I just had late lunch and a leisurely stroll around a former mansion of a Japanese commander in the 1930s and am now sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Changchun. And I finally resume writing my long-forsaken travelogue.
This is the second time we visit Changchun. The first time was almost a year ago. I will tell you more about the city in a moment. It took us six years on the road to finally visit the northeastern part of China and we immediately fell head-over-heels for it. You might find it hard to believe since I stopped writing our travelogue ever since we stepped foot in Dongbei (the Chinese saying of the Northeast China).
Well, I was partly too busy experiencing the remarkable mix of historical, cultural and culinary influences from the “poignantly colourful” past – with its Manchurian roots and foreign influences.
But my procrastination actually has more to do with personal emotions because of my cross-cultural upbringing. My father is Japanese and my mother is Cantonese. I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. At around two years old, I lived with my Japanese grandparents, aunts and uncles near Fukuoka when my parents were on sabbatical abroad. We spent every summer holiday (sometimes Christmas holidays too) in Japan. I went to the UK to study at sixteen and returned to Hong Kong after university and worked for a Hong Kong based British company for 13 years. I have resided in various Chinese cities the past 15 years.
Even though my mother tongue is Chinese and my Japanese sucks, I somehow feel quite Japanese. I remember how I used to feel slightly disconnected whenever I was back in Hong Kong for school holidays. And ever since I was a child, I was used to random people on the street talking to me in English assuming I am Korean or Japanese. I could not quite figure out if I am Chinese, Japanese or a westernized Chinese or Japanese. But, after working in Hong Kong for some time, I had more or less accepted that I am all of the above.
What I’m trying to say is that my sense of identity (especially Japanese one) is quite childish and innocent. Though I had learnt history at school and read books about the Sino-Japanese Wars, when I arrived in Dongbei and came face-to-face with its turbulent past during the Japanese occupation, I was overwhelmed by sadness. When I looked at the Meiji Restoration buildings in Changchun and Dalian, reading the history in various museums in Dongbei and talking to the locals, I could not quite find the right words to express my feelings. So, I kept telling myself that I needed more time to process it all.
It took us almost two months to travel around the three provinces of Dongbei – Liaoning in the southwest, Jilin in the middle and Heilongjiang in the north. Then another month passed before we reached the most southern tip of Liaoning via the north eastern strip along the border with Russia and Joseon (North Korea). We then stayed in the coastal city of Dalian for over seven months. So, here I am, after almost a year in Dongbei, I am kind of ready to talk about our time here and why we stay for so long.
We first arrived in Shenyang (瀋陽), the capital city of Liaoning province at the height of summer in late July of 2025. Dongbei’s history is very rich as it had been through a lot in the past four hundred years. Situated north of the Great Wall, it was the homeland of the Manchus. It was not part of China before the Qing dynasty.
Han people of China were prohibited to enter but people went illegally to seek opportunities during harsh times (war, famines, floods, etc). A moment later, I would talk more about the migration of the Han people since the latter half of the nineteenth century.
With Dongbei’s proximity to Russia, North Korea and Japan, it was susceptible to foreign influences and aggression especially when the Qing dynasty weakened since the mid nineteenth century. Therefore, its culture and the culinary scene are an exciting culmination and juxtaposition of multiple influences. It was a great opportunity for us to learn about the history of various ethnic groups in the north of Heilongjiang, the intrinsic relationship between China and Joseon people (what the west call North Korea) and the conflicts with Russia and Japan.
Dongbei people are known to be warm and hospitable. Kin acquainted with a young lady, Xiaolin from Shenyang on Xiaohongshu. She is super friendly and even though she now lives away from Shenyang in a town called Benxi (本溪), she got up bright and early to take a train to Shenyang and treated us to a traditional Dongbei lunch.
Xiaolin’s ancestors were originally from Shandong during the period of the “Chuang Guandong”. migration. Through her, we learned the history of Dongbei first hand. With the looming threat of Russian aggression, the Qing officials opened parts of the sparsely populated Guandong in the mid nineteenth century. Many Han Chinese from Shandong and Hebei entered by land via the Shanhai pass of the Great Wall or by ferry. The massive migration is called Chuang Guandong which literally means “crashing through the eastern gate” because Shanhai pass (山海關) is the eastern gate of the Great Wall. It is no surprise that as we spent more time here, we encountered many locals with ancestral roots from Shandong province. Han Chinese makes up the majority of Dongbei’s population with Manchus, Mongols, Hui and 49 ethnic minorites and nomadic tribes such as Oronqen and Evenki.
Shenyang played a key part in the Qing dynasty as it was the first capital when the Manchus first came into power before they seized control of Beijing in 1644 and ruled China for nearly three hundred years. By early nineteenth century, the Qing government was much weakened by numerous internal unrests and consequently foreign aggression and intervention all over China. Against this geo-political background, Shenyang was in the flux of foreign influences as it witnessed the construction its first railway station as part of the Chinese Eastern Railway throughout Dongbei controlled by Russia.
In 1900, Shenyang was invaded by Russia on the pretext of Boxer Uprising as the anti-foreign insurgency and became a strong Russian stronghold. Shenyang was also the battleground of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 which Russia lost and the city was transferred to Japan.
Before the visit, we did not know that there is such a prominent Joseon (which became the North Korea we know nowadays) presence in Dongbei. There are even Autonomous Joseon districts not far from Shenyang and in Jilin province. Naturally, there is a sizeable Korean community in Shenyang.
We had Japanese lunch in the Korean area and we thought we had gone to Korea as the whole street is dotted with Korean barbecue restaurants and many street hawkers selling Korean rice wine. I would save the history of Joseon in the next story.
After two weeks in Shenyang, we went to visit Xiaolin in Benxi (本溪). She took us to a BBQ dinner. We explored the town next day and went to the only coffee place after lunch. It was like walking into the film set of “In the Mood for Love” as it was inside an old dilapidated building in the 50s or 60s. After climbing the dim-lit staircase with old posters and portrait prints on the wall, we found ourselves looking at a long corridor of never-ending rusty steel windows with sunlight seeping through. The café was at the far end of the corridor.
We ended up spending hours in this old building. Not that we didn’t try to leave earlier. We left the café around 5pm and were about to walk down the stairs when an enthusiastic couple entered the building and saw us. They started chatting to us and insisted on inviting us to their studio for tea. So we stayed. Two hours later, when we wanted to leave, the artist from next door joined us. They were so passionate and curious about our lives. The couple’s parents are also from Shandong while the artist is from a well-to-do family which had coal-mining business in Fushun (not far from Benxi which used to be one of the major coal mining cities). Our conversation just flowed and before we knew it, it was 9:30pm. We finally called it a night. They wanted to treat us to dinner the next day but we had to leave and said that we hoped to see them again next time.
The next morning Xiaolin joined us for breakfast before work to say goodbye. She gave us a huge bag of millet which is a Dongbei specialty. She had made our time in Shenyang so warm and welcomed! Our paths would cross again later when we were in Dalian!