When You Make It to Ningbo…

Ningbo sits staring across Hangzhou Bay at her tawdry sister Shanghai, more than a little jealous of her glitz and brand-recognition. And despite Ningbo’s trove of cultural treasures, Hangzhou steals most of the regional thunder as a city of cultivation and scenic splendor.

So like a talented but overlooked middle child, Ningbo works diligently and clamors for attention. The economic numbers speak for themselves, but the average expat not living there won’t get to Ningbo until after seeing her two glory-stealers. When you do go, give yourself enough time to enjoy our five favorite Ningbo attractions.

Tianyi Pavilion Library

No musty book storage building (okay, maybe a little musty), this private library is over four hundred years old, the oldest in Asia. It’s also a fantastically peaceful sanctuary from the industrious buzz of Ningbo proper, a manicured ramble of gardens, steles, and shady pavilions stretched along Moon Lake.

The hoi polloi get a gander of the archives, brittle old scrolls under glass, before heading off to take in the architecture. Scholars, on the other hand, rightly appreciate the good fortune of having so many ancient texts close to hand, despite the ravages of more than four hundred years.

The good fortune is largely due to one Fan Qin, super-scholar turned imperial governor, who retired from public life at fifty five, bought some property on Moon Lake, and began collecting all the books he could get his hands on. Other rich men did the same, but chased secret writings and rare novels. Fan Qin, on the other hand, valued local chronicles, which amused his peers but has gratified generations of researchers since.

He didn’t just leave his books lying around willy nilly, either. A student of the Yi Jing, Fan Qin built around the principles of one, the number of fire-quenching water, and six, a number to make libraries and other labors thrive. The two numbers apply to everything at the library from bookcases to gables on roofs. His great-grandson improved vastly on the grounds, keeping in tact Fan Qin’s two wishes: respect for one and six, and never letting anyone take the books away as private property.

The numerology seems to have worked its magic. Tens of thousands of valuable old texts, including the reveredSi Ku Quan Shu, emperor Qian Long’s epic encyclopedia, are on display and available to researchers. You probably won’t be taking any notes, but you’ll definitely leave enlightened, revitalized, and with a sense of perspective on the million and one boutiques that make up the rest of Ningbo.

Tiantong Temple

Don’t say you tire of temples until you’ve had an eyeful of this one. Crawling up the serene lap of Taibai Mountain, Tiantong is a contender in all categories of temple virtue, age (built in 300 CE), scale (730 rooms spread over 58,000 square meters) and tranquil surroundings (it’s part of Tiantong National Forest).

Thick woods and bamboo groves stand sentry around twenty-odd ancient buildings where the founders of Chan Buddhism were chanting before Constantine saw crosses in the sky. Not until the Song Dynasty did the temple reach its peak of 999 halls, pavilions, and towers, and the name of Dong Nan Fo Guo, South East Country of Buddhism.

Sadly, little of anything older than the Ming Dynasty remains, blame resting on the massive flood which swept all away in 1587. Warfare and other strife prevented the temple from reaching its former heights, but it’s still a wonder of a three-hour stroll, this venerable city of peace floating up the