History & Culture
Ningbo (Wade-Giles: Ning-po; literally "Tranquil Waves") is a coastal city in the Zhejiang province of China . It lies in the south of the populous Yangtze River delta and faces the East China Sea to the east. It covers an area of 9,365 sq.km and has a population of 5.43 million. The jurisdiction of Ningbo City encompasses two counties (Xiangshan and Ninghai), three county-level cities (Yuyao, Cixi and Fenghua) and six urban districts (Haishu, Jiangdong, Jiangbei, Zhenhai, Beilun and Yinzhou).

Though a sub-provincial city, it enjoys the same rights as possessed by a provincial government in terms of economic management. Ningbo , "a large city" entitled to formulate local laws and regulations, is also a famous historic city with rich cultural heritage. It is the birthplace of the "Neolithic Hemudu Culture" dating back more than 7,000 years. Two thousand years ago, Xu Fu, a necromancer of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.), led a fleet from here, thus becoming the first to commence China 's exchanges with other countries. Ningbo first rose to importance during the latter part of the 5th century, when Korean  shipping found it the most convenient port for contacts with the southern capital at Nanjing ( Nanking ; then called Chien-k'ang). Under the Tang dynasty (618-907) this traffic continued. Although official relations lapsed after 838, private trade continued on a large scale. In the 11th century Ningbo became a centre of the coastal trade. Its importance grew with the establishment of the Southern Song capital at Hangzhou in 1127, when overseas trade to and from the capital flowed through Ningbo . It grew rapidly during the Song (960-1279) and Yuen periods.

The early period of the  Ming dynasty (1368-1644) brought a setback to Ningbo 's development. Overseas trade was deliberately curtailed by the government and the building of oceangoing ships prohibited, and even coastal trade was severely restricted. Ningbo was attacked by Japanese pirates, and it became a defensive base of some importance. Its growth seems to have stagnated, however, until the last quarter of the 15th century, when the rural prosperity of its hinterland began to recover.

This recovery was assisted when the Portuguese began trading in Ningbo in 1545, at first illicitly, but later (after 1567) legally. Still later, Dutch and British merchants arrived, and the Ningbo merchants began to trade with the China coast from Manchuria to Canton , as well as with the Philippines and Taiwan . Ningbo was the commercial centre of the coastal plain to the east of Shaoxing and an outport for the Yangtze River Delta area, to which it was linked by the Zhedong Canal leading to Shaoxing and the Qiantang River . As a result, in the 17th and 18th centuries the Ningbo merchants became important in China 's internal commerce and began to play a national role as bankers in the early 19th century. In 1843 Ningbo was opened to foreign trade as a treaty port, but trade declined, and its place was taken by Shanghai .

Travel
Tianyi Pavilion : Tianyi Pavilion Library is situated beside the Moon Lake in west Ningbo City . The library, which has survived 430 years of dramas and upheavals, is the oldest existing private library of China and Asia , and one of the world's three oldest libraries kept by a family. For centuries it has been reputed to be the "city of books in South China " for its giant collection of highly-valued ancient books and documents. For those men of letters traveling to Ningbo , a trip to its Tianyi Pavilion has always been a craved experience. However, during the past several hundred years, the library used to be the private property of the Fan family, an absolutely restricted neighborhood. As a result no more than twenty visitors could have a privilege to step into the premises during the past several hundred years. Today Tianyi Pavilion is a vault chosen by the State government to deposit Ningbo 's private bibliotheca. It is open to the public too so that experts and scholars can finally have access to their most coveted archives right in the library, rare documents buried under centuries of dust. This can be called "the modern use of the old times". In 1982, the State Council made Tianyi Pavilion one of the country's key cultural heritages, thus turning the library into an indispensable landmark in this city famous for its remarkable historical culture, a star of civilization in which Ningbo people take great pride.

                 Xuedou Mountain                                 Zhaobao Mountain