Author: Lu Kewen Source: official account: Lu Kewen Studio has been authorized to reprint
Five gears
The collapse caused by industry in Northeast China after 2000 is comprehensive. Among the GDP of various cities in Liaoning Province in 2022, only Dalian and Shenyang can compete with a dozen in the country, while the GDP of other cities from Chaoyang to Fuxin has not exceeded a hundred billion yuan. Of course, all three provinces in Northeast China are difficult brothers and sisters. In 2022, there were 14 cities in Liaoning, 8 of which were less than a hundred billion yuan; There are 11 cities in Jilin, of which 9 are less than 100 billion; There are 13 cities in Heilongjiang, of which 9 are less than 100 billion.
Currently, there are only four major cities in Northeast China, followed by Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, and Harbin. Among them, the highest city, Dalian, has a GDP of only 843 billion, and even Changzhou in Jiangsu cannot compete, so it can only draw with Xuzhou.
The GDP of the entire Liaoning province is 2.89 trillion yuan, which is just the size of Guangzhou (Guangzhou’s GDP of 288 million yuan in 2022).
Wherever the money is, the people are, and the loss of population in Northeast China is really unavoidable.
When I stayed in Panjin, a Liaoning native talked about his alma mater, Liaoning University of Engineering and Technology, which was a national key university founded in 1949 and originally belonged to the former Ministry of coal industry.
The university is located in Fuxin, serving the training of coal talents. It has merged with Fushun Coal Mine College, Liaoning Coal Mine Normal College, and Jixi Mining College, making it the only coal higher education institution in Northeast China. It obtained a doctoral degree authorization qualification in 1993 and is known as the Huangpu Military Academy in the coal industry. Graduates are very popular.
The score requirements for applying to this school were very high. Liaoning, a friend, chose Liaoning Engineering when making a choice between Harbin Institute of Technology and Liaoning Engineering. However, due to the gradual depletion of coal resources, the school became less and less valued, missed the 985 and 211 evaluations, and the average annual research funding was only 230 million. Now it has become an ordinary second tier university. I checked their admission score line for 2021, Candidates in Liaoning Province can attend the college entrance examination with a score of over 400.
There are also two schools in the northeast, Daqing Petroleum Institute and Northeast Electric Power University. They are the same fate as the Liaoning Project. They are accessories of resource depletion and economic recession in the northeast, and have dropped from national key to ordinary colleges and universities.
Many cities in Liaoning mentioned earlier have resources that have either been fully excavated or are not as cost-effective as buying from abroad; Those with transportation advantages, such as Russia and North Korea, cannot be revitalized due to congestion there, which is not a significant advantage. Therefore, many cities are frozen there, relying on some fragmented old industries to make a living.
For example, the Fuxin plan to transform the old coal pit into a racing track, which has a relatively low output value, can save a little bit. It is impossible to say that we want to change the fate of the city.
At present, the 14 cities can be divided into four levels: the fourth level is Liaoyang, Fuxin, Chaoyang, Tieling, and Huludao. Without resources, industry has not developed, and the urban built-up area is small, with significant deficiencies in commercial or medical education.
Because I have always heard that Tieling is a “relatively large city” and “the end of the universe,” I even made a special trip. It turned out that Tieling has two cities, old and new. The old city is no different from other old cities. The new city was designed by the China Institute of Urban Planning and Design and a prestigious university, with overall staggered layout. The greenery and water distribution are well done, especially the sky is particularly blue and the streets are clean. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I can’t believe this is Iron Ridge that we always thought was dirty and old.
Tieling Old City
Tieling New City
The third tier is Jinzhou, Dandong, Benxi, and Fushun.
These cities have not declined as severely as the fourth tier, and each has some shining points. For example, the GDP of Dandong and Liaoyang is almost the same, but Dandong has strong geographical advantages and great potential in the later stage, and it is uncertain which day it will erupt; Jinzhou’s science, education, culture, and health are stronger than other cities; Fushun is close to the provincial capital, heading northeast from Shenyang, and accidentally reaches the boundary of Fushun, which is somewhat nourishing; And there are young people in Benxi, who have the Shiqiaozi University City. Throughout Liaoning, except for Shenyang and Dalian, Jinzhou and Benxi can also see many college students on weekends.
The second tier is Anshan, Yingkou, and Panjin.
These three cities have all exceeded 100 billion yuan. Panjin is a petrochemical project that has just won Saudi Aramco’s 80 billion yuan bid. It aims to build a refinery with a daily processing capacity of 300000 barrels, and a chemical plant with an annual output of 1.65 million tons of ethylene and 2 million tons of paraxylene. In terms of size, there is a chance to surpass Yingkou and Anshan. By the way, Panjin rice is delicious, remember to taste it, it’s really fragrant.
