Ningbo


Ningbo, formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises the urban districts of Ningbo proper, three satellite cities, and a number of rural counties including islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Its port, the port of Ningbo–Zhoushan, spread across several locations, is among the busiest in the world and the municipality possesses a separate state-planning status. As of the 2010 census, the entire administrated area had a population of 7.6 million, with 3.5 million in the built-up area made of six urban districts of Ningbo proper. To the north, Hangzhou Bay separates Ningbo from Shanghai; to the east lies Zhoushan in the East China Sea; on the west and south, Ningbo borders Shaoxing and Taizhou respectively.

Etymology

The first character in the city's name ning means "serene", while its second character bo translates to "wave". The city is abbreviated "" for the eponymous "Yong Hill", a prominent coastal hill near the city, and the Yong River that flows through Ningbo.
It was once named Mingzhou. The first character is composed of two parts, representing two lakes inside the city wall: Sun Lake and Moon Lake. Today, only Moon Lake remains.

History

Ningbo is one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating to the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port for foreign trade along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and Quanzhou and Guangzhou in the Sung dynasty.

Tang and Song dynasty

Since the Tang dynasty Ningbo has been an important commercial port. Arab traders lived in Ningbo during the Song dynasty when it was known as Mingzhou, as the ocean-going trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time. Another name for Mingzhou/Ningbo was Siming. It was a well known center of ocean-going commerce with the foreign world. These merchants did not intermingle with native Chinese, instead practicing their own customs and religion and inhabiting ghettos. They did not try to proselytize Islam to the Chinese.
Jews also lived in Ningbo, as evidenced by the fact that, after a major flood destroyed Torah scrolls in Kaifeng in 1642, a replacement was sent to the Kaifeng Jews by the Ningbo Jewish community.

Ming dynasty

The city of Ningbo was known in Europe for a long time under the name of Liampó. This is the usual spelling used e.g. in the standard Portuguese history, João de Barros's Décadas da Ásia, although Barros explained that Liampó was a Portuguese "corruption" of the more correct Nimpó. The spelling Liampó is also attested in the Peregrination by Fernão Mendes Pinto, a autobiography written in Portuguese during the 16th century. For the mid-16th-century Portuguese, the nearby promontory, which they called the cape of Liampó, after the nearby "illustrious city" was the easternmost known point of the mainland Asia. The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522. By 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo. Portuguese activities from their Ningbo base included pillaging and attacking multiple Chinese port cities around Ningbo for plunder and spoil. They also enslaved people during their raids. The Portuguese were ousted from the Ningbo area in 1548.

Qing dynasty

Ningbo was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China. During the war, British forces briefly took possession of the walled city of Ningbo after storming the fortified town of Zhenhai at the mouth of the Yong River on October 10, 1841. The British subsequently repulsed a Chinese attempt to retake the city in the Battle of Ningpo on March 10, 1842. In 1861, the forces of the Taiping Rebellion took the city relatively unopposed as the defending garrison fled; they held the town for six months. In March 1885, during the Sino-French War, Admiral Courbet's naval squadron blockaded several Chinese warships in Zhenhai Bay and exchanged fire with the shore defenses.
Ningbo was also once famed for traditional Chinese furniture production. During the Qing dynasty, western encyclopedias described Ningbo as a center of craftsmanship and industry.
During the late Qing dynasty, in the 1800s, the Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate and massacre Portuguese pirates who had raided Cantonese shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Chinese dead, being dubbed "The Ningpo Massacre" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reined in the pirates.
During late Qing era, Western missionaries set up a Presbyterian Church in Ningbo. Li Veng-eing was a Reverend of the Ningpo Church. The Ningpo College was managed by Rev. Robert F. Fitch. The four trustees were natives of Ningbo, three of them had Taotai rank. Rev. George Evans Moule, B. A. was appointed a missionary to China by the Church of England Missionary Society, and arrived at Ningpo with Mrs. Moule in February 1858. He then began a mission station at Hang-chow, between which and Ningpo his time had been chiefly divided. He wrote Christian publications in the Ningbo dialect.

Republican era

During World War II in 1940, Japan bombed Ningbo with ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague. According to Daniel Barenblatt, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda received, with Prince Mikasa, a special screening by Shiro Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940.
Between 80% to 90% of Ningbo's population fled the city during the Japanese invasion.

