If you are touring Liaoning’s provincial capital and want a taste of Shenyang’a history, you will most probably have the no longer ‘forbidden’ (Mukden) palace on your itinerary. After doing Mukden, the Marshal Museum is your essential next stop. And conveniently its just a leisurely saunter from Gú Gōng in the middle of Shenhe District.
Chaoyang Street ⇣
You’ll find Marshal Museum in Chaoyang Street, a street worthy of exploring more widely while visiting Shenyang, its variety and interest extending well beyond Marshal Museum in itself. On the day we visited the museum it wasn’t drawing the same numbers of people who were swarming all over the Imperial Palace, but it certainly was attracting a very healthy sum of interested punters in its own right.
What is today a museum was the former home of a family of prominent Dongbei warlords in the first half of the 20th century – the Zhangs, a brace of Zhangs, father and son. During China’s turbulent “warlord era” following the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, Generalissimo Zhang Zuolin established a power base in the Northeast region. This was his home and after he was assassinated in 1928, his son Zhang Xueliang assumed the mantle as Dongbei warlord and Chinese strongman.
In large part because the younger Zhang lived a very long life (to 100) and there are more resources on him, the personal artefacts, possessions, photos, etc. contained within the museum puts more focus on Xueliang than on his father.
The mansion-cum-museum’s layout comprises several separate building connected by a series of courtyards. While not as lavish or large an affair as the “Puppet Emperor” Pu Yi’s palace-museum in Changchun, the Marshal Mansion exudes a powerful sense of the power players in control of Chinese’s destiny before the ascent to power of the communist rulers.
The key architecturally piece, the standout of the museum is the mansion itself. The building is Neo-Gothic in style, not mega-large but substantially large. The curious thing was that in front of the facade was what looked like a random dump of very large rocks, collected together in a large pile. I thought it an odd juxtaposition but I realise it wasn’t merely happenstance and doubtlessly it held some deep cultural and perhaps even religious significance※.
The other buildings represent a hotch-potch of different architectural styles, ranging from traditional Siheyuan buildings to South China pavilions to habitable structures blending Western and Chinese styles.
A mansion temple and more of those sacred rocks ⇣
The interior displays have a predictably martial theme (befitting the military power-players the Zhang were) and there’s a section devoted to Zueliang’s exile and migration to Hawaii after his fall from grace – with lots of pictures and material.
A mic’d-up on-site tour guide ⇣
One of the rooms contains an inventive and spectacular war mural which is part painting and part sculpture, depicting a full-on visualised battle scene which is graphically very effective.
Two of the outdoor exhibits which caught my eye were of a transportation kind. The museum held two of the Zhangs’ vehicles: the Zhang family sedan (a horse-drawn carriage) and a motor truck, the sign for which makes the claim to be if not China’s earliest automobile (I doubted this!), at least one of the very earliest automobiles in the country.
⇡Marshal Zhang’s accountant
Like the nearby Imperial Palace, Marshal Zhang Museum makes much use of waxworks type mannequins to enhance the “historic atmosphere”. So we find different buildings ‘peopled’ by life-size dummies – the warlord’s administrators (accountants and such), his military staff and other functionaries of the mansion✦.
Next door to the Zhang museum❂ is another tiny (micro-) museum – the Shen Yang Financial Museum. Our tickets got us into this museum as well so I wasn’t sure if there was some formal nexus between the two museums.
Entry to the Marshal Zhang Mansion Museum (as of September 2019) is ¥60 adult and ¥30 concession (same fee structure as for the Mukden Palace).
Footnote: in my article on Shenyang’s Gú Gōng I mentioned the penchant Chinese officialdom have for flowery prose when it comes to public signage. Well, Marshal Mansion didn’t quite live up to the standard for tangentially romantic and imprecise language set by the Imperial Palace, but they came up with a more prosaic and down-to-earth sign for their lawns…one much more directly to the point: 远离绿草 “Move your step away from green grass”.
———————————————————–
※ another take on the seemingly patternless clump of rocks is that they suggest a kind of prehistoric countenance
✦ I don’t recall seeing mannequins of either Zhang among those featured at the mansion. This is in sharp contrast to the clay and wax facsimiles of Pu Yi which seem to pop up all over the Changchun palace
❂ in Shaoshuaifu Alley, just off Chaoyang Street
Although Shenyang’s fame resides with the only other Chinese imperial palace outside of Beijing, the old city of Shenhe has other attractions in the neighbourhood worthy of a diversion away from the palace and Shenyang Street. I have already touched on Marshal Zhang Mansion (and museum) and Chaoyang Jie (the subject of separate blog pieces). 