Yingkou was originally a wonderful city in Liaoning Province, somewhat like the positioning of “Little Shenzhen in the Bohai Circle”. There were only six horizontal streets in the old urban area, and walking from the international hotel next to the Daliao River to Donghai Street was the end. It was not half the size of Shaoyang City, and the entire walking distance was only one and a half hours. However, Yingkou opened its port in 1861 and was the only foreign trade port in Northeast China at that time, with Qichang Yanghang and Mobil in the United States, The Taikoo Company, Jardine Matheson Company, and Bonemen Company in the UK, the Mitsui Company in Japan, as well as the UK, Germany, France, and Russia, all operate companies here, dealing in Northeast China’s bristles, horse tails, dyes, fur, coal, rayon, and oil extraction.
So in a small city like Yingkou, it has been quite international for over a hundred years. The West Street in the city center still retains many buildings left by foreigners, and the buildings are not large. Various small churches, consulates, banks, and hospitals are all exquisitely built.
Shot on the evening of April 12th, the Eastern Orthodox Church left by the Russians in Yingkou
Due to its geographical advantages and early opening, Yingkou has inexplicably developed private enterprises and the financial industry in Liaoning Province. Due to the large number of private enterprises, there was no significant impact on Yingkou when it was laid off. Currently, there are also 31 banking institutions, with deposits in the city reaching 350 billion yuan and per capita deposits ranking third in the country.
The scenery in Yingkou is also good, and it is the only prefecture level city in mainland China that can see the sunset falling into the sea. If it weren’t for the cold weather in Liaoning, Yingkou would have become a famous tourist city in China.
In addition to the old urban area, Yingkou now focuses on investing in the scenic Bayuquan Development Zone. The two sides are quite far apart and it takes about an hour to drive. Yingkou Port in Bayuquan, along with Dalian Port, is an important node for Liaoning to initially build the Northeast Sea Land Corridor by 2025, and there is still a lot of room for future development.
Perhaps Panjin will rely on large chemical industries in the future, with a total GDP exceeding that of Yingkou, but the quality of life of most people in Yingkou will still be higher than that of most cities in Liaoning. Yingkou is indeed a happy and exquisite northern coastal town.
Compared to Panjin and Yingkou, Anshan looks very old.
Although Anshan has a Fortune 500 company, Ansteel’s benefits are not very good. With a revenue of 131 billion yuan in 2022 and a net profit of only 156 million yuan, Anshan has only a few tens of thousands of local employees and cannot provide much employment.
After 2013, the speed of decline in Anshan was significant. After the investment of Anshan West Station and Olympic Sports Center, the popularity of the surrounding areas did not increase. Only young people could be seen around Liaoning University of Science and Technology, with more and more elderly people on the streets and shorter bus trips. In recent years, a total of about 300000 people have been lost, dropping from third tier cities to fourth tier cities.
Except for the steel industry, there are no other high-quality industries in Anshan. The laser industrial park and Dadaowan industrial park in the high-tech zone are still acceptable, but the scale is limited so far, and no major industry has emerged that can replace Ansteel. Anshan has not found its own breakthrough point.
When I arrived in Anshan in April 2023 and stood at the window of a hotel, looking down, I only saw a patch of old houses in the city, not many new buildings, and the sky was slightly gray, making everything look gloomy.
Overall, Anshan can still lead Panjin and Yingkou in terms of size at this stage, but they have surpassed them one after another, which should not be too far away.
Lu Dalian
Liaoning Province currently only has two weak second tier cities, Dalian and Shenyang, and the situation in these two cities is not very optimistic.
Dalian is currently ranked 29th in the country, while Shenyang is ranked 31st in the country. It cannot compete with cities like Yantai, Changzhou, Dongguan, and Nantong that are not well-known in the country.
If only in terms of fame, Dalian and Shenyang are actually much larger. Both cities have a glorious history, but their size has not caught up with the pace of national development in the past two decades.
Let’s start with Dalian.
From ancient times to the Qing Dynasty, Dalian has always been a place that few people paid attention to, with at most setting up towns to hoard troops and fish. However, in modern times, countries around the world were connected by advanced technology and transportation, and Dalian’s strategic position suddenly became extremely important. It was in a crucial position for Japan and Russia (the Qing government was responsible for watching from the side) and began to be repeatedly contested.
In 1894, when the Qing government lost to Japan in the Sino Japanese War, the Japanese wanted the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Russians wanted it too. Afraid that the Japanese would take it away first, they joined forces with the French and German forces to force the Japanese invaders to spit it out. Then the Russians told Manchu, “Look, I have done a good job. You have to repay me, or you can rent Dalian to me, and I will use it to open a base in the Far East.”.
The Qing court struggled twice and was powerless to resist. In 1898, Russia officially leased Dalian, and Nikolai II named the city Darini, which means “far away”.
Architect Skorimovsky was ordered to build the city in Darini. In 1899, he came over with the city construction drawings of Paris, France, and prepared to build a city here using Paris as a template.
The current Zhongshan Square
Zhongshan Square in 1928
There is a Zhongshan Square in the center of the old city of Dalian. When it was first built, it was called Nikolayevkaya Square, which is called Skorimovsky. It imitates Paris’ starting point of expanding the city from the square to the surrounding areas. The square radiates 10 roads outward, and is equipped with facilities such as government halls, banks, post offices, and commodity exchanges.
