The Imperial Palace in Shenyang

Shenyang's imperial palace, the Mukden Palace, doesn't get the attention it deserves, overshadowed understandably by its more famous cousin in Beijing. It was certainly worth the stop though! Built in 1625, this palace was home to the first three emperors of the Qing dynasty until the Ming dynasty fell and the ‘mandate of heaven’ shifted. The Qing rulers then moved onto Beijing and used the Mukden Palace as their weekend getaway, ruling from the Forbidden City in Beijing for the next three centuries.

We'd arrived into Shenyang by train during Golden Week, one of the busiest holiday periods of the year when 1.4 billion people are on the move and so were fully expecting crowds. Sure enough, the palace was heaving. Our experience proved to be less about sight-seeing and more about imbibing the party atmosphere of Golden Week and participating in a human tide. Still, shuffling along at a snail’s pace in this mass of humanity allowed us to wonder at the architecture - the octagonal pavilions and the ceremonial halls - all incredibly grand but still distinct from the Beijing’s palace.

Despite the crowds, we were glad to have reached Shenyang. Having read Michael Wood’s wonderful ‘The Story of China’, actually getting to see the place where the dynasty that shaped so much of Chinese history began, was satisfying to say the least.