Ningbo 宁波Níngbō

About Ningbo

Ningbo's port was trading with Japan by the Tang dynasty and with Korea under the Song, and in 1842 it became one of the first five treaty ports; churches and Western-style buildings from that era still stand on the Old Bund. In the old city, Tianyi Ge, built in 1561, is China's oldest surviving private library. Out of town are the Hemudu Site, where rice was grown some 7,000 years ago, Tiantong Temple, ancestral temple of Japan's Sōtō Zen, and Xikou, Chiang Kai-shek's home town.

What to eat in Ningbo

• Ningbo tangyuan (宁波汤团)
• Yellow croaker with preserved greens (雪菜大黄鱼)
• Xikou thousand-layer cake (溪口千层饼)

Listed sites in Ningbo

59 listed sites are in Ningbo. These are the 37 rated 5A or 4A; see all 59 in the Zhejiang list.

• Tianyi Ge and Moon Lake 天一阁·月湖 5A scenic area · National heritage site
  Tianyi Ge, built in 1561–1566 by the official Fan Qin, is the oldest surviving private library in China, a two-storey book tower with a fire-pond in front and a rockery garden.
• Xikou–Tengtou Scenic Area 溪口－滕头 5A scenic area · National heritage site
  Xikou, a town on the Shan stream below the Siming hills, is the home town of Chiang Kai-shek, and its protected Chiang family buildings include Fenghao House, the family residence he enlarged in the late 1920s, the salt shop where he was born in 1887, the house where his son Chiang Ching-kuo lived from 1937 and his mother's tomb.
• Ala de Hai Water Park, Xiangshan 阿拉的海水上乐园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large water park in the Damuwan new town on the coast south-east of Xiangshan's county town, with water slides and pools, which also stages summer events.
• Baoguo Temple 保国寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A hillside temple north-west of Ningbo whose main hall, built in 1013, is one of the few Northern Song timber buildings surviving south of the Yangtze.
• China Fishing Village, Shipu 中国渔村 4A scenic area · on the map
  A seaside resort area on Huangcheng beach, a few kilometres north of Shipu town on the southern Xiangshan coast, themed on the fishing-village culture of the area.
• China Port Museum 中国港口博物馆 4A scenic area
  A large museum of China's ports and maritime trade at Chunxiao on the Beilun coast, opened in 2014 in a building designed by Cheng Taining that is shaped to suggest a conch shell and a sail.
• Cicheng Ancient Town 慈城古县城 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  The walled seat of the old Cixi County until 1954, Cicheng was spared later redevelopment and keeps lanes of Ming and Qing mansions, guildhalls, memorial arches and wells.
• Danshan Chishui Scenic Area, Yuyao 丹山赤水 4A scenic area · on the map
  A stream-valley scenic area by Shilin village in Dalan town, high in the Siming Mountains of southern Yuyao, where a walking route follows the water past pools, small waterfalls and rock formations.
• Dapeng Mountain 达蓬山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A 422 m hill near the coast north of Ningbo, renamed after the legend that the Qin-dynasty court sorcerer Xu Fu set sail from here for the islands of the immortals.
• Fantawild Oriental Heritage, Ningbo 方特东方神画 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large theme park of the Fantawild chain in the Hangzhou Bay new area on the coast north of Cixi, whose rides and shows are themed on Chinese history and legend and make heavy use of screen and special-effects technology.
• Fenghua Museum 奉化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  The district museum of Fenghua, opened in 2020 in a converted former power-plant building on Dacheng Road in the town centre.
• Former Sites of the Eastern Zhejiang Anti-Japanese Base Area, Liangnong 浙东抗日根据地旧址 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A group of old houses at Hengkantou village near Liangnong, in the northern Siming Mountains, that served in 1942–1945 as the command centre of the Communist-led anti-Japanese base area in eastern Zhejiang.
• Haipi Island Water Park, Hangzhou Bay 海皮岛 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large water park in the Hangzhou Bay new area on the coast north of Cixi, with slides, pools and a wave pool in indoor and outdoor sections.
• Haitian Yizhou Sea Platform 海天一洲 4A scenic area
  A service and sightseeing platform built on piers in the sea beside the middle of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, opened to visitors in 2010.
• Huangxian Forest Park, Fenghua 黄贤森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A coastal forest park around Huangxian village in Qiucun, south-eastern Fenghua, covering about 10,000 mu (some 670 hectares) of wooded hills above the shore of Xiangshan Bay, promoted as the 'Huangxian Great Wall on the Sea'.
• Jiufeng Mountain, Beilun 九峰山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A forested range of hills in Daqi, Beilun district, with 26 peaks, two lakes and valleys of streams, pools, rock formations and waterfalls, and walking routes popular with Ningbo hikers; the Ruiyan Temple valley lies on its eastern side.
• Jiulong Lake, Zhenhai 九龙湖 4A scenic area · on the map
  A reservoir lake in the hills of Jiulonghu town, northern Zhenhai, completed in 1988 and later switched from drinking-water supply to landscape and recreation use.
• Liangzhu Culture Park 梁祝文化公园 4A scenic area
