Sheng Yang (Winter, 1998)

Being the capital of Liao Ning Province, it has a rather long history. It used to be and still is the center of heavy industry of the 3 northern provinces. This is not the only resource that give the local citizen a nice memory. It is also the capital of the nation before they conquered whole China to establish the Qing Dynasty.

The palaces which emperors lived before Qing Dynasty is not grand, even rather poor. This is easy to image. At that time this nation is among the poorest.

From the street just before the door of the palace, it gave me a type of lonesome feeling. It lies quietly there, nearly no one likes to notice it when walking before it just like the most streets in the city, especially the inhabitants.

The snapshots below are just part of the whole palace. They are not in brilliant color, but anyway they still have the special style from other buildings of that era.

I don't know what will you think at the first glance of the tuft right side. But when I tell you that a great man was buried right under it, will you get a surprise? The first emperor of Qing Dynasty was just there, not very far away from the position where the photo was taken. No tombstone, no epitaph, no flowers, only wind and fallen leaves accompanied it. Sigh...

The time when I arrived at Sheng Yang, it was not very cold, just minus 2 centigrade. The snow and ice has not molten yet. It is not very majestic, but it is enough for me -- a guy from south.

The only regret of that city is that it is extremely "quiet" at night. That night when I got to the city, I almost cannot find a hotel to live which going at night. :-( What makes me not too disappointment is that it was in jollification in the day. Look below, the left one was taken from the most busy street of Sheng Yang, while the right one shows you the most huge shopping center in Asia.

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