As the southernmost province among the three provinces in China's Dongbei, Liaoning boasts its superior geographical location on the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Gulf, also as the gateway to Korean Peninsula and facing Japan over the sea.

Along the history, the province is strongly influenced by the minority groups. As early as the 10th century, Qidan people invaded into this region and established Liao Dynasty. Two centuries later, Mongolians powered over and later founded the Yuan Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, Han immigration from south to this region was enforced to enhance the central administration. But such effort did not stop the Ming Dynasty from being wiped out by the again north-grown-up Manchus, who later founded China's last feudal empire. Around the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, Russia first set foot on this land. They built the South Manchurian Railway to facilitate the transport of the output or the raw material of the heavy industry. With the defeating in the Russo-Japanese War, Russians retreated reluctantly and Japanese substituted and dominated over this province, actually almost over Northeast China, by setting a puppet state of Manchukuo. During the WW II, the province was burdensomely turned into a backyard military factory. The Communist controlled Liaoning after 1948, and the land contribute tremendously to the whole country as the No.1 heavy industry base, which played a critical role to the stabilization of the newly-founded regime. Now privilege policy is favored, especially to the coastal area, economic zones are set up and the booming of the economic adds vigor to this lumbersome heavy industry base.

Liaoning is a place with blended cultures. There are as many as 43 minorities, besides the Han, with a proportion of 16% of the total population of the province, living in this region, such as the Manchu, the Mongolian, the Hui and the Korean.