The earliest urban construction area of Dalian was only 1120 square kilometers, which was very small, about the size of 150 football fields. The main reason was that Skorimovsky had not completed the construction and had just completed the administrative area in the north when the Russo Japanese War broke out. In May 1904, the Japanese captured the Nanshan Fortress, and the Russians fell into panic. They fled to Lushun overnight, and only a part of Darini’s city construction plan was completed.
We often hear the term ‘Dalian Lvshun’, which used to be commonly referred to as’ Lvda ‘, referring to the peninsula from the city center of Dalian to the Port of Lvshun. There is a mountain in the middle, and there is still some distance. I took a car from the downtown area of Dalian to Lushun to see the famous 203 Highlands. It took me an hour by car, but unfortunately I arrived late that day and the park was closed and not allowed to enter. It was a lifelong regret.
After the Japanese ruled here, they first changed the name of Dalini to Dalian Bay (probably because of the reason of Dalian Bay). They picked up the urban construction drawings left by Skorimovski. It was OK, so they continued to do so. They started to build Dalian with Zhongshan Square as the core, but the houses they built were no longer European, and the surrounding buildings were different in style.
Because of this special historical reason, ICBC at No. 1 Zhongshan Square is an ancient Roman style building, Bank of Liaoyang at No. 2 is a Gothic style building, Dalian Hotel at No. 4, Bank of China at No. 9 is a late Renaissance style building, ICBC at No. 5 is a eclecticism nostalgic style building, Bank of Communications at No. 6 is a classical Renaissance style building, and so on.
So there was a saying in Dalian at that time that “ten buildings and ten samples, ten roads and ten directions”.
The central square was renamed by the Japanese as the Grand Square. In 1914, a black bronze statue of the first governor of Kanto, Yoshichang Oshima, was erected in the center. After the liberation, how could one tolerate it? Of course, the Japanese bronze statue was demolished.
The Japanese stayed in Dalian for about forty years and built it into a gateway port in Northeast Asia. The first batch of ports, docks, railways, highways, and public facilities in Dalian were all built during this stage. Dalian has since become the economic, cultural, and transportation center of the Northeast region.
I know some colonizers couldn’t help but kneel down and say thank you to Japan. Please note two points. Firstly, the Japanese built Dalian not for the Chinese, but for the Japanese. Others didn’t treat you like a human, and they built infrastructure mainly to plunder Chinese resources during the war. For example, the largest mechanized coal terminal in East Asia built in 1926 stole a large amount of Chinese coal from here, accounting for 60% -70% of Japan’s annual coal imports.
The second was the Japanese construction of Dalian, which was aimed at the Chinese people with a butcher’s knife. In 1894, the Japanese captured Lushun and massacred the city for four days and three nights, leaving only 36 people responsible for burying the bodies.
We need to have a basic view of right and wrong in history, and when reading history, we need to stand firm in our own national position.
Today, there are relatively more Japanese companies in Dalian, and there are also many Japanese people coming, mainly due to their proximity, which is closely related to Dalian, which was colonized by Japan for forty years.
Like Shenzhen, Dalian started as a fishing village. Previously, the only important facilities were the Lushun Shipyard built in 1883 and the Dongqing Railway Locomotive Manufacturing Institute (predecessor of Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Factory) built in 1889.
When the Russians arrived, there were only 30000 people in the city. During this period, the Russians began building the Dalian Ship Canal (predecessor of Dalian Shipyard) and the first phase of Dalian Port.
The Japanese came to build major factories, which gave Dalian a certain scale of docks and manufacturing industry. In 1911, there were 165 factories, and in 1932, they developed to 487. Before Japan left, there were over a thousand factories engaged in cement, cotton spinning, petrochemicals, machinery, and other industries, with a population of over 800000.
In fact, Japan’s industries in Dalian are not advanced and relatively backward compared to Japan’s domestic market, and they are all serving economic plunder. For example, the Dalian Ship Canal in Japanese hands has only 495 employees, a 3000 ton shipyard, and four repair workshops; Manchuria Fufang Co., Ltd. (predecessor of Dalian Textile Factory) only has 18800 spindles, and the machines are all outdated and worn out equipment manufactured in 1897.
At that time, Japanese people lived in the picturesque Nanshan and city center, with large courtyard style villas with high greening rates and convenient transportation, as well as complete drainage and gas systems. However, Chinese people lived scattered in the suburbs, with dilapidated and crowded houses, narrow roads, and few public facilities.
At that time, 25% of Dalian was Japanese, but it accounted for 60% of the total residential area in the city. All of them were high-quality areas, and 75% of the Chinese people actually lived in the slums of Dalian at that time.
Those who enjoy Japanese rule and advocate for good Japanese governance are just running dogs living in dilapidated suburban areas when they return to the colonial era of Japan.
However, we also need to approach the issue dialectically. When I am on the streets of Dalian, I often see people queuing politely and quietly in long lines. Dalian elderly people told me that this is a habit left over from the Japanese colonial period, and the quality of Dalian people queuing is the highest in the country.
The complex history still leaves behind a small habit. In the past, some elderly Dalian people often spoke Russian, Japanese, and Chinese mixed together.
