnies in tiny cages, and puppies in a glass box on the back of a bike), a car mirror bumped Luke from behind. The people were nice enough to stop and apologize profusely in English, but that didn’t change the fact that now he’d fallen on the soaking tile floor, had to wear wet jeans in the cold, gotten frustrated at being in an insular country where cab drivers refuse to pick you up, and been bumped by a moving vehicle. After that happened, we decided it was time to go to the train station just to play it safe.
Shenyang North Train Station – this is not the only one in the city, nor is this all of it (much is underground and off to either side)
This was another hassle in itself, but we made it, and got consolation McDonalds fries. My personal new favorite fast food indulgence is Zhen Gongfu – a Chinese fast food chain with greasy chicken over rice and a soup with some green leafy vegetable (very overcooked) and a huge meaty bone. Sounds gross, but it’s pretty good. Luke made his train – I was nervous, after all the other events of the day – and I made mine just in time. A lady cut me in line for food at Zhen Gongfu, and not only ordered everything, but had so many questions I wondered if she’d ever been to a restaurant. I ran to the platform and the train started moving as I was heading down the aisle to my car.
There were really only two things of note on the return trip. One was that I used wechat to text my parents and my brother. I was in contact with Beulah and Bangkok from a train moving at 189 km/hour in Northeast China. I’m old-school enough to where this blows my mind. The other was that I was writing in my Chinese notebook, and realized the men next to me were talking about how weird it was that I’m left handed, causing me to look up and grin awkwardly, which started a short conversation about handedness and the US.
I made it back to Beijing by 10 pm and took the subway home. Train stations in China are unbelievably crowded. It’s literally a sea of people all moving in one direction as fast as possible. My only defense is to wear my hood and my mask, and try to blend in.
Shenyang was a really beautiful city; it didn’t have “that China smell”, it was clean and bright, the sky was blue, and the streets were wide and welcoming. I liked it so much that the thought of coming back to Beijing’s dirty hutongs and smelly, polluted air was not very enticing. However, I’m blogging from a coffee shop only a five-minute walk from my apartment, where there are other foreigners and I can hear English – meaning that people aren’t constantly gawking at me and only me – and despite the bad air, I’m content. Shenyang was a nice visit, but after the unavoidable (and totally preventable) “China hassles” yesterday, I’m happy to be back.
anamericanwolfeinchina 