Shenyang Aisin-Gioro Royal Museum

Shenyang Aisin-Gioro Royal Museum

The Shenyang Aisin-Gioro Royal Museum is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

The Aisin-Gioro Royal Museum is located in Banlashan Village, Dagujiazi Town, at the foot of Wulong Mountain in Faku County. It lies 80 kilometers south of Shenyang City and 20 kilometers north of Faku County. The tourist route from Caihu Scenic Area to Wulong Mountain Scenic Area passes through the village, ensuring convenient transportation. Covering an area of 35,000 square meters, it includes production workshops, testing workshops, bottling workshops, bamboo paper workshops, basket-style wine vats, large wine cellars, a wine culture exhibition hall, qin-style calligraphy, the Nine-Dragon Wall, Suoluo Pavilion, and other cultural landscapes and sightseeing spots. It is one of the leading liquor producers in the county, as well as one of China’s research and development bases for traditional Manchu liquor brewing techniques, and is hailed as “the No. 1 Manchu Liquor Workshop in Guandong.”

Historical Background: After the 17th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1678 AD), descendants of the Qing imperial family, such as Aisin-Gioro Yin Yu, and nobles from the Gua’erjia clan successively established the “Zujiafang Distillery” and “Guan Family Liquor Workshop” here. They integrated distinctive Manchu ethnic cultural elements and refined them into a comprehensive and complete brewing process system. During the Republic of China period and the puppet Manchukuo era, due to political instability and frequent warfare, the distillery was temporarily shut down. In the 1980s, a township-owned distillery was founded in Dagujiazi Town, later giving rise to separate family-run distilleries by successive inheritors.

Brewing Process: Grain selection — yeast production — grain milling — steaming grain — mixing with mother mash — adding yeast — blending — fermentation in pits (mud pits) — pit exit — distillation — quality-based storage (divided among wooden barrel vats, tree branch vats, above-ground and underground) — sealing — further yeast addition for aging — bottling — factory release.

The Zujiafang liquor brewing technique integrates the essence of northern Chinese ethnic minority brewing methods as well as characteristics of liquor culture, forming a uniquely distinctive brewing system.

The largest 100-ton vat and 60-ton vat still store fine liquors to this day. Here hangs a couplet: the upper line reads “The Immortal Mountain conceals longevity within the hills,” the lower line “The Imperial Liquor ferments through nine rounds inside the vats,” with the horizontal scroll reading “Immortal Mountains and Liquor Vats.” The distant mountains and nearby scenery offer a boundless panorama, transporting visitors as if they were inside a Qing Dynasty brewing workshop—an experience truly enchanting to the heart and soul.