After the liberation of the whole country, the Soviet Union defeated the Kanto Army, hoping to stabilize Dalian Lushun and cooperate with the China Changsha Railway to solve the issue of Russia’s sea ports. After several diplomatic negotiations, we finally returned Dalian, Lushun, and the Middle East Railway to New China in 1950.
Stalin lost Dalian and Lushun and agreed to Kim Il sung’s attack on South Korea. If China and North Korea were defeated, the Soviet Union could confidently enter Dalian to provide us with military support. If North Korea wins, the Soviet Union could obtain Incheon and Busan on the Korean Peninsula. Anyway, they could both obtain an unfrozen port. Unexpectedly, until the end of the Korean War, the Volunteer Army drew a 38th Line for the US military to cease fighting, but Stalin still did not receive any sea ports.
The War of Resistance Against US Aggression and Aid to Korea was a war of great significance for the establishment of a new China with iron blood. By repelling the world’s strongest US military, we not only secured Dalian Lushun, but also gained the respect of the Soviet Union, obtaining 156 aid projects.
Among these 156 projects, Liaoning mainly focused on Shenyang, Fushun, and Fuxin, while Dalian only received the expansion project of the Second Power Plant and the renovation and expansion of Dalian Shipyard. However, Dalian’s industry remained strong. In 1957, Dalian Machine Tool Factory produced the first batch of composite machine tools for overseas use, in 1958, Dalian Shipyard produced the first 10000 ton ocean freight ship, and in 1960, it produced 4 automatic machine tool lines with 27 units. The petrochemical industry also developed at the same time, Becoming a new pillar of Dalian’s industrial economy.
In the impoverished 1930s, Dalian was once one of the four major cities in China, second only to Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. After various cities began to exert their efforts, by the 1970s, Dalian could still rank seventh in the country, mainly in the industrial sector. By 1975, Dalian’s industrial output value could reach 6 billion yuan.
Throughout the 1980s, Dalian also developed well, taking the lead in building an economic and technological development zone, and was also listed as a planned city,
However, at this time, Suzhou and Chengdu developed faster, and Dalian briefly fell from seventh place in the country to ninth place.
By the way, many young people don’t know that in 1950, the Dalian region was called Lvda City, but maps, letters, telegrams, stations, docks, factories, mines, and enterprises both domestically and internationally are still commonly referred to as Lvshun and Dalian. It’s hard for everyone to change it. The official name Dalian City was still changed back in 1981.
In 1991, Tong Jilun, the Party School of Dalian Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, counted the industrial data of Dalian in the same year in his article “From Colonies to Socialist industrial city”. At that time, there were 35 industrial industries in the country, 145 industrial categories in 164 industries, more than 3100 industrial enterprises in the city, 170 large and medium-sized backbone enterprises, 23.4% of which were mechanical equipment equivalent to the international advanced level, 33.7% of which were domestic advanced level, mainly in machinery Chemical industry, light textile, metallurgy, building materials, electronics.
At this time, Dalian is still shoulder to shoulder with the strong in China.
In the first half of the 1990s, Dalian’s performance was impressive, proposing to catch up with Hong Kong in 20 years and develop its industrial structure towards finance, tourism, real estate, and high-tech. In 1993, Xinghai Square was built, and in 1994, it ranked 8th in the country. However, by 1998, it had suddenly dropped to 15th in the country. In the 2000s, Dalian had been stable around 15th place. From 2015 to 2019, Dalian’s ranking had plummeted again, dropping from 17th to 25th. In 2022, Directly dropped to 29th place in the country.
Dalian’s GDP reached 782.5 billion yuan in 2018. In 2019, the central government required all cities in Northeast China to squeeze out the water from the GDP. Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun, and Harbin were all hit hard. Dalian was hit back to 699 billion yuan that year, exposing the problem of false economic data in each city, and the ranking also plummeted.
Directly from the first line, fell to the strong second line, and then fell to the weak second line.
Dalian’s economy lags behind the times and did not start in 2019. It has been artificially concealed and has been behind for many years.
Everyone I met in Dalian was very unhappy with the development of Dalian today. It felt like everyone was holding their breath, even fighting. I casually praised the road ahead for its good repair, and the driver complained, ‘Isn’t it good?’? This road hasn’t changed in twenty years, twenty years ago, it was like this
Especially compared to their old rival Qingdao, Dalian people are even more disheartened. Previously, Dalian was dominant over Qingdao. In 1990, Dalian ranked eighth nationwide, Qingdao ranked eleventh nationwide, and in 2022, Qingdao ranked twelfth and 29th nationwide. Qingdao’s GDP was 1.4 trillion yuan, while Dalian was only 780 billion yuan, almost half of Qingdao’s, with a widening gap.
When I asked why Dalian people suddenly fell behind the times, everyone’s answers were similar. Some said they lost key figures, lacked soul figures from the 1990s, and could not obtain resources; Some say that the industry positioning is incorrect and should not be positioned as a financial center in the north. The transformation was unsuccessful, and after 2000, Dalian returned to heavy industry, and the software industry did not develop; It is also said that Dalian’s current location advantage is not very good, and there are no surrounding cities to provide it with industrial support.
