Study in Shenyang

Most of what students need to know about daily life comes down to the city around the campus: its climate, how people get around, and what there is to do. The following sections describe Shenyang, where China Medical University is located.

Geography

Shenyang ranges in latitude from 41° 11' to 43° 02' N and in longitude from 122° 25' to 123° 48' E, and is located in the central part of Liaoning province. The western parts of the city's administrative area are located on the alluvial plain of the Liao River system, while the eastern part consists of the hinterlands of the Changbai Mountains, and is covered with forests. The highest point in Shenyang is 414 m (1,358 ft) above sea level and the lowest point only 7 m (23 ft). The average elevation of the urban area is 45 m (148 ft).

The city's main urban area is located to the north of Hun River, formerly the largest tributary of the Liao River proper and often locally referred as the city's "mother river". The central urban area is surrounded by three artificial rivers — respectively the South Canal (南运河) from the south and southeast, the Xinkai River (新开河, formerly the North Canal) from the north and northeast, and the Weigong River (卫工河, formerly the Weigong Nullah) from the west, all interconnected by channels as a continuous waterway. The South Canal in particular, famous for the series of linear parks and gardens along it, was canalized from the old course of the Wanquan River (萬泉河; 'ten thousand springs river'), historically also called the Little Shen River (小瀋水) or Wuli River (五里河; 'five-li river'), which was a principal water source for the old city. These are reinforced on the peripheries by smaller rivers such as Xi River (细河), Puhe River (蒲河) and Mantang River (满堂河), and drains into the Hun River at three different locations on the southeast, due south and southwest side of the city. There was also previously another canal on the east side called Huishan Nullah (辉山明渠) that drains into Xinkai River's lower section, but is now no longer existent due to land reclamation from urban constructions.

Climate

Shenyang has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa, Trewartha Dcac) characterised by hot, humid summers due to the monsoon, and dry, cold winters due to the Siberian anticyclone. The four seasons here are distinctive. Nearly half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August. Monthly mean temperatures range from −11.4 °C (11.5 °F) in January to 24.9 °C (76.8 °F) in July, for an annual average of 8.6 °C (47.5 °F). The frost-free period is 183 days, which is long considering the severity of the winters. The city receives 2,421 hours of bright sunshine annually; monthly percent of possible ranges from 42 percent in July to 64 percent in February. Extreme temperatures range from −33.1 °C (−28 °F) to 38.4 °C (101 °F).

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Economy

Shenyang is an important industrial center in China and is the core city of the Shenyang Economic Zone, a New Special Reform Zone. It has been focused on heavy industry, particularly aerospace, machine tools, heavy equipment and defence, and recently on software, automotive and electronics. The heavy industry started in the 1920s and was well developed before the second world war. During the first five-year plan (1951–1956) many factories were built in Tiexi district. At its peak in the 1970s, Shenyang was one of the top three industrial centers in China alongside Shanghai and Tianjin, and was at one time being considered for upgrading to a direct-controlled municipality. However, as the planned economy fell out of favor after the 1980s, the heavy industry had declined gradually and the city became a rust belt city, with hundreds of thousands of people laid off from bankrupted state-owned factories. Nonetheless, the economy of the city has revived significantly in recent years, thanks to the central government's "Revitalize Northeast China" campaign and the rapid development of software and auto manufacture industries. Investment subsidies are granted to multinational corporations (MNCs) that set up offices or headquarters in Shenyang.

The services sector—especially banking—has been developing in Shenyang. Shenyang has several foreign banks, such as South Korea's Hana Bank, Japan's Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia, Singapore's United Overseas Bank and the Britain-based HSBC. In 2006, the city hosted a total of 1,063 banks and bank branches and 144 insurance-related companies. By 2010, it aims to attract 30 foreign banks and 60 non-bank financial institutions.

The city has been identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the November 2010 Access China White Paper as a member of the CHAMPS (Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Maanshan, Pingdingshan and Shenyang), an economic profile of the top 20 emerging cities in China.

Transportation

As the transport hub of Northeast China, Shenyang is served by air, rail, a currently Five-line subway system and an extensive network of streets and expressways, with bus services throughout the city. Terminal 3 at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport is the largest terminal in northeast China. A new tram network system was built in the city's south in 2013.

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