A geographer’s Guide to Liaoning

1. A geographer’s Guide to Liaoning Liaoning is the most southerly of the three provinces that form China’s “Northeast” and its provincial capital, Shenyang By Dorothy Whiteley

2. Contents

3. Overview of Liaoning Province • Liaoning Province is located in the southern part of China’s Northeast, bordering the Bohai Gulf and Yellow Sea to the south and the Korean Peninsula to the southeast. In the southeast, the Yalu River and the city of Dandong demarks the Liaoning/North Korean border, across which 70% of all official trade between China and North Korea passes. • Known to the Chinese as ‘the Golden Triangle’ due to it’s shape and location • Summary of Province with ref to ‘Revitalising the NE’ plan http://shenyang.usembassy-china.org.cn/ln.html

6. It is possible to think of Liaoning asthree approximate geographical regions: the highlands in the west, plains in the middle, and hillsin the east. The highlands, in Western Liaoning, fringe the northern shore of Liaodong Bay between Shanhaiguan (Hebei) and Jinzhou and are predominantly a highland area comprising the broken and eroded fringe of the Mongolian Plateau. They reach heights of approx. 450 metres but near the sea the mountains have been intensely eroded by fast-flowing rivers, so that a complex mass of valleys and ridges has been formed. The central part of Liaoning is a depression continuous with the North China Plain but erosional rather than depositional. consists of the watersheds of rivers such as the Liao, Daliao, and their tributaries. This region is mostly low flat plains with poor drainage causing swamps now mostly drained The eastern part of Liaoning is dominated by the Changbai Shan and Qianshan ranges, which extend into the sea to form the Liaodong Peninsula where the coastline is submerging. The highest point in Liaoning, Mount Huabozi (1336 m), is found in this region. The NE section is the least developed part of the province.

7. Physical geography of Liaoning

8. The highlands, in Western Liaoning, fringe the northern shore of Liaodong Bay between Shanhaiguan (Hebei) and Jinzhou and are predominantly a highland area comprising the broken and eroded fringe of the Mongolian Plateau. They reach heights of approx. 450 metres but near the sea the mountains have been intensely eroded by fast-flowing rivers, so that a complex mass of valleys and ridges has been formed.

9. The central part of Liaoning is a depression continuous with the North China Plain but erosional rather than depositional. consists of the watersheds of rivers such as the Liao, Daliao, and their tributaries. This region is mostly low flat plains with poor drainage causing swamps now mostly drained

10. The eastern part of Liaoning is dominated by the Changbai Shan and Qianshan ranges, which extend into the sea to form the Liaodong Peninsula where the coastline is submerging. The highest point in Liaoning, Mount Huabozi (1336 m), is found in this region. The NE section is the least developed part of the province. The Qianshan Mountains

11. The Continental Monsoon Climate of Liaoning Precipitation in Liaoning as a whole diminishes consistently from southeast to northwest. Average annual precipitation is about 440 to 1,130 mm, ¾of it falling between June and September and almost none from December through February. The summer rainfall is often torrential, but everywhere the scarcity of spring precipitation tends to leave crops short of water.

12. Soils The soils of the middle of the Liao lowland are of the calcareous alluvial type; those of the peripheries to east and west are of brown forest types; and those of the northern peripheries are red earths. The swamps have gley soils (having a sticky layer of clay under the waterlogged surface). The soils of the peninsula, like the rock types and the topography, are highly mixed and varied. Most of the best soils there are of brown forest type or of red or yellow loess (an unstratified wind-borne loamy deposit). There has been serious soil erosion, and skeletal soils occur on the steeper slopes. Gley Soils

13. Eroded soil meets the sea X Shenyang Jilin Province Liaodong Bay x Dandong x Dalian x Beijing North Korea Bohai Sea Mouth of x Huang Ho (Yellow) river South Korea Yellow Sea Notice sedimentation in shallow seas especially the Bohai Sea and the East China coast and west coast of Korea

14. . . In 2012, Liaoning's population was 43.89 million. Ethnic minorities (e.g Koreans, Mongolians, Manchus, Hui, Xibo) make up about 16 percent of the population PopulationSee Migration notes in article on Diaspora