A software owner in Dalian talked to me all night about this matter. We talked from the seaside restaurant to Xinghai Square, and the more we talked, the more we became excited.
He graduated from the School of Mechanical Engineering of Dalian University of Technology. According to his report, in 2022, there were a total of 800 graduates from the School of Mechanical Engineering, including around 400 undergraduate and master’s students each. However, only 28 of them stayed in Dalian, and the other graduates went to the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing.
Our software company cannot recruit top-notch students, “he said.” It’s not that our salaries are not high enough, but that the advantages of the city are gone and young people are unwilling to stay
He also said a very representative thing. Dalian University of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering originally had a Japanese mechanical intensive class, which used to be difficult to take and had high score requirements. After graduation, there was no need to worry about work and being able to connect with Japanese enterprises. However, the score of this class is not as high as that of the general mechanical class because over the past decade, there has been less investment from Japan. Graduating from this class, there are no professional counterparts, We can only engage in trade with Japan for a living.
I expressed my judgment on the decline of Dalian based on his case.
I said that after checking the data, Dalian was not left behind by the times in the 2000s. It was mainly driven by investment. In 2000, the total fixed assets investment in Dalian was 26.8 billion yuan, accounting for 25% of GDP. In 2009, it rose to 327.3 billion yuan, accounting for 75% of GDP. At this time, the self blood supply of Dalian’s industry went wrong. The industry was backward, unable to provide blood for the city, and unable to provide a large number of jobs to retain young people.
Overreliance on investment has led to a widening of the municipal government deficit, an increase in housing prices, a decrease in citizens’ savings, and a sluggish consumer market.
In fact, Dalian has had problems since the 2000s, but the problems have been overshadowed by investment driven GDP.
To be more precise, since the second half of the 1990s, we have been lagging behind.
There are mainly two major issues. One is the decline of the entire Northeast China, which entered the second half of the 1990s after the reopening. Dalian started with the closure of the Yarn Weaving Factory in 1994, laying off 310000 people. The loss of industry and population began here, and later became the territory of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. This is irreversible for any city in Northeast China.
Secondly, Japan, which is the most important foreign investor for blood transfusion in Dalian, entered a period of deflation after the Plaza Agreement, and its investment in Dalian decreased and withdrew.
What Dalian has encountered from the second half of the 1990s to the present is the sum of internal and external factors. This situation cannot be changed by just one soul character.
However, the people of Dalian always give me a strong impression: we in Dalian can do it, and we will definitely catch up.
The people of Dalian have a high morale, and they are full of dissatisfaction with being behind Qingdao now. They all clench their small fists and want to rush forward and exert themselves.
What is the future direction of Dalian?
This question is actually integrated with Shenyang and the entire Liaoning province, so let’s go through Shenyang first and answer this question together.
Qishenyang
In the first few chapters of this article, we have already talked about many topics in Shenyang, so I will wrap up my introduction to Shenyang.
As mentioned earlier, Shenyang has always been a small border defense city, which Nurhaci favored as a convenient location for its accessibility. He decided to abandon Liaoyang and move his capital to Shenyang.
After the Manchus established the capital of Beijing in 1644, it took 35 days for the Eight Banners and their families, along with the surrounding farmers, to vacate the area. Shenyang (then known as Shengjing) was later established as the capital, but there were no more people and everything was deserted. The Qing government ordered the Manchus outside the Shanhaiguan Pass to live in Shenyang, where they were given free land, and Shenyang regained its popularity.
In the early Qing Dynasty, a large number of Han people who fled the war entered the customs and lived in the Northeast region. The Qing court allowed them to be registered under the banner and continue to stay in the Northeast for cultivation and living.
In 1740 during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, in order to leave a way for themselves, the Qing court strictly prohibited people from entering the Pass. It was not until Japan and Russia rushed in to seize the Northeast that the Qing court was forced to open up the Pass to stabilize its territory. Afterwards, there were mainly Shandong people, supplemented by Hebei people, who invaded the Pass.
When the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing, Russia invaded three provinces in Northeast China with 170000 troops, and would not leave here. When the United States, Britain and Japan looked at the good guy, you Russians should not eat so hard, leave a mouthful for your brothers, and jointly forced Russia to withdraw. After Russia withdrew a small part in 1903, it continued to stay there. The United States and Britain would never tolerate Russia opening a sea port to the east, and sniping at Russia was a lifelong mission of the British people, He then pulled on the United States to fully support Japan in the fight against Tsarist Russia, and finally triggered the Russo Japanese War.
In February and March 1905, Japan and Russia launched the Battle of Fengtian, with a total of 1 million soldiers participating in the battle, causing the entire surrounding area of 200 miles to be shattered. Moreover, both Russians and Japanese “plundered and raped” in Shenyang, committing all kinds of crimes.
The Russo Japanese War ended with Japan’s disastrous victory, and what Britain and the United States wanted was this result. As long as they were balanced and did not want Japan to eat too much, they would not allow Japan to occupy Northeast China. Japan could only withdraw, but at such a high cost, they had to bite a bite of meat. In the name of protecting “railway land”, they forcibly occupied part of the land and hoarded troops with Fengtian Post as the center, and established permanent garrisons in Shenyang, Fushun, Liaoyang, and other areas, called independent garrisons, The outbreak of the September 18th Incident was initiated by the Fengtian Guard.
