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Ningbo 宁波市 Ningpo
Prefecture-level & Sub-provincial city
Clockwise: Ningbo city god temple, Yinzhou District Government of Ningbo, Tianfeng Pagoda, Dongqian Lake, Tianyi Pavilion Museum
Ningbo City in Zhejiang
Ningbo Location in China
Coordinates (Tianyi Square): 29°52′08″N 121°33′14″E / 29.869°N 121.554°E / 29.869; 121.554
Country	China
Province	Zhejiang
County-level divisions	11
Township divisions	148
Municipal seat	Yinzhou District
Government
• Type	Sub-provincial city
• Body	Ningbo Municipal People's Congress
• CCP Secretary	Peng Jiaxue
• Congress Chairman	Yu Hongyi
• Mayor	Qiu Dongyao
• CPPCC Chairman	Xu Yuning
Area
• Prefecture-level & Sub-provincial city	9,816.23 km2 (3,790.07 sq mi)
• Urban	2,461.8 km2 (950.5 sq mi)
• Metro	2,461.8 km2 (950.5 sq mi)
Elevation	150 m (488 ft)
Population  (2022 census)[1]
• Prefecture-level & Sub-provincial city	9,618,000
• Density	980/km2 (2,500/sq mi)
• Urban	7,585,000
• Urban density	3,100/km2 (8,000/sq mi)
• Metro	2,033,000
• Metro density	830/km2 (2,100/sq mi)
GDP[2]
• Prefecture-level & Sub-provincial city	CN¥ 1.570 trillion US$ 233.5 billion
• Per capita	CN¥ 163,911 US$ 24,369
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	315000
Area code	574
ISO 3166 code	CN-ZJ-02
Vehicle registration	浙B
City trees	Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Sieb.
City flowers	Camellia
Website	ningbo.gov.cn

Ningbo
"Ningbo" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	宁波
Traditional Chinese	寧波 / 𡩋波
Wu	Nihng-boⓘ (locally)
Literal meaning	"Tranquil Waves"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Níngbō Gwoyeu Romatzyh Ningbo Wade–Giles Ning2-po1 IPA Wu Romanization Nihng-boⓘ (locally) Hakka Romanization Nèn-pô Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Nìhng-bō Jyutping Ning4-bo1 IPA Southern Min Tâi-lô Lîng-pho

Ningbo^[a] is a sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Ningbo is the southern economic center^[3] of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis.^[4] The port of Ningbo–Zhoushan, spread across several locations, is the world's busiest port by cargo tonnage and world's third-busiest container port since 2010.^[5]

Ningbo is the core city and center of the Ningbo Metropolitan Area.^[4] 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. As of the 2020 Chinese national census, the entire administrated area of Ningbo City had a population of 9.4 million (9,404,283).^[6]

Ningbo is one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in China, and is one of the five separate state-planning cities^[7] in China (the other four being Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Shenzhen), with the municipality possessing a separate state-planning status in many economic departments, rather than being governed by Zhejiang Province. Therefore, Ningbo has provincial-level autonomy in making economic and financial policies.^[8]

In 2022, the GDP of Ningbo was CNY 1570,43 billion^[9] (US$233.479 billion), and it was ranked 12th among 293 cities in China.^[10] Moreover, Ningbo is among the wealthiest cities in China; it ranked 8th in terms of average yearly disposable income in the year of 2020.^[11] As of 2020, Ningbo has global headquarters and registered offices of over 100 listed companies,^[12] and many regional business headquarters. In 2021, Ningbo featured the seventh most listed companies of all cities in China.^[13] Furthermore, Ningbo was among the top 10 Chinese cities in the Urban Business Environment Report released by the Chinese state media China Central Television (CCTV) in 2019.^[14]

As a city with rich culture and a long history dating back to the Jingtou Mountain Culture in 6300 BC and the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC, Ningbo was awarded "City of Culture in East Asia" by the governments of China, Japan, and Korea in 2016.^[15] From 1842, Ningbo was one of the first five treaty ports opened up to the West. Ningbo is one of the top 200 cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index.^[16]

Etymology

The first character in the city's name ning (宁 or 寧) means "serene", while its second character bo (波) translates to "wave". The city is abbreviated "甬" (pinyin: Yǒng) for the eponymous "Yong Hill" (甬山), a prominent coastal hill near the city, and the Yong River that flows through Ningbo city.

Formerly known as Mingzhou (明州; Míngzhōu), Ningbo boasts a rich historical background. The name Mingzhou is derived from the characters "明" (Míng), which symbolizes the presence of two lakes within the city walls: the Sun Lake (日湖) and the Moon Lake (月湖). This nomenclature traces its roots back to the Tang dynasty in 636 AD, reflecting the enduring history of Ningbo. While the original Sun Lake dried up during the 19th century, the Ningbo government embarked on its restoration in 2002, transforming it into one of the city's prominent parks. This restoration not only honors the city's historical roots but also contributes to the contemporary allure of Ningbo as a city that seamlessly blends its past and present.

