Its glory days began in 1625, when the Manchus, under the rule of "Dragon Tiger General" Nurachi, toppled the Ming dynasty and crowned Shenyang as China's new capital. To celebrate the occasion, Nurachi honored Shenyang's dubious "tradition" by renaming it Shengjing. Yet, oddly, it would become better known throughout the country as Mukden.

So as to stamp Shenyang with an appearance of prominence the Imperial Palace was built in 1626. Patterned after Beijing's Forbidden City, it easily achieved its purpose of impressing by featuring more than 300 rooms and two massively large courtyards. But it was not enough to keep the Manchus in town. In 1644, they bolted for the more prestigious confines of Beijing and opened the long running Qing dynasty (1644-1911). As a small consolation to Shenyang, the Qing's designated it as a "secondary capital" under the new name of Fengtian. Despite the name change, the nation still referred to it as Mukden.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894, which flared over dibs on Korea, ended miserably for China. The resulting Shimonoseki Treaty garroted China with economically crippling indemnities and forced it to relinquish Dalian and Port Arthur, Shenyang's coastal neighbors, to Japan. Russia, meanwhile, was in dire need for an ice-free port during winter and secretly forged a deal with China. In exchange for Dalian, Russia would help pay off China's war fines.

From 1898 through 1904 Russia, much to the ire of Japan, "rented" Dalian and the surrounding peninsula. Russian influences quickly seeped into Shenyang and helped modernize it by connecting it with the South Manchurian Railroad. For the first time in Shenyang's history, it now possessed the ability to directly ship its bounty of farm products and mined ores to inland China. Within three years Shenyang would mushroom into one of Asia's largest manufacturing centers.