After the Russo Japanese War, Shenyang was ruled by Zhang Zuolin and his son for a period of time. After September 18, 1931, the Japanese occupied Shenyang for another 14 years.
There are several important historical sites in Shenyang now, such as the Zhang Family Mansion, which was left by the Zhang family father and son; The Langsu Pavilion on Zhongshan Road is part of the Japanese controlled Fengtian Post; The railway station in Shenyang is very similar to Tokyo Railway Station because its designers, Itsuke Ota and Sotaro Yoshida, are students of Tokyo Railway Station designer Kingo Chenno.
There are also some facilities, such as the current Shenyang 20th Middle School, which was formerly built by the Japanese as the Fengtian Langsu Girls’ High School; The current Shenyang Railway Middle School, formerly known as the Fengtian Ping An Elementary School built by the Japanese; The predecessor of Liaoning Hotel now was the Japanese built Dahe Hotel. In October 1931, the Kwantung Army plotted to establish the puppet Manchukuo at the Dahe Hotel.
By the way, Japanese people love to use the word “Langsu” to name themselves, because Langsu is an old name for Osaka, a bit like the British naming it “NEW WORK”.
When we visit Shenyang today, we will see a mix of Republic of China architecture and Japanese architecture, all of which originated from the joint control of the Zhang family and Japan over Shenyang.
The Japanese have indeed built some good buildings in Shenyang, but these buildings are not for the Chinese people. Like Dalian, the Japanese and Chinese people live strictly separately. Japan lives in scenic and convenient urban areas, while the Chinese live in the Tiexi Labor House area, or in dirty and messy suburban areas such as Beiling and Dongling.
The Japanese usually treat Chinese people in Shenyang in this way. (As shown in the figure below)
The Japanese planned industrial land on the west side of Tiexi in 1932. In the first phase, 2.78 million square meters were purchased by 45 Japanese enterprises, in the second phase, 8.25 million square meters were purchased by 132 Japanese enterprises, and in the third phase, 9.57 square kilometers were purchased by 323 Japanese enterprises. There were also very few Chinese factories operating inside.
This is also why Tiexi District later became the Shenyang Workers’ District.
1932 Japanese built a flying aircraft manufacturing company in Shenyang, a Zhongshan Steel Company (rolling mill) in 1933, a Nissan Steel Company (blower factory) in 1934, a Zhenggang Steel Company (wire mill) in 1935, and a Manchuria Mining Development Co., Ltd. (smelter) in 1936 In 1937, at least fifty large and medium-sized enterprises were established, including the Fengtian Factory (Heavy Machinery Factory) and Xingfeng Iron Factory (Submersible Pump Factory) of Sumitomo Metal Society in Manchuria.
In 1943, Northeast China was able to produce 50% of the country’s coal, 88% of pig iron, 95% of machinery, 93% of steel, 69% of sulfuric acid, 60% of soda ash, and 66% of cement, making it the most industrialized region in China.
However, these high-quality enterprises were all plundered by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, and the latest, best, and most important machinery and equipment were dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union, which would threaten the destruction of the Soviet Union’s equipment. The remaining parts were taken by both China and the Soviet Union in half.
In the end, Japanese industry only left a little residue in Northeast China, but some mining and factory buildings still have frameworks that cannot be moved away. One thing is better than not. We started to do restorative work on these residues, first focusing on restoring fuel and mines, then restoring the electrical industry, and then restoring ordinary industry.
After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Shenyang had enormous development advantages. Within a radius of 150 kilometers, Anshan supplied steel, Fushun and Benxi supplied coal, Liaoyang supplied chemical fiber, Panjin supplied oil, Tieling supplied coal grain, and Fuxin supplied electricity, continuously providing blood for Shenyang’s industry, making Shenyang a key industrial city in China.
The glorious period and decline have been roughly discussed in the previous chapters. In 1995, various state-owned enterprises in Shenyang began to go bankrupt. In 1999, most factories were almost shut down, and in ten years, the industrial zone fell silent.
To understand the lives of the laid-off people in the Northeast Industrial Zone, you can watch the movie “The Steel Qin” and the TV series “The Long Season”, both of which are excellent films and TV dramas with rich and detailed details.
On April 10, 2023, I arrived at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport by plane and began my journey in Liaoning. After leaving the airport, I observed the surrounding environment from the window and looked at my phone map. When the car drove from the Fourth Ring Road to the Third Ring Road, there were no dense buildings in sight. As I entered the Second Ring Road, high-rise buildings suddenly became numerous and dense, and traffic became congested.
I asked the driver how many rings are there in Shenyang? The driver chuckled and said that Shenyang has the Fourth Ring Road, but the vast majority of the urban area is still within the Second Ring Road. The First Ring Road was built in 1985, and the Second Ring Road was connected in 1997. The Shenyang urban area is so large, with Heping District, Shenhe District, Dadong District, Huanggu District, and Tiexi District being very small. With a snap, it’s all over.