History

Ningbo is one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating to the Jingtou Mountain Culture in 6300 BC and Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and later as a major port for foreign trade.

Ancient to Sui dynasty

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As of 2020, the earliest relics of human activity discovered in Ningbo City are from the Jingtou Mountain site in Yuyao. These relics date back to 6300 BC, evidencing early human consumption of seafood and rice. A large number of cultivated rice, farming tools, remains of dry fence buildings, remains of domestic livestock, and primitive religious items have been unearthed from related sites of the Hemudu culture (5000–4500 BC), evidencing human settlement and culture in the eastern part of the Ningshao Plain, where modern-day Ningbo city is located.

Before the Han dynasty, the area where Ningbo City is located today was sparsely populated. In the Xia dynasty, the location of Ningbo was called "Yin". In the Spring and Autumn period, the area where Ningbo belonged was the Yue State. At that time, the Yue King Goujian built Juzhang City in the present-day Cicheng Town, which became the earliest city in Ningbo. In the latter half of the Warring States period, the area of Ningbo became the jurisdiction of Chu State. In 221 BC, Qin unified the six states and the Ningbo area was delegated to Kuaiji Commandery, with three counties of Yin, Yin, and Juzhang (some studies assert there were four counties of Yin, Yin, Juzhang, and Yuyao). In the early years of the Western Han dynasty, Kuaiji Commandery belonged to the Kingdom of Jing and Wu. After the Seven Kingdoms was settled, Kuaiji Commandery was restored. In 589 AD (Sui Kai Huang nine years), the counties were merged under the Wu kingdom.

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 or Siming,^[17] since the ocean-going trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time.^[18][19] It was a well known center of ocean-going commerce with the foreign world.^[20] 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.^[21] There was also a large Jewish community 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 Jews at Ningbo.^[22]

Ming dynasty

The city of Ningbo was known in Europe for a long time under the name of Liampó. This was 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.^[23][24] The spelling Liampó is also attested to in the Peregrination (Peregrinação) by Fernão Mendes Pinto, a (so-called) 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.^[23] The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522. By 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo (or, more likely, on nearby small islands such as Shuangyu). 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.^[25] 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 signed in 1842 at the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 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 10 March 1842. In 1861, the forces of the Taiping Kingdom took the city relatively unopposed as the defending garrison and all Ningbo residents fled except for the Jews and Persians; 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, and western encyclopedias described Ningbo as a center of craftsmanship and industry.^[26][27]

During the 1800s Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate Portuguese pirates who had raided Canton shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Cantonese dead. It was dubbed "The Ningpo Massacre" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Cantonese Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reined in the pirates.

During the late Qing era, Western missionaries set up a Presbyterian Church in Ningbo. Li Veng-eing was a Reverend of the Ningpo Church.^[28] The Ningpo College was managed by Rev. Robert F. Fitch. The four trustees were natives of Ningbo, and three of them had Taotai rank.^[29] Rev. George Evans Moule, B.A., was appointed as a missionary to China by the Church of England Missionary Society, and arrived at Ningpo with Mrs. Moule in February 1858. His time was chiefly divided between Ningpo and another mission station he began at Hang-chow. He wrote Christian publications in the Ningbo dialect.^[30]

World War II

During WWII in 1940, between 80% and 90% of Ningbo's population fled Ningbo, leaving only the elderly behind^[31] before the Japanese bombed Ningbo with ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague.^[32] According to Daniel Barenblatt, imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo was recorded on film in 1940.^[33]

“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.'”^[34]

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 9,816 square kilometers (3,790 sq mi), while its oceanic territory amounts to 9,758 km² (3,768 sq mi); there is a total 1,562 km (971 mi) of coastline, including 788 km (490 mi) of mainland coastline and 774 km (481 mi) of island coastline that together accounting for one-third of the entire provincial coastline. There are 531 islands accounting for 524 km² (202 sq mi) 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 (穿山半岛), located in Beilun District and containing mainland Zhejiang's easternmost point, and the Xiangshan Peninsula (象山半岛) in Xiangshan County. The Siming Mountains (四明山) run north from Mount Tiantai and within Ningbo City, traversing Yuyao City, Haishu District, and Fenghua District, and reaching a height of 979 m (3,212 ft).

Tidal flat ecosystems occur adjacent to the city, however, large areas have been reclaimed for agricultural purposes.^[35]

Climate

Ningbo has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) with four distinctive seasons, characterized by hot, humid summers and chilly, cloudy and dry winters (with occasional snow). The mean annual temperature is 17.15 °C (62.9 °F), with monthly daily averages ranging from 5.3 °C (41.5 °F) in January to 28.8 °C (83.8 °F) in July. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from −8.8 °C (16 °F) on 12 January 1955 to 42.1 °C (108 °F) on 8 August 2013.^[36] The city receives an average annual rainfall of 1,430 mm (56 in) 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.^[37]

Ningbo is among the cities in China which are implementing sponge city strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.^[38]