About the Province-Liaoning

   Liaoning Province, Liao for  short, is located on the southern part of northeast China, with Shenyang  as the provincial capital. Liaoning has a history of more than 6,000  years, and it officially got the present name in 1929. Shenyang, capital  of Liaoning Province, is the largest city in Northeast China.

   As China's major base of heavy  industry, Liaoning, the home of Anshan, the "Steel Capital" of China,  holds an important place in iron and steel, machinery, chemicals,  electric power, oil extraction and processing and sea-salt production.  It is also China's leading apple producer and, its city Dalian is a  nationally known fishery center. Its main agricultural crops include  sorghum, corn, soybean, peanut, Chinese traditional medicine, coat,  silk, southern Liaoning apple and western Liaoning pear.

   As one of the opening-up coastal  provinces, Liaoning also has developed sea shipping. Dalian, Yingkou  and Dandong are its major ports.

   Liaoning's main historical sites  and scenic spots include the Shenyang Imperial Palace, Northern and  Eastern Mausoleums, seaside of Lushun  and Dalian, the Yalu River, Qianshan Mountain, Phoenix Mountain and  Water-Cave of Benxi. The Shenyang Imperial Palace is one of the two most  intact imperial architectural complexes ever existing in China, only  second to the Forbidden City.

 Climate

Liaoning has a temperate  continental monsoonal climate, with a hot, rainy summer; a long, cold  winter with little snow; and a short, windy spring. It has a mean annual  temperature of 6-11oC, and a mean annual precipitation of 400-1,000 mm.

 Administrative Division and Population

It is divided into 14  prefecture-level cities, 17 county-level cities, 19 counties, 8  autonomous counties and 56 districts, with a population of 42.38 million  as of the year 2000, mainly ethnic groups of Han, Manchu, Mongolian,  Hui, Korea, and Xibo.

 Food

Shenyang Laobian Jiaozi (a  dumpling with minced pork and vegetable stuffing), smoked-pork cake,  baked bear's paw (mostly not real bear's paw but substitute), hot-pot,  smoked chicken, etc.

 Culture

Acrobatics and the "Grand Yang Ko" dance in the form of stilt, dragon lantern, lion dance, and land boat, etc