15. Timeline

16. Economy of the Province • The economy of Liaoning is by far the strongest in the Northeast and is one of the strongest provincial economies in China. Liaoning is one of the country’s principal industrial provinces. One reason for the high level of development in Liaoning is the high level of capitalization, based both on investments made under the government since 1949 and on important foreign investments made between 1896 and 1945, mainly by the Japanese – summarised on following slide

18. Why has the rural economy developed at a slower pace? • Investment has always been much heavier in industry than in farming. • Earlier Japanese administrators had not invested in agriculture • Natural calamities, such as spring drought • Inefficient cultivation methods in many places, which result in lower agricultural yields. • Exceptional opportunities for employment in industry also tend to deprive agriculture of much of the best labour, in spite of policies designed to prevent this. • Short summer preventing 2 crops a year

19. The larger the circle the greater the area of sown landThe darker the red the greater the level of water scarcity

20. What is grown here? PeanutsCorn Sugar beet Rice Apples Vegetables PearsSoybean Cotton Tussah silkworm Tobacco Reforested Timber

21. Resources and power in Liaoning • Iron ore is concentrated in a triangular area to the south of Shenyang. These ores are generally easy to mine but are of relatively poor quality; ores of better quality occur in the north-eastern part of the province. • Coalis more widespread, and its distribution partly overlaps that of iron. Coal is exploited in three main areas to the north, east and southeast, and west of Shenyang. Fushun, east of Shenyang, and Fuxin, to the west, have two of the most important collieries in China. Both were exploited under the Japanese but have been expanded since the communists came to power. Apart from its use as fuel and in smelting, coal is used in Liaoning to produce synthetic petroleum. • Oil shale which occurs in the Fushun area and in western Liaoning and generally over the coal seams is used to make synthetic petroleum. • Oil from the Liao River oil field, first developed in the late 1960s and has become one of China’s largest onshore producers.

22. …….continued • Rich reserves of manganese ore occur in western Liaoning and in the southeast. • In the eastern mountain area there are substantial deposits of boron, lead, and zinc; smaller similar deposits occur in the west, together with an important deposit of molybdenum. Important concentrations of magnetite are found around Haicheng, southwest of Shenyang. • There are also reserves of other minerals, including bauxite, gold, and diamonds, and sea salt is produced. • Liaoning is a major regional producer of electric power. Much of this is generated by large coal-fired thermal plants in Shenyang, Dalian, and other cities, but a growing proportion consists of hydroelectricity. Liaoning exports some of its production to neighbouring provinces.

23. Manufacturing Centres

24. Foreign Investment • Liaoning attracted the largest amount of FDI in northern China. Dalian and Shenyang are the most popular destinations of FDI in Liaoning, together accounting for 67.8% of the total in 2012.  The manufacturing sector attracted the largest share of FDI (46.5% of the total) in 2012, followed by the real estate sector. •  Hong Kong is the largest source of FDI in Liaoning. In 2012, utilised FDI from Hong Kong amounted to US$14.7 billion, accounting for 54.7% of the total utilized FDI. Besides Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, US, Germany and Taiwan are major sources of FDI.

26. Steel plant, Benxi Shenyang POLLUTION IN LIAONING Shenyang Oct 2013 Walking in Shenyang Oct 2013

27. The Impact of coal-fired power stations Volume = size of circle Impact = density of colour

28. Open the link to see a live map for air pollution in Liaoning. Weds 9/7/2014 range was from 24-173 http://aqicn.org/map/liaoning/

29. Dec 2013 - 8 Liaoning cities fined for air pollution • Local governments in eight cities in northeast China's Liaoning Province have been fined a total of 54.2 million yuan (8.9 million U.S. dollars) for air pollution • Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, was ordered to pay a fine of 34.6 million yuan. Seven other cities, including Dalian and Anshan, were fined 19.6 million yuan • Decades of breakneck economic growth, the coal-dominated energy mix and lax environmental law enforcement are blamed for the prominent pollution in Liaoning • The choking smog affecting areas of northern China, including Liaoning, is particularly bad in winter, the peak season for coal consumption. Industries such as glass, iron and steel, coal and cement are among high-energy consumers. Therefore, halting production at these industries would be the best solution. Cement is the one most likely to be targeted but this could cause permanent closures and/or a move towards cheaper (and more polluting) fuels