Geography

Ningbo ranges in latitude from 28° 51' to 30° 33' N and in longitude from 120° 55' to 122° 16' E, bounded on the east by the East China Sea and Zhoushan Archipelago, on the north by Hangzhou Bay, across which it faces Jiaxing and Shanghai, on the west by Shaoxing, and on the south by Taizhou. Its land area is, while oceanic territory amounts to ; there is a total of coastline including of mainland coastline and of island coastline, together accounting for one-third of the entire provincial coastline. There are 531 islands accounting for under the city's administration.
Ningbo's city proper is sandwiched between the ocean and low-lying mountains to the southwest, with coastal plain and valleys in between. Important peninsulas include the Chuanshan Peninsula, located in Beilun District and containing mainland Zhejiang's easternmost point, and the Xiangshan Peninsula in Xiangshan County. The Siming Mountains run north from Mount Tiantai and within Ningbo City, traverse Yuyao City, Haishu District, and Fenghua District, reaching a height of.

Climate

Ningbo has a humid subtropical climate with four distinctive seasons, characterized by hot, humid summers and chilly, cloudy and dry winters. The mean annual temperature is, with monthly daily averages ranging from in January to in July. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 12 January 1955 to on 8 August 2013. The city receives an average annual rainfall of and is affected by the plum rains of the Asian monsoon in June, when average relative humidity also peaks. From August to October, Ningbo experiences the effects of typhoons, and is affected by an average 1.8 storms annually, though the city is not often struck directly by these systems. A 2012 OECD study lists Ningbo among the top 20 cities worldwide most at risk of flooding due to anthropogenic climate change.

Administrative structure

The mayor of Ningbo is Liu Qi. Wang Huizhong is the secretary of CPC in Ningbo, who is first-in-charge of the city. The Communist Party Secretary is always the highest official in cities in China and outranks all other officials.
Ningbo Local Government Offices
The sub-provincial city of Ningbo is as whole an urban group with one central group, one northern group, and one southern group. It has direct jurisdiction over six districts, two county-level cities and two counties :
Ningbo is an important port city located south of Shanghai. The city's export industry dates back to the 7th century. Today, Ningbo is a major exporter of electrical products, textiles, food, and industrial tools. The city's private sector is especially well-developed, contributing 80 percent of total GDP in 2013.
Historically, Ningbo was somewhat geographically isolated from other major cities. In 2007 the Hangzhou Bay Bridge was built, cutting highway transit time between Ningbo and Shanghai from four hours to two and a half. The city now serves as the economic center for the southern Yangtze River Delta and has been ranked among the most competitive cities in China.
In 2009, Ningbo's economic activity reached US$60.8 billion, down 10.4% from 2008. The exports totaled US$38.65 billion, down 16.6% from the previous year. In addition, Ningbo imported US$22.16 billion of goods, up 3.1% from the previous year.
Ningbo's economy grew 9.26 percent in 2013 to 712.89 billion yuan. In 2009, the city's per capita output was US$10,833, about three times the national average.
Ningbo is famous for the Si Lan Nong Xiang flower, which is used for dying cloth. In 2008, Ningbo's cloth exports were responsible for 3% of its economic growth.

Foreign investment

With several important development zones established in or around Ningbo, the city has received considerable foreign investment. Over 60 domestic and foreign-invested financial institutions have established operations in the city, which has also attracted more than 10,000 foreigners. The municipal government offers preferential policies designed to encourage investment in international trade, new strategic industries, manufacturing, information services, and creative industries.

Economic and technological development zones

Ningbo Economic & Technological Development Zone

Located in the north-east of Ningbo, behind Beilun Port, NETD is away from the city center. With more than 20 years of great effort, NETD has already formed the general framework for large scale construction and development, and established the perfect investment environment. It is situated close to the Ningbo Port and Ningbo Lishe International Airport. Major Investors include Exxon Mobile, Dupont and Dow Chemical.

Ningbo Daxie Development Zone

The Ningbo Daxie Development Zone was approved in 1993 and covers an area of. Over more than ten years of development and construction, industrial and logistical foundations have been established in the zone for the transshipment of energy, liquid chemicals and containers.

Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone

Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone was founded in 1999 and was upgraded to a national level zone in January 2007. It is from Ningbo International Airport and away from Ningbo Port. The zone serves as the important technical innovation base of Yangtze River Delta. Industries encouraged include chemicals production and processing, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, raw material processing, Research and Development.

