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I returned from my visit to Ningbo in China yesterday afternoon with all good intentions in the world to do a post last night, but 31 hours of traveling and sitting in airports took its toll and I passed out before even switching the computer on.

Over the next week or so I will do a series on Ningbo and its sights and attractions. Today is just an introductions and the description of Ningbo is thanks to Wikipedia.

Ningbo (literally meaning “Tranquil Waves”) is a seaport with sub-provincial administrative status. The city and surrounding areas have a population of over 5 000 000 and is situated in northeastern Zhejiang province in 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.

Ningbo is one of China’s oldest cities with a history dating back to 4800 B.C. the Hemudu culture. Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk route at least 2000 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. 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 10 October 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.

“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.

Nelson Mandela Bay (of which Port Elizabeth forms part of) has a twinning agreement with Ningbo.