30. Air Pollution Websites/Articles • http://china.org.cn/environment/2013-12/10/content_30856898.htm • http://aqicn.org/map/liaoning/ • http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20131227000080&cid=1105 • http://www.chinacp.org.cn/eng/cppolicystrategy/cp_cities.html • http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sci_tech/environment/AJ201310240045 • http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/831346.shtml

31. Major Cities

33. Major Cities Capital = Shenyang Anshan Dalian Jinzhou Dandong Yingkou + Benxi Fushun Huludao Tieling Liaoyang

34. Jinzhou • Jinzhou is one of the key business cities in China with a wide range of industries. It was once regarded as “a newly developed industrial area” in the 1960s. The first transistor, quartz glass, nylon, electronic impact furnace, and artificial plastic flower were all made in Jinzhou. Jinzhou, focusing on petrochemical, new materials and deep processing of agricultural products, has formed a stable industry base, such as: electronics, pharmaceuticals and textiles. • It also held the 2013 World Landscape Art Exposition

35. Images of Shenyang Shenyang Wulihe football stadium Shenyang Memorial in Shenyang linked to 1931 Japanese invasion of Liaoning Sunbird sculpture, North Railway Station Shenyang

36. Tourism Introductionhttp://www.chinadiscover.net/liaoning-tourism/Travelogue Clip for Shenyanghttp://www.mynetbizz.com/packages/Shenyang/Shenyang-sightseeing-tours.cfmMost Popular Attractions in Shenyanghttp://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g297450-Liaoning-Vacations.html

37. In Shenyang, Liaoning's capital city, there is a Manchu version of the Forbidden City known as the Shenyang Imperial Palace. Built on the same principles as the Forbidden City in Beijing, although much smaller in scope, it was completed by Huang Taiji in 1636. Second only to the Forbidden City, it is the most intact imperial building in existence in China. The Imperial Palace is a museum that features extensive exhibits of jade, ivory, artworks of Ming and Qing dynasties (including paintings, sculpture, enamels and ceramics), musical instruments, and a large display of 17th and 18th Centuries military equipment. The emperors that built the Imperial Palace also built their burial sites in Shenyang: Fuling Tomb also called the East Tomb; and Zhaoling Tomb, also called the North Tomb. Emperor Nurhachi and his mistress are buried in Fuling Tomb. Nurhachi's son, Huang Taiji (the father of Emperor Shunzhi) and his empress are buried in Zhaoling. The large and beautiful Zhaoling tomb has been compared to the Ming Tombs in Beijing and is located in the enormous Beiling Park. A third tomb, Yongling Tomb, completes the famous tomb group known as the 'three tombs outside of the Great Wall'.

38. Shenyang City Centre

39. Pollution in Shenyang • Shenyang is a key industrial center in the highly industrialized region of Northeastern China. With a population of 6.7 million, it is China's fourth largest city and is considered to be an economic and scientific powerhouse. As the national economy strengthened during the 1980s and 1990s, the city experienced rapid industrial growth, which worsened existing environmental problems and introduced new ones.  • As the standard of living increased, public interest in environmental quality also increased. The Sustainable Shenyang Project reflects that concern in 3 areas: 1. Deteriorating air quality caused by coal combustion 2. Surface and ground water pollution caused in part by an increasingly severe water shortage 3. Increasing amount of both domestic and industrial waste. • Initiatives that have come out of the program include promotion of unleaded gasoline, city greening, energy control and the introduction of energy-saving technology, rehabilitation of the Liao He River, freshwater pollution control, solid waste reduction, and the construction of public toilets, landfill sites and more advanced wastewater treatment plants.  Shenyang is one of China’s 10 Demonstration Cities which promote cleaner production

40. A Beacon of Hope in Shenyang • http://e360.yale.edu/feature/shenyang_a_once-polluted_china_city_is_turning_from_gray_to_green/2454/ • Almost every day of his childhood, He Xin remembers the skies in his hometown of Shenyang being gray. “If I wore a white shirt to school, by the end of the day it would be brown,” recalls He, who was born in 1974, “and there would be a ring of black soot under the collar.” • Tiexi suburb was the site of several steel works and a workers model village, now this is gone and It has new four-lane roads, upscale apartment complexes, a Carrefour store, and Shenyang’s first Ikea

