Shenyang, China

The Shenyang Imperial Palace (Mukden Palace), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the only other complete imperial palace complex in China besides Beijing's Forbidden City. Built between 1625 and 1636 by Nurhaci and his son Hong Taiji — the Manchu leaders who founded the Qing dynasty — the palace complex is smaller and more intimate than Beijing's, with a distinctive Manchu-Mongol-Han architectural fusion visible in the octagonal Dazheng Hall and the flanking Ten Princes Pavilions. The Fuling Tomb (East Tomb) and Zhaoling Tomb (North Tomb), burial sites of the founding Qing emperors, are also UNESCO-listed and set in extensive park grounds that Shenyang residents use for morning exercise, kite flying, and winter ice skating. Shenyang's twentieth-century identity centres on heavy industry — the city was Manchuria's industrial capital under both Japanese occupation (as Mukden, 1931-1945) and the early People's Republic. The September 18th History Museum documents the 1931 Mukden Incident that triggered the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Zhongjie pedestrian street, one of China's oldest commercial thoroughfares, and the Shenyang Middle Street area provide shopping, street food, and a dense urban atmosphere. Shenyang's winter culture is part of the experience: sub-zero temperatures from November to March bring ice festivals, outdoor hot springs, and the local habit of eating frozen pears and frozen persimmons (dongshi and donghua) as street snacks.