Shenyang was surrounded by ancient city walls in the early stages, and the city was not large. In 1956, in order to build the South Shuncheng Road, the ancient city walls of Shenyang were demolished. At that time, there was no way to keep the city in a small area. In order to make a living, we had to demolish it. In fact, the ancient city wall of Shenyang was no less than the city walls of Xi’an and Nanjing. A small piece of the old city wall left in the Northwest Angle was higher than the city wall of Xi’an, which shows that the ancient city wall of Shenyang was still quite magnificent at that time.
In 1997, at the age of 54, Mu Sui was newly appointed as the mayor of Shenyang and also served as the deputy secretary of the Provincial Political and Legal Commission and the deputy governor of Liaoning Province. During his tenure as mayor, he built a hundred mile ring road and a water strip park, as well as the 21st century building in Hunnan District. The Second Ring Road was originally planned to be built with four lanes in both directions, but Mu Sui’s new requirement was to build more than six lanes in both directions. Otherwise, the Second Ring Road would have to be blocked today. Mu Sui’s new urban construction efforts were made, Shenyang, originally ranked as one of the top ten polluting cities in the world due to heavy industry pollution, won the United Nations Habitat Award in 1999.
But Mu Suixin also engages in urban construction and money. In 1999, Ma Xiangdong, Deputy Mayor of Shenyang, along with Li Jingfang, Director of the Finance Bureau, and Ning Xianjie, Director of the Municipal Construction Commission, went to Macau to gamble heavily. They were discovered by a national department, and in July, Ma Xiangdong and others were double disciplined. The Ma Xiangdong case brought out Liu Yong, the leader of the Shenyang underworld. From these two people’s clues, a large number of high-ranking officials in Shenyang were also identified, including Mayor Mu Suixin, who was brother to Liu Yong, Finally, Mu Suixin was sentenced to death with a reprieve for serious corruption and bribery.
The case of Mu Suixin and Ma Xiangdong, also known as the “Muma Case”, involved over 100 officials arrested and 17 party and government leaders, causing a sensation throughout Shenyang and making it one of the important cases in Shenyang’s history.
There is a novel called “Director of the Beijing Office”, which was written based on this case. However, when I met friends in Shenyang, they complained that the novel was still not very real, but the framework was somewhat similar.
The city of Shenyang is divided into two parts by muddy water, with the Hun River being the Shen River. Since the city is located north of the Shen River, it was called Shenyang in ancient times as “the north of the mountain is yin, and the north of the water is yang”. This is also why the old urban areas of Shenyang are mainly Shenhe District, Heping District, and Huanggu District. Among them, Shenhe District is the most authentic Shenyang, and the Shenyang Palace Museum and Zhang’s Mansion are all located here. Heping District was built during the era of Zhang Zuolin and belongs to the CBD center of Shenyang, Huanggu District has a well-developed culture, education, and science, with important schools located here.
An old Shenyang resident said that they used to live on the south side of the Hunhe River, saying that it was a place where dead people were buried. In order to develop the Hunnan District, the “Shenyang Urban Development Strategic Plan” was introduced in 2002, proposing the concept of “Central Urban Corridor”, which refers to the longitudinal axis of Shenyang, along the Daoyi South Street, Huanghe North Street, Beiling Street, Qingnian North Street, Qingnian South Street (formerly Hunhe Street), covering a total of 25 kilometers and running through Shenyang Shenbei, Yuhong Huanggu, Heping, Shenhe, and Hunnan six districts to drive the development of Hunnan.
It sounds very similar to the connection method of Fuzhou New City.
In 2003, Shenyang launched the Workers’ Village renovation project, followed by the urban construction renovation project in the entire Tiexi District, which was basically completed around 2008. Afterwards, modern Shenyang was roughly shaped and became what we see now.
There are only two seasons in Shenyang. After the National Day, it’s winter, and from April to early May, it’s windy. If the wind stops, it’s summer. When I went to Shenyang, I happened to encounter the wind. As soon as I went out those days, my RGP glasses were blown into the wind and sand, and I was blown to tears all the way. When the bus passed by Zhang Shuai’s mansion, the dust was everywhere, and the wind and sand were blowing together, causing my eyes to ache and I fell down, suffering from the old nose.
However, the advantages of Shenyang still outweigh its disadvantages. An old Shen said that Shenyang’s urban construction is still good nationwide. The bus routes are very dense, the bus stations are neat and comfortable, and the maintenance level of road supporting facilities is high. Almost all residential areas in the city are enclosed, with low consumption and dense hospitals. Living in the urban area of Shenyang, he feels quite happy.
Eight Flames and Vajra
Although Liaoning has declined, it is not as tragic as southerners imagine.
In Shenyang, BMW Brilliance has produced 5 million vehicles and pays a tax of 43 billion yuan annually; Shen Fei Group is the origin of the Chinese Air Force. Although its popularity is not as high as that of Cheng Fei, the J-11, J-15, J-16, and FC-31 are still important weapons of the country; The name Shen Gu sounds very rustic, but in fact, it can provide significant core equipment for petroleum, chemical industry, electricity, natural gas, metallurgy, military industry, etc; Dalian Machine Tool can produce various types of machine tools such as CNC and special types, with a large quantity and sufficient management.