41. Tourism in LiaoningBeing the birthplace of the Jin and Qing dynasties, Liaoning has abundant historic sitesplus a distinct physical landscape. Notice tourist numbers but relate to year-on-year growth especially from overseas – possibly linked to growing business ties

42. Liaoning has a number of sites of scenic and historical interest, including three designated by UNESCO in 2004 as World Heritage sites: the Imperial Palace of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) in Shenyang, added to the site (designated 1987) encompassing the Forbidden City in Beijing; three tombs of Manchu rulers near Shenyang, also added to an existing site (designated 2000) preserving tombs of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties in other provinces; and ruins of one of the capital cities of the ancient Koguryŏ kingdom at Wunu Mountain in eastern Liaoning, which were collectively designated with other Koguryŏ city sites and tombs in neighbouring Jilin province. In addition, the easternmost section of the extant Great Wall (named a World Heritage site in 1987) runs along the southwestern corner of the province. Famous local handicrafts, such as jade carvings from Xiuyan, agates from Jinzhou, and shell carvings and glassware from Dalian, are also of great interest to the large numbers of tourists who visit the province annually

43. Southeast of Shenyang is Benxi, which has the largest water cave in Asia. Within 45 square kilometers (17 square miles) of Benxi Water Cave National Park, there are six areas of particular interest: Mount Miaohou, Mount Tiecha, Mount Guanmen, the Spa Temple, Tanggou Valley, and the Water Cave. The Water Cave has an underground river with water so clear that the riverbed is always visible. Take a ride on the sightseeing boat and enter into the magic and mystery of the stalactite formations that have formed over millions of years. It is common to see artists at the various mountains and Tanggou Valley drawing and painting the mountains and the innumerable flowers and trees that are nurtured by the mountain streams. Benxi Water Cave National Park is a unique wonderland of pastoral beauty that has captured the imagines and hearts of its visitors throughout the ages.

44. Liaoning Province is opulent in natural beauty as well as interesting attractions. Aside from the ones noted above, there are also: Fenghuang Mountain; Shenya Aquarium in Xinghai Bay Resort has more than 7,000 fish; Dalian's Nest Cliff and Tiger Beach, which has the largest aviary in China (18,000 square meters or 6,950 square miles) and possibly the largest animal sculpture in the world; the 300,000-year-old Yingkou Jinniushan Relic, Phoenix Mountain, and Bingyu Valley. We must mention Tiecha Mountain, which is located east of Benxi. Because its eastern, southern and northern peaks can be seen from three sides, it is also known as Jiu Ding (Nine Tops). Among this mountain's many caves is Yunguang Cave, which houses eight treasures: stone dragon, stone toad, stone fish, stone bed, stone lotus, stone longevity and 'the wind that calms the pearl'. This mountain, which is considered the birthplace of Taoism in Northeast China, has a great amount of interesting, ancient calligraphy carved into its rocks

45. Recent news • July 3rd 2014 – Shares in Dalian port rose due to central government approving a plan for an international shipping and logistics centre plus free trade agreement talks with South Korea • July 2-6th 2014 Singapore business delegation visited Shenyang looking for partnership opportunities. In 2013 bilateral trade between the two areas grew by 40.2% to reach $4.1 billion. • Aug 2013 – 12th National games were held in Liaoning cities with 350 events and 31 sports. Liaoning came second after Shandong and above the People’s Liberation Army.

46. Where could this resource be used? 1.GCSE a)Economic Development now and with a view to the new specifications 2016 b)Urbanisation c)Tourism 2. AQA A Level a) World Cities module b) Development module c) Population/Migration at AS 3. IB a) Global Interactions eg trans-boundary pollution b) Core 2 – Disparities of Wealth ie Shenyang v Beijing and core/periphery c) Core 1 – Populations in Transition – compare with Tibet for changing ethnic balance d) Core 4 – Changing Patterns of Resource consumption