But if you want to explore other places in Shenhe District (Shênhé Qū) celebrating Chinese history and culture, you could start just across the road from Gù Gōng. I happened upon this fairly new monument site to China’s past set in a wide plaza running from Shenyang Jie to Shengjian Lú. The monument, typically Chinese in design, comprises a busy ‘canvas’ of numerous bronze relief sculptures crammed together and mounted on to two long walls which face each other. The monument’s subject matter represents various threads drawn from China’s long and turbulent history of empire and war (no thematic shortage of martial figures on horseback with weapons) .
Another interesting digression can be had by following Shenyang Jie south for several blocks. There are are some splendid examples of modern buildings borrowing from the traditional styles of Chinese architecture. Eventually you will arrive at a rather magnificent Chinese arch at a major intersection in the road. A pagoda-style structure – dwarfed by comparison – sits atop the massively proportioned arch (this human-made icon is best viewed at night when luminously lit up)
Origin of place name: Birkenhead Point on the southeast corner of Drummoyne (Sydney) derives its name indirectly from a northern English town via the Birkenhead Estate in Drummoyne … Birkenhead is or was a village near Liverpool-on-Mersey in the UK.
Birkenhead Point Factory Outlet Centre (BPFOC), on the western side of Sydney’s Port Jackson, is a bit of a sleeper as far as shopping centres and malls go. Recently, it ‘celebrated’ (sic) it’s forty-year anniversary (opened 26 July 1979), but it was an anniversary bereft of any fanfare whatsoever! The centre has 170 stores or services including two anchor tenants but can’t attract a major department store chain. In recent times it has tried to lure more paying punters by introducing a “shopper hopper” ferry service from Circular Quay or Darling Harbour. Thursday night shopping is virtually a non-event with most of the vendors not bothering to stay open. The only shoppers you are likely to see at night are those grocery shopping at Coles and Aldi✾.
The reasons for BPFOC’s low-key status among the large retail outlets and malls of Sydney are manifold. It’s relatively small size and its distance away from the Sydney rail network are contributing factors. Likewise the proximity of Burwood Westfield (a few kilometres away) and the Broadway Centre to name two, gives these shopping complexes a comparative advantage.
(source: Dictionary of Sydney)
Perdriau‘s rubber hose line
Over the last thirty-plus years the Birkenhead Head complex has undergone several changes of ownership. Most prominently in 2004 it was bought by Singapore tycoon Denis Jen for $111M (later unloaded). Currently, Birkenhead Point Outlet Centre is owned and managed by the Mirvac Group.
If you’ve been to Beijing and trekked the city’s tourist trail, you will inevitably see, et al, the Forbidden City (Zǐjìnchéng) 顾功. If you subsequently also find yourself as a visitor in the principal city of Liaoning province, Shenyang, you’re almost equally inevitably going to include the Northeast version of Beijing’s imperial gem on your “to see” list.
For some, seeing the provincial version of the Forbidden Palace with the image of the monumental original in mind, might prove somewhat of a letdown. Shenyang Imperial Palace (Gù Gōng) 顾功
Note: The cost of a ticket to enter the Shenyang Imperial Palace and Museum is set at parity with the nearby Marshal Zhang Mansion (60 CN¥ for adults).
Gù Gōng was built in the 1630s under the directions of 
The architecture of Gù Gōng is interesting in itself. Stylistically, Gù Gōng is a blend of different building styles. The many buildings and structures comprise an architectural amalgam – among these, Han, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan styles can be readily discerned within the palace’s four walls.
The museum component of Gù Gōng includes a raft of Qing imperial art treasures. Among the items on display, direct from the Qing emperor’s pantry are many peerless examples delicate and beautifully glassware, together with enamel vases and gourds, ivory utensils. Not to forget the other such irreplaceable knickknacks from the erstwhile royal household. 
Apart from visiting the palaces’s artworks and artefacts and it’s pavilions, another thing you can do at Gù Gōng, if you really want to get into the decadent spirit and sense of privilege of the Qing lifestyle, is costume hire! For not too many shekels
Shenyang lu