Ningbo Free Trade Zone

Ningbo Free Trade Zone is one of the 15 free trade zones authorized by the State Council of China, and is the only free trade zone in Zhejiang Province. It was established by State Council in 1992, covering the area of. It lies in the middle of the coastline of Mainland China, at the south of Yangtze River Delta. In 2008, its industrial output value was RMB 53.33 billion and grew at 19.8% as compared to 2007.

Nordic Industrial Park

The Nordic Industrial Park Co. Ltd. is one of the first wholly foreign-owned industrial parks in China located in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. NIP is managed and operated by a Scandinavian management team.

Ningbo Advertising Park

The Ningbo Advertising Park is a national level pilot park located in the Ningbo Southern Business District. The financial incentives have attracted over 300 relevant firms to establish operations.

Ningbo Port

Ningbo is not just an ordinary city—it has the same authority as provincial governments for economic administration—and has a port second only to Shanghai around the world in terms of annual cargo throughput. Unlike Shanghai, the port is deep-water and capable of handling 300,000 ton vessels. The port is located mainly in Beilun district and Zhenhai district. In 2006, Ningbo Port started its expansion towards the neighboring island city of Zhoushan for the purpose of building an even larger port with higher capacity to compete with neighboring ports in the region, such as Shanghai's Yangshan Deep-Water Port. The statistics in 2010 showed that total cargo throughput was 627,000,000 tons and container throughput 13,144,000 TEUs. With bulk container breakdowns, hugely improved logistics, and massive chemical and foodstuff, processing developments, Ningbo could win the race against Shanghai for the preeminent Chinese east coast port.

Tourism

Many well known Chinese came from Ningbo or have Ningbo as their ancestral home.
;People in mainland China
;People in Hong Kong
;People in Taiwan
;People overseas

Bridge

As there are three main rivers running through Ningbo, it is crucial to build bridges to improve the efficiency of the transport network in Ningbo. The Ling Bridge which connects Haishu district and Jiangdong District is the earliest modern bridge built in Ningbo, designed by German engineers. Since the late 1980s, 16 bridges have been built on the three rivers. Currently another 27 bridges are under construction.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, a combination cable-stayed bridge and causeway across Hangzhou Bay, opened to the public on May 1, 2008. This bridge connects the municipalities of Shanghai and Ningbo, and is considered the longest trans-oceanic bridge in the world. It is the world's second-longest bridge, after the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, United States.
The Jintang Bridge, a 4 lane sea crossing bridge linking Jintang Island of Zhoushan and Zhenhai district, is a long opened on December 26, 2009.
The Xiangshan Harbor Bridge opened to traffic on December 29, 2012, connecting Ningbo with Xiangshan. The long project includes as the main body of the bridge and a 8 kilometer-long tunnel.

Sea

The port of Ningbo is one of the world's busiest ports. It was ranked number 7 in total Cargo Volume and number 6 in total container traffic in 2011.

Air

connects Ningbo by air to the rest of China, with regularly scheduled domestic and international flights. In 2009, new air routes between Ningbo and Taiwan were opened. Jetstar Asia launched a new route between Ningbo and Singapore in September 2011. Tiger Air planned to begin flying this route from 26 December 2013.

Railway

Three railway lines intersect in Ningbo: the Xiaoshan–Ningbo Railway, which runs west to Hangzhou, the Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway, which runs south to Wenzhou, and the Hangzhou–Ningbo High-Speed Railway, which runs parallel to the Xiaoyong Line providing high-speed railway service.
With the booming economy in the region, the Xiaoyong Railway, a conventional railway built in the 1950s, could not meet the demand for railway travel between Zhejiang's two largest cities, so construction of a new high-speed railway line between Hangzhou and Ningbo started in 2009. The new railway line was finished by 2013 and reduced travel time between Ningbo and Hangzhou to 50 minutes.
The Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway is a high-speed railway that opened in September 2009. It connects Ningbo with cities along the coast to the south to Fujian Province. High-speed trains on this line operate at speeds of up to.
Ningbo re-opened the Ningbo railway station after three years of construction on December 28, 2013. With a construction area of more than 120,000 m2, it is one of the largest railway stations in China.

Expressway

Seven expressways connect Ningbo with its surrounding cities:
Ningbo has two metro lines in service consisting of Line 1, which is 46.2 kilometers in length and has 29 stations, and Line 2, which is 28.4 kilometers in length and has 22 stations. More lines are under construction. Line 3 is scheduled to be finished in the year 2019 and Line 4 in 2020. Future plans are for 7 metro lines serving Ningbo.

