Ningbo

Ningbo is a seaport with sub-provincial administrative status. The city has a population of 2,201,000 and is situated in northeastern Zhejiang Province, China. Lying south of the Hangzhou Bay, and facing the East China Sea to the east, Ningbo borders Shaoxing to the west and Taizhou to the south, and is separated from Zhoushan by a narrow body of water.

History
Ningbo was one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating back to 4800 BC the Hemudu culture. Once known as Mingzhou, Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port, along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou in the Tang Dynasty; thereafter, the major ports for foreign trade in the Song Dynasty. The city of Ningbo is recalled for a long time under the name of Liampo, in the Peregrination  of Fernão Mendes Pinto, novel autobiographic Portuguese of the XVIth century. It is in this place it seems that was installed the first Portuguese salable community of the seas of China, before Macao. There are celebrated the feats of the pirate António of Faria..Ningbo was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing (signed in 1842) at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China. During the war, British forces took possession of the walled city of Ningbo briefly after storming the fortified town of Zhenhai at the mouth of the Yong River on October 10, 1841. In 1864, the forces of the Taiping Rebellion 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 defences. Ningbo was once famed for traditional Chinese furniture production.

During World War II in 1940, Japan bombed Ningbo with 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.

"It has been said of the Ningbo fishermen that, 'no people in the world apparently made so great an advance in the art of fishing; and for centuries past no people have made so little further progress.

Geography and Climate
Ningbo covers an area of 9,365 square kilometres (3,616 sq mi) and has a total coastline of 1,562 km (971 mi) including 788 km (490 mi) of mainland coastline and 774 km (481 mi) of island coastline.

Climatic Features: sub-tropical monsoon climate featured with temperate and humid weather and four distinct seasons; frost-free of 230-240 days
Average Temperature: 16.2 °C (61.2 °F); average high in summer is 32 °C (90 °F), in winter 9 °C (48 °F). Average Rainfall: 1,300 mm (51 in) - 1,400 mm (55 in)

Tourism
Ningbo at nightTianyi Pavilion Museum, (Tian Yi Ge Bowuguan) Ningbo's best tourist attraction, the Tian Yi Chamber (daily 8am-4.30pm; ¥20), is comfortably tucked away in the vicinity of Moon Lake (Yuehu). Built in 1516 and said to be the oldest surviving library building in China, it was founded by Ming official Fan Qin, whose collection went back to the eleventh century and included woodblock and handwritten copies of the Confucian classics, rare local histories and lists of the candidates successful in imperial examinations. Nowadays you can visit the library's garden and outhouses, some of which contain small displays of old books and tablets. It's quite a charming place and the gold-plated, wood-paneled buildings, their bamboo groves, pool and rockery still preserve an atmosphere of seclusion, contemplation and study.
Baoguo Temple, the oldest intact wooden structure in Southern China, is located in Jiangbei District, 15 km north of Ningbo city.
Tianfeng Tower
Ahyuwang Temple
Tiantong Temple
Tian Yi Square
Yushan Islands