Ningbo Travel Guide
Tranquil waves meet like lovers' kisses,
The sea's breeze wafts a fragrance,
A prosperous city makes people happy,
A noble lady with charming beauty,
Tree branches disperse elegance.
----------Created by Peter Codder, the important Editor of Absolute China Tours
This is my impression of Ningbo, literally "tranquil waves", by which I mean that the waves on the rivers flowing through the city are peaceful. Traditionally people loved to describe Ningbo in such manner. Nowadays, Ningbo is a typical modern city in eastern China, high rise buildings, western restaurants and boutiques are all around. A romantic feeling may sometimes arise in my heart when walking in the downtown square in the rain, looking at charming ladies pass by and buildings veiled in mist.
I imagine a scene where people are picking fruits in a beautiful waxberry forest situated in the countryside. I take the fruits in my hands to smell the fragrance and sample the sour and sweet taste. Waxberry is a kind of dark-red colored fruit specialty in Ningbo. In spring every year, the trees bear fruits, farmers pick the waxberries and sell to merchants whose will resell the fruits on markets in eastern China's cities. The delicious waxberry can be eaten as fruit or marinated in sorghum liquor, which is a kind of homemade wine that beneficial to people's health if taken a small glass after dinner.
People
The leisurely speaking tone of local people is like that of outside visitors here, yet Ningbo people are hard at work. Nevertheless they still enjoy their time off, they like tea, seafood and playing basketball. The total population in Ningbo is about 6 million according to a recent survey, of which the vast majority are Han Chinese. The numbers of ethnic minorities in the city have increased around six-fold since 1990. Ningbo people are well-educated and very friendly to foreigners.
Transportation
Ningbo Yuedu Airport has daily flight services to Hong Kong. The air ticket office located 455 Zhongshan East Road that has shuttle buses go to the airport. The railway station is located at the Southern Gate, with frequent air-conditioned trains to Hangzhou and Shanghai. Bus routes nos. 12, 15, 19 and 515 as far as downtown's main attraction - the Tianyi Square. Taxis are very common in the city too.
Geography
Covering an area of 9,365 sq. km, Ningbo is a coastal city in Zhejiang Province, China. It lies on the south of the populous Yangtze River Delta and faces the East China Sea to the east. Ningbo possesses two main mountain ranges within its boundaries, Siming Mountain and Tiantai Mountain. Yuyao, Fenghua and Yongjiang Rivers are flowing through the city area, which as a whole a part of the river system in the province.
Climate
Ningbo enjoys a subtropical monsoon climate featuring high relative humidity and distinctive seasons. July is the hottest month (average daily temperature 29 degrees Celsius) and January the coldest (average daily temperature 4 degrees Celsius). As the frost-free period lasts 230 - 240 days annually it is suitable for the growth of grain, cotton and oil plants. The annual precipitation averages 1,300 to 1,400 mm.