Military

Ningbo is the headquarters of the East Sea Fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. Its responsibility includes projecting force in the region around the Republic of China, which the People's Republic of China views as a renegade province.

Culture

As a city with giant ports, Ningbo influenced many countries near China, such as Japan.

Language

Ningbo speech is a dialect of Wu Chinese that has preserved many aspects of ancient Chinese phonology. Its original wording mode can be found in classical reference books. It can be found that the trisyllable and tetrasyllable phrases or proverbs in Ningbo dialect make it most unusual and dynamic. Moreover, the onomatopoeia, assonance words, collocations, inversions, and other language characteristics within Ningbo dialect all add spice to people's life. After the unequal treaty port opening, western culture gradually permeated Ningbo. Thus the prefix " yang" before the nouns of imported goods is a special language phenomenon of Ningbo dialect.

Food

Ningbo is known for Ningbo Tangyuan, small stuffed buns which are boiled. The stuffing is usually ground sesame mixed with sugar. It can also be mixed with pork fat. The stuffing is wrapped with sticky rice powder.
Even more so, Ningbo is famous throughout China for its seafood. Seafood markets are abundant, carrying countless varieties of fish, crabs/lobsters/shrimp, shellfish, snails, jellyfish and other invertebrates, and sea vegetables in all stages of preparation from "still swimming," to cleaned and ready to cook, to fully cooked.

Festivals

Ningbo has many traditional Han Chinese festivals same as other provinces in China. However, the date of Mid-Autumn Festival is different from others. Han Chinese will have Mid-Autumn Festival on Lunar Calendar August 15, but Ningbo will have on August 16th. The most creditable history for this is that long ago, the whole city waited for Shih Hao, a Southern Sung prime minister.

Education

By the end of 2013, there were 2,097 schools of all levels in total, with 1,334,000 students. Among them there are 16 colleges and universities, with 153,000 students; 81 secondary schools, with 97,000 students; 55 vocational schools, with 78,000 students; 216 junior schools, with 189,000 students; 465 primary schools, with 487,000 students; 1,254 kindergartens, with 276,000 children. Besides, there are 2,500 international students in universities in Ningbo, up 56% from last year. All talents in Ningbo increased by 112,000 people in 2013, and the total amount came to 1,413,000.
By the end of 2014, there were 2,082 schools of all levels in total, with 1,320,700 students. Among them there are 14 colleges and universities, with 150,900 students; 83 secondary schools, with 90,300 students; 52 vocational schools, with 72,8000 students; 209 junior schools, with 189,8000 students; 457 primary schools, with 482,600 students; 1,254 kindergartens, with 278,400 children.

Universities and colleges

Ningbo has 16 colleges and universities. University of Nottingham Ningbo China is China's very first Sino-Foreign University – a joint venture between the University of Nottingham and the Wanli Education Group. UNNC has built a very high reputation in China for the quality of its undergraduate education and graduated its first PhD students in 2013. Toward the north of the city is Ningbo University, while the Ningbo Higher Education Zone is home to Zhejiang Wanli University, affiliated to Zhejiang University, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, which was ranked as the eleventh best of independent colleges in China in 2011, is also in this education zone.

Secondary and primary education

Compulsory education is from the ages 6 to 15. Students are catered to in a variety of state and private schools. Studying for the gaokao, a test of a student's skill, is optional.

International education

Several schools are permitted to operate foreign educational programs as an alternative to the Chinese National curriculum and accept international students.
Access International Academy Ningbo and Ningbo Zhicheng School International both offer the American AERO curriculum with the College Board Advanced Placement examinations. delivers the Cambridge International Primary and Secondary Curricula leading to iGCSE Examinations and A-Levels. Huamao Multicultural Education Academy is an IB World School and offers an international curriculum through the IB Primary Years Program for students ages 3–12 and the IB Diploma Program for students ages 16–19.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ningbo is twinned with:
CityCountrySince
Nagaokakyō, KyotoJapan1983
AachenGermany1986
Wilmington, DelawareUnited States1988
Waitakere CityNew Zealand1998
RouenFrance1990
Santos, São PauloBrazil2002
Port ElizabethSouth Africa2003
VeszprémHungary2003
StavangerNorway2004
VarnaBulgaria2004
BydgoszczPoland2005
NottinghamUnited Kingdom2005
FlorenceItaly2008
DaeguSouth Korea2013
BitolaNorth Macedonia2014