Traveler's Memory — First Trip to the Northeast: Shenyang & Harbin (December 14-17, 2019)

Dates: December 14 to December 17, 2019

DAY1: Kunming — Shenyang

DAY2: Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum — Manchu Street — Zhang's Marshal Mansion Museum — Liaoning Provincial Museum

DAY3: Shenyang — Harbin — Flood Control Monument — Songhua River Bank — Central Street

DAY4: Heilongjiang Provincial Museum — Kunming

Arrived in Shenyang, first time stepping on the ground of Northeast China. Although the temperature was quite low outside and I saw snow accumulated under the trees, I felt that the cold in the north is different from Kunming's winter. Despite the low temperature, there was no bone-chilling wind; instead, it felt moist, especially in the spring city of Jinan. Indoors, there was heating, which was very comfortable. If it felt too warm, you could turn on the air conditioner to cool down. Truly, in the Northeast, it seemed to get dark around 4 p.m.

Due to limited time, after getting up and having breakfast, I took a taxi directly to the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum. The Shenyang Palace is often called a miniature version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The entire palace was not very large, but there were still quite a few visitors. It exhibited many Qing Dynasty artifacts with rich content. Exiting the Shenyang Palace, I walked through Manchu Street and after a few hundred meters reached the Zhang's Marshal Mansion Museum. The museum offered a combined ticket, but also separate tickets. Since time was limited and I had checked some guides online saying that only the Marshal's Mansion and the former residence of Miss Zhao Si were original sites, while others were mostly built later, I only bought tickets for those two spots. Hurriedly, I took a taxi to the long-awaited Liaoning Provincial Museum. Because it was quite far and closed at 4:30 p.m. during winter hours, I had only two hours left upon arrival, so I had to speed up my visit. Those days happened to be the "Rediscovering the Tang Dynasty" calligraphy and painting exhibition, which made me very happy—I had been looking forward to it. Before entering, I had to scan a QR code with my phone to reserve a free ticket. I saw many rare ancient calligraphies and paintings that are hard to come by, especially the famous "Wan Sui Tong Tian Tie" (Letter to Empress Wu Zetian), "Court Ladies with Hairpins and Flowers", "Five Oxen", and "Lady Guo Guo on a Spring Outing". Unfortunately, the renowned ivory ball was not on display, but it was still great. The duck-shaped glass vessel and so many ancient paintings were exhibited. I once again comment on the Sichuan Museum: other museums display treasures that are hard to preserve, but your museum—when will you exhibit those few fragmented stone scriptures and portrait bricks?

I got up in the morning and rushed to Shenyang North Railway Station to take a high-speed train to the next stop, Harbin. The journey passed through Jilin Province, which I really wanted to visit, but time didn't allow, so I had to leave it for next time. In the evening after dinner, of course, I had to see the night view, especially the ice city of Harbin under a snowy night. I took a taxi to the Flood Control Monument, admired the bank of the Songhua River, strolled along Central Street. It was snowing heavily, the night scene of the ice city under lights was beautiful. I ate the famous Modern ice pops and Harbin red sausage. This was the second time I saw snow this year; the first was in Bayinbuluke Grassland in Xinjiang. The snow in the Northeast felt very fine (I don't know if that's the right description), quite different from that in Yunnan and Xinjiang.

My return flight was at 15:10, so in the morning I went to the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum. This museum seemed to be the smallest among all provincial museums I have visited. I had checked the guide earlier and knew that it was originally a Russian shop and later converted into a museum. I was very happy to see the museum's top treasure, a copper seated dragon from the Jin Dynasty.

At the airport, I ate Northeast dumplings at Xijiade, then went through security. However, the flight was delayed until 17:48 and even made a stopover in Taiyuan.

My 2019 travel plan ended perfectly. Looking forward to the next year's journey.