This district is in the older, central part of the city of Shenyang and covers a 58-square–kilometer area, with more than 1 million people and is the city's political, business, trade, financial, cultural, and tourist center. Its Finance and Trade Development Zone was founded in 1991 and is China's only development zone with a finance and trade area, except for Shanghai's Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone. Its focus is on finance, with a headquarters and flow economy, real estate, information services, and consulting agency for support. It now has 117 financial institutions, including banks, and insurance and securities companies, 100 financial services institutions for small loans and guarantees, and 238 financial service institutions for investment management and consultation.

The zone has attracted such companies as Sino-US MetLife, Bank of East Asia (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Quam Securities, and United Asia Finance Ltd, and 15,000 people in the finance business. it has several dozen commercial buildings, with an area of more than 2.5 million square meters, and more than 30 commercial buildings under construction.

The district has the Imperial Palace Trade and Cultural Tourism Zone on Zhong St, to cater to culture, tourism, and trade by relying on the Shenyang Imperial Palace and Zhang Family Palace and Zhongjie St for commerce, and WuAi Market for wholesale and retail whose trading volume reached 42 billion yuan, in 2012. Its Nanta Shoes City has an annual volume of more than 18 billion yuan and has become the footwear trade center for the Northeast and is looking to establish a Nanta Trade Logistics Area.

The district plans to focus in the future on banking, insurance, securities, futures, financial leasing, assets management, petty loans, and financial guarantees, private equity investment funds, venture capital funds and industrial investment funds. It plans to introduce service agencies such as actuaries, assessors, consultants, and training, along with domestic and global Top 500 companies and industrial leaders'regional headquarters.