Shenyang, formerly known as Fengtian or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the province's most populous city, with a total metropolitan population up to 9.02 million. The largest city in Northeast China by urban population, with 6.3 million people, Shenyang is also the central city of one of the major megalopolises in China, the Greater Shenyang Metropolitan Area, which has a total population over 23 million. The city's administrative region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang proper, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties: Kangping and Faku.
The Manchu people conquered Shenyang in the 17th century and briefly used it as the capital of Qing-dynasty China. The Battle of Mukden took place in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. Japan's subsequent victory allowed Tokyo to annex the region west of the old city and to increase Japanese influence on Shenyang; in September 1931 the Mukden Incident led the Japanese to further invade and occupy the rest of Northeast China, forming the puppet state of Manchukuo.