page_title: Shenyang
section_title: Old City
hierarchical_section_title: Shenyang / Old City
caption_attribution_description: 中文（中国大陆）‎: 1912年沈阳市地图
context_page_description: Shenyang, formerly known as Fengtian or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province, People's Republic of China. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the province's most populous city as well as the largest city in Northeast China by urban population, with an urban population of 6.3 million, while the total metropolitan population is up to 8.1 million. Shenyang is also the central city of one of the major megalopolises in China, the Greater Shenyang Metropolitan Area, with a total population over 23 million. The city's administrative region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang proper, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties of Kangping and Faku.
  In the 17th century, Shenyang was conquered by the Manchu people and briefly used as the capital of the Qing dynasty. The Battle of Mukden took place in 1905 as part of the Russo-Japanese War. Japan's subsequent victory allowed them to annex the region west of the old city and increase their influence on Shenyang; the Mukden Incident led the Japanese to further invade and occupy the rest of Northeast China, creating the puppet state of Manchukuo.
context_section_description: The old city of Shenyang resided almost entirely within the modern day Shenhe District, and used to have two city walls.
  Situated roughly within the area bounded by the four "Shuncheng" (顺城; 'along the city') roads/streets in Shenhe District, the (now-demolished) square-shaped inner city wall marked the bounds of ancient Shenyang.  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, 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).  However, in 1368, Hongwu Emperor of the newly founded Ming dynasty ordered a new regional military command—the Liaodong Regional Military Commission (遼東都指揮使司)—to be established, and Shenyang was made a prominent regional "guard town" (衛所).  In 1388, Min Zhong (閔忠), the newly appointed city commissioner of the Shenyang Central Guard, wrote to Hongwu Emperor immediately upon his tenure requesting permission to upgrade the city wall, and the old wall was made taller and thoroughly reinforced with overlaid bricks.  According to History of Ming, the reconstructed Ming-era wall was 2.5 zhàng (8 metres or 26 feet) tall, more than 1 zhàng (3.2 metres or 10.5 feet) wide at the top, and 9 li and 30 bu (about 5.2 kilometres or 3.2 miles) long.  It has two layers of moats dug outside, each being 3 zhàng (9.6 metres or 31.5 feet) wide and 8 chi (2.56 metres or 8 feet 4.8 inches) deep, fed with water from the Little Shen River (the present day South Canal).  There were four city gates, each at the center of one side, connected by two main roads that intersected at Central Temple of the city's center in a "+" fashion.
  This Ming wall was heavily damaged in 1625 when the Manchus laid siege and captured the city, with only the north wall and gate tower (which had undergone reinforcing reconstructions in 1545 under the orders of Jiajing Emperor) remained intact.  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.  According to Annals of Mukden (盛京通志), the new city wall was a standard black brick wall standing at a height of 3.5 zhàng (about 12.5 metres or 41.0 feet), a width of 1.8 zhàng (about 6.4 metres or 21.0 feet) and a total length of 9 li and 332 bu (about 6.4 kilometres or 4.0 miles), complete with 12 towers (8 gates and 4 corners) and a widened 14.5-zhàng (about 52-metre or 171-foot) moat.  The city gates were increased from four to eight, though the old Ming-era north gate tower was preserved but sealed shut, later known as the "Ninth Gate" (九門).
  The outer city wall, called the "peripheral wall" (邊牆; Biān Qiáng) or "pass wall" (關牆; Guān Qiáng), was actually a rammed earth rampart built in 1680 to expand the urban area outside the inner city.  It was almost round in shape, standing at a height of 7.5 chi (around 2.7 metres or 8 feet 10.3 inches) and an overall length of 32 li and 24 bu (about 20.7 kilometres or 12.9 miles), and also had eight towerless gates known as the "peripheral gates" (邊門; Biān Mén).  The corresponding inner and outer gates were linked by roads that intersected within the inner city in a "#" pattern around the Mukden Palace.
  Nearly all of these city walls and gates were demolished after 1949.  Two gates and one corner tower of the inner wall were rebuilt during the 1990s.  There had, however, been proposals to rebuild the other gates and towers in preparation to the 12th National Games in 2013.
  Around 2.5 km (1.6 mi) outside Shenyang's former outer wall, there were four pagodas each located within an associated Tibetan buddhist temple, namely the East Pagoda in Yongguang Temple (永光寺), the South Pagoda in Guangci Temple (廣慈寺), the West Pagoda in Yanshou Temple (延壽寺) and the North Pagoda in Falun Temple (法輪寺). They were built in 1643 and completed in 1645.  The four pagodas are identical white Buddha-stupas as tall as 26 m (85 ft)
caption: Layout of Shenyang's old city walls
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