In Dalian, Hengli Petrochemical, with an investment of 15.6 billion yuan, has a magnificent and technologically advanced production base, making it the strongest enterprise I have ever seen besides Huawei; Dalian Shipyard gave birth to China’s first aircraft carrier Liaoning, with one dock and five ships named Lioningzhou; Kede CNC has been developed domestically in terms of machine bed, servo system, and drive system. It has exported five axis machining machines to Germany and Japan, making it one of the few innovative enterprises in China that independently master high-end CNC systems.
Earlier, we talked about so much about the history of Liaoning, and the main line is all about decline, but it does not mean that Liaoning has no future.
Liaoning still has so many outstanding domestic enterprises that are unique and irreplaceable. Over the past few decades, Liaoning can no longer decline and will only hit the bottom and rebound.
The current Liaoning, as well as the entire Northeast, is in a new period of historical transformation, undergoing transformation from the inside out.
Due to the rapid rise of China and the outbreak of the Russo Ukrainian War, the entire European and American world has comprehensively blocked Russia, and the United States has taken the lead in blocking China’s manufacturing industry. The internal and external problems faced by Liaoning are becoming more relaxed.
The growth within Liaoning mainly comes from self-improvement.
Like Kodak CNC, which is currently in the middle and bottom of the world’s top level, there will definitely be some progress. After visiting Kodak CNC for a day, an expert from their company added me on WeChat. We were both excited and I asked a lot of questions, and the other party patiently helped me answer them one by one. From now on, Kodak CNC has a lot of growth potential, and will gradually achieve 100% localization of parts in Italy, Germany, Japan Swiss machine tool factories, which used to have huge profits, will gradually be squeezed down by Kodak, Huazhong, Guangshu, and Beijing Jingdiao.
In addition, like Shen Gu, the revenue has been increasing in recent years, with a revenue of 9.4 billion yuan in 2019 and 12.8 billion yuan in 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 76% in profits and a year-on-year increase of 33% in orders.
In the first quarter of 2023, which had just ended, Shen Gu’s profits increased by 58.8% year-on-year, and orders increased by 140% year-on-year.
Take a look at the rapidly growing content of Shengu, including ethylene, PTA, oil refining, LNG, natural gas long-distance pipelines, air energy storage, large-scale clean coal chemical industry, wind tunnel compressor units, EVA ultra-high pressure reciprocating compressors, National Nuclear Power No.1, Hualong No.1 nuclear main pumps, etc.
This indicates that the rapid development of the domestic high-tech industry is driving the accelerated progress of enterprises such as Kede and Shengu, such as LNG, which has always been a strength of Koreans. Currently, China’s orders are rapidly increasing, which is transmitted to the upstream of Shengu.
This self-improvement has also led to the growth of investment in Liaoning. In the first quarter of 2023, fixed assets investment in Liaoning increased by 12% year on year, and the investment in the secondary industry increased by 18.7%. This also shows that the positive feedback after the national industrial development has given opportunities to high-end industries in Liaoning.
The external growth of Liaoning mainly comes from changes in Russia’s attitude towards China.
With the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War and the comprehensive blockade of Russia by the European and American world, Russia, a beautiful young woman who loves Europe and America to the death, finally broke her heart and began to actively develop relations with China.
Since 1997, the long awaited China Russia Heilongjiang Bridge has been completed in just a few months; The Siberian No.1 natural gas pipeline leading to China is operating at full capacity, and the No.2 pipeline is also discussing accelerating construction; In March, China and Russia issued a joint statement stating that Russia would establish an economic special zone in the Far East region, which would be fully open to Chinese enterprises. If not resolved in the future, the entire Far East region would be opened to China; The trade volume between China and Russia has also increased from $55.5 billion in 2010 to $190 billion in 2022.
In the first quarter of 2023, the trade volume between China and Russia reached 53.8 billion US dollars, with exports increasing by 40% and imports increasing by 30%. It is expected to exceed 250 billion US dollars this year.
When introducing Dandong earlier, it was said that if Dandong wants to change its fate, it mainly depends on the changes in Russia and North Korea. Currently, Russia has become loose, and with the upcoming major changes in the East Asian landscape, North Korea looks not too far away.
Against the backdrop of dual efforts from both internal and external sources, Northeast China’s growth rate has rarely surpassed the national average this year, and Liaoning’s growth rate has also reached 4.7%.
The past of Liaoning has passed, and the future of Liaoning has arrived.
When I first entered the underground workshop of Kede CNC and looked at the rows of brand new advanced five axis CNC machine tools, as well as the oldest planes of Shen Fei, my heart was filled with mixed feelings. Liaoning’s core level heavy industry has not been abandoned, but is still growing forward. We are getting closer to the world’s top level industrial products, and in about ten to fifteen years, we can create the world’s most advanced machine tools The most excellent aircraft, the most despicable aircraft carrier.
And all of this originates from Liaoning, which was reborn in the flames.