Shenhe Old Town

Shenhe is Shenyang's historical core, the centre of Manchu rule before the conquest of Beijing in 1644. The Mukden Palace (Shenyang Imperial Palace, UNESCO listed since 2004 as part of the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties) is the only surviving Qing imperial palace outside Beijing — substantially smaller than the Forbidden City but architecturally distinct, with substantial Manchu and Mongol design influence absent from the post-1644 Beijing palace.

The palace was built in the early 17th century by the Manchu founder Nurhachi and his son Hong Taiji, before the Manchu conquest of China. After 1644 it served as a secondary imperial residence — Qing emperors visited Mukden during their summer migrations and ancestral worship. The building has been preserved through successive Republican-era and PRC reconstructions; the architecture is a substantive example of late-Ming-influenced Manchu palace design.

Beiling (the North Mausoleum, Zhaoling), 8 kilometres north of central Shenhe, is the tomb of Hong Taiji and his consort. The mausoleum is one of the three principal Qing imperial tombs (with Eastern Qing Tombs and Western Qing Tombs in Hebei) and is set in substantial parkland that functions as a working public park.

Liaoning Provincial Museum, on the eastern flank of Shenhe, is the principal historical museum of northeastern China — substantial collections covering Manchurian history, the Liaoning section of the Great Wall, the Republican-era Northeast Army's history, and the post-1949 industrial development of Liaoning.