The area around Changchun Railway Station preserves some of the most intact Manchukuo-era urban fabric in the city. The station building itself dates to the Japanese colonial period and was built to receive the South Manchurian Railway — the Japanese-controlled rail system that was the backbone of Manchuria's economic development. The station plaza and the surrounding commercial streets show the scale at which Japanese planners imagined the city's gateway.
The immediate station area is lively in the way that all Chinese train station districts are lively: street food, shops, crowds in transit, the energy of arrival and departure. Look past the commercial activity and the architectural history is visible in the older buildings on the surrounding streets, many of which retain their Manchukuo-era facades despite interior conversions.