QingdaoQingdao (tʃɪŋˈdaʊ , also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: AUDzh-Qingdao.oggqing1dao3) is a city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means "Cyan Island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that connects Asia with Europe. It has the highest GDP of any city in the province. Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over seven districts and three county-level cities (Jiaozhou, Pingdu, Laixi).
ShenyangShenyang (UKSEn'jaeN, USSVn'jQN; ; Mandarin pronunciation: shen3.yang2), formerly known as Fengtian (, Mandarin pronunciation: feng4tian1) or by its Manchu name, Mukden, IPA:/mukh.tən/) is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province, in north-central Liaoning. It is the province's most populous city, with a population of 9,070,093 at the 2020 census. It is also the largest city in Northeast China by urban population.
County-level cityA county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judicial but no legislative rights over their own local law and are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions. A county-level city is a "city" () and "county" () that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction.
Yellow SeaThe Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour terms (the others being the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the White Sea), and its name is descriptive of the golden-yellow color of the silt-ridden water discharged from major rivers.
ChangchunChangchun (UKtSæN'tSUn, UStSQN-; ) is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province in China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 county-level cities. According to the 2020 census of China, Changchun had a total population of 9,066,906 under its jurisdiction. The city's metro area, comprising 5 districts and 1 development area, had a population of 5,019,477 in 2020, as the Shuangyang and Jiutai districts are not urbanized yet.
LiaoningLiaoning ljau'nIN () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Historically a gateway between China proper and Manchuria, the modern Liaoning province was established in 1907 as Fengtian or Fengtien province and was renamed Liaoning in 1929.
HarbinHarbin (ha:r'bIn,_-bi:n; ; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest city by metropolitan population (urban and rural together) in Northeast China. Harbin has direct jurisdiction over nine metropolitan districts, two county-level cities and seven counties, and is the eighth most populous Chinese city according to the 2020 census.
WeihaiWeihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea (specifically, Chengshan to Yeonpyeongdo, 174km). Weihai's population was 2,804,771 as of the 2020 Chinese census, of whom 1,164,730 lived in the current built-up (or metro) area of (Huancui District) even though Wendeng district to the south with 563,529 inhabitants is soon being conurbated.
VladivostokVladivostok (ˌvlædɪˈvɒstɒk ; Владивосто́к, vlədjɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, in the far east of Russia. It is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of , with a population of 600,871 residents as of 2021. Vladivostok is the second-largest city in the Far Eastern Federal District, as well as the Russian Far East, after Khabarovsk. It is located approximately from the China–Russia border.
Mukden IncidentThe Mukden Incident was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto of the Independent Garrison Unit of the 29th Japanese Infantry Regiment (独立守備隊) detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (now Shenyang). The explosion was so weak that it failed to destroy the track, and a train passed over it minutes later.
