Dadong District 大东区

Setting and landscape

The district sits on the alluvial plain of the Hun River (浑河), and parts of its north were once an old course of that river, so the soil there is sandy. The ground rises gently from Xiaoheyan (小河沿) in the south, about 44 m above sea level, to Da'ertaizi (大二台子) in the north at 65 m. Two man-made waterways cross it, the South Canal and the North Canal (Xinkai River, 新开河); in 1984 the banks of the South Canal were planted as the Shenyang Strip Park (沈阳带状公园). The district government lists the Huishan Reservoir (辉山水库) among its water sources and credits it with the city's longest ring of urban waterways, about 12 km.

History

The name Dadong first appeared in January 1938, when the Japanese-controlled Fengtian administration divided the city into eleven districts. Boundaries shifted many times afterwards: Dadong merged with Beiguan District in 1959, and in 2010 it absorbed land from Dongling District, linking it with the EU development zone (欧盟开发区). The Daheng Iron Works (大亨铁工厂), founded in 1924 by the Fengtian clique warlord Yang Yuting (杨宇霆) and the industrialist Zhu Ziming (朱梓明), made gun carriages and railway carriages; it was renamed the Manchuria Works (株式会社满洲工厂) in 1931, and after the Liaoshen campaign it became the Shenyang Mining Machinery Plant. Its office building and water tower survive, and the former office building at 178 Dadong Road is protected at city level.

What to see

The 9.18 Historical Museum (“九·一八”历史博物馆) on Wanghua South Street tells the story of the September 18th (Mukden) Incident (九一八事变). It grew from the 'broken calendar' stele and an underground hall opened in 1991, and the expanded museum opened on 18 September 1999; it is a national first-grade museum. In its grounds stands the Monument of Thanks to Chinese Adoptive Parents (感谢中国养父母碑), a bronze of a Chinese couple with their adopted Japanese child, paid for by 1,450 Japanese war orphans and unveiled in August 1999.

Yongguang Temple (护国永光寺), begun in 1643, was one of the four pagodas and temples the early Qing built at the four sides of Shengjing (盛京), the old name of Shenyang. Its halls are gone and only its East Pagoda (东塔) remains, in East Pagoda Park at Dongta Street and Chang'an Road, with the South Canal to its west, and is protected at provincial level. Magnolias were planted there in 2024, and a vegetarian noodle restaurant and a sutra-copying room have opened in the grounds.

Food and local products

Laolongkou baijiu (老龙口白酒), a Chinese grain liquor, is Dadong's national geographical-indication product.

Highlights

• 9.18 Historical Museum “九·一八”历史博物馆: Museum of the September 18th (Mukden) Incident, opened in its present form on 18 September 1999.
• East Pagoda 东塔: Surviving pagoda of Yongguang Temple, begun in 1643; provincial protected site.
• Daheng Iron Works 大亨铁工厂: 1924 machine works of Yang Yuting; the former office building is a city-level protected site.
• Laolongkou baijiu 老龙口白酒: National geographical-indication liquor.