  A park in Gaoqiao, on the western edge of Ningbo, devoted to the legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the 'Butterfly Lovers', and built on the site of a temple and a Jin-dynasty tomb traditionally said to be Liang Shanbo's.
• Lvye Villa, Cicheng 绿野山居 4A scenic area · on the map
  A rural leisure resort in the hills of Wuxing village on the north-western edge of Cicheng, where visitors try farm work, walk in the countryside and eat farmhouse food, and whose cherry trees draw crowds when they flower in spring.
• Mashan Leisure Area, Dongqian Lake 东钱湖马山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A lakeside leisure area of about 100 hectares on the south-eastern shore of Dongqian Lake, centred on the Mashan wetland, where boardwalks run through reed beds and waterside trees that draw many birds.
• Minghe Ancient Town 鸣鹤古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
  An old market town at the foot of Wulei Mountain in Guanhaiwei, south-eastern Cixi, with about 1,200 years of history, whose lanes, waterways and stone bridges are lined with large houses of merchants, many of whom grew rich in the herbal-medicine trade in the Ming and Qing.
• Ningbo Museum 宁波博物馆 4A scenic area
  The city's history museum, opened in 2008 and designed by Wang Shu, who in 2012 became the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Prize.
• Ningbo Ocean World 宁波海洋世界 4A scenic area · on the map
  A city aquarium beside Ningbo Children's Park in Yinzhou district, with walk-through viewing tunnels beneath its tanks and galleries and gardens styled on places such as ancient Egypt and Cambodia.
• Ningbo Science Exploration Center 宁波科学探索中心 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large hands-on science museum in the Ningbo Cultural Plaza of the Eastern New Town, open since 2014.
• Ningbo Wildlife Park 宁波野生动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A large zoo on hilly ground with lakes at the north-east edge of the Dongqian Lake resort area, opened in 2004 as Youngor Zoo and renamed Ningbo Wildlife Park in 2021.
• Ningbobang Museum 宁波帮博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
  A museum about the 'Ningbo bang', the network of Ningbo-born merchants prominent in shipping, banking and trade in Shanghai and later overseas, opened in 2009 in a building by the architect He Jingtang laid out along a water street.
• Ninghai Forest Hot Spring 宁海森林温泉 4A scenic area · on the map
  A hot-spring resort in the wooded hills of north-western Ninghai County, built around the Nanxi spring, whose water reaches about 49°C and contains more than 20 dissolved minerals.
• Old Bund, Ningbo 老外滩 4A scenic area
  A riverside quarter on the north bank of the Yong River at Ningbo's Sanjiangkou, where the foreign settlement grew up after Ningbo was opened as a treaty port in 1844, two decades before Shanghai's Bund took shape.
• Qiantong Ancient Town 前童古镇 4A scenic area
  An old clan town in the hills of south-west Ninghai, founded when the Tong family settled here in 1233; about eight in ten residents still bear the surname.
• Shipu Fishing Port Ancient Town 石浦渔港古城 4A scenic area · on the map
  The old quarter of Shipu, a fishing port at the southern end of the Xiangshan peninsula, set at the foot of a hill facing the harbour, with stone-paved lanes lined with old shops, houses and a temple; Shipu is a nationally listed historic and cultural town.
• Songlanshan Coast 松兰山 4A scenic area · on the map
  A stretch of rocky headlands and small sandy bays on the open coast east of Xiangshan town, including East Beach, South Beach and Baisha Bay.
• Tiangong Manor, Yinzhou 天宫庄园 4A scenic area · on the map
  A rural tourism park of about 1,600 mu (some 107 hectares) run by Wandi village in Xiaying, on the southern edge of Ningbo city, combining farm fields and orchards with hands-on farm activities, children's study programmes, leisure facilities and halls showing local intangible-heritage crafts and the village's development.
• Tianxia Yuyuan Jade Park, Yuyao 天下玉苑 4A scenic area · on the map
  A jade-themed culture park at the foot of Jiulong Hill in Dayin town, eastern Yuyao, laid out on a hillside around a lake with a Buddhist temple, terraces, gateways and gardens, and centred on a giant stack of jade boulders.
• Wulongtan (Five Dragon Pools), Ningbo 五龙潭 4A scenic area · on the map
  A mountain scenic area in Longguan township, in the Siming foothills of south-western Haishu district, developed from 2000 around a stream that drops through a chain of five pools and waterfalls, each named after a dragon.
• Wushan Grottoes, Ninghai 伍山石窟 4A scenic area · on the map
  An old stone quarry in low coastal hills at Changjie, eastern Ninghai, where stone was cut from the Sui and Tang onward, most intensively under the Song and Yuan, leaving more than 800 man-made caverns in some 30 groups.
• Xiangshan Global Studios 象山影视城 4A scenic area
  A film and television studio complex in Xinqiao, Xiangshan County, begun in 2003 for the wuxia series The Return of the Condor Heroes and open to visitors since 2005.
• Zhaobao Mountain 招宝山 4A scenic area · National heritage site
  A hill guarding the mouth of the Yong River, fortified from the Ming to the 1940s against Japanese pirates and British, French and Japanese forces, and the core of the Zhenhaikou coastal defence monuments.

All 59 listed sites in Ningbo

On the map

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Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Official website
• Wikipedia (Chinese)