No, it is not great. It is more like Detroit in the US - bad weather, high unemployment rate and crime rate, dead heavy industry, huge outflow of its local population.
If Shenyang is great, how come its population is dropping so fast?
I like Detroit. Okay, fine, no I don't. But I live in Michigan and love the rest of it. Low cost of living, great schools, reasonable opportunity for educated workers. And I love the weather. Great for all seasons of outdoor activity.
I'm curious if Liaoning (outside Shenyang) is the same way. (I've had a long-running fascination with HeiLongJiang for reasons I don't understand myself, though I've never been there)
Well, save up some money on the coast, then move to (Western or Northern) Michigan some day and live like a king. Okay, eating out can be hit-or-miss (mostly miss), but some diamonds-in-the-rough do exist. Outdoors is great. I mean if ascending whatever-K feet is the only qualifier then outdoors sucks, but seriously everything else here, outdoors is great. Four seasons is like being able to annually travel between four completely different regions of the world without actually moving. And if you have a decent salary, get yourself some awesome snow moving equipment, just to feel cool.
Detroit had this extreme weather of almost -30°C, it is just scary to even think about that. Liaoning has the same issue with the lowest on record being -34°C.
If you are interested in the North-East part of China, there is a western travellers made documentary coming soon, it is called Conquering Northern China made by a British South African and an American.
Detroit is a good comparison but perhaps apart from one thing: Shenyang has BMW's state-of-the-art factory that produces the new 5 series (and soon the new X3). Auto industry is one of the few highlights that actually thrives in Shenyang. Type in keywords 'new bmw 5 series production' you get footage from this factory. They even use exoskeletons. Pretty cool.
The joint venture is called BMW Brilliance, with the local partner being Brilliance Auto, which is arguably the worst of the worst Chinese automobile companies. I'd personally try everything possible to avoid anything from that Brilliance Auto. Sure, their joint venture with BMW is a slightly different story, BMW must have all its state-of-the-art quality control there. I also fully understand that the joint venture is there purely because the Chinese regulations requires such an arrangement. However, from a consumer's point of view, when buying an expensive car like BMW, why should I bear such risk to have the Brilliance Auto involved?
In case if you don't know what Brilliance Auto is doing in Shengyang, feel free to watch the video below.
The issue is when someone is paying a premium price for something like BMW, why should the person bear the potential risk of having the quality negatively affected because this infamous Brilliance Auto is suddenly involved.
I don't have any problem buying a Mercedes-Benz made in Beijing or a Volkswagen made in Shanghai with their local partners (BAIC and SAIC).
If Shenyang is great, how come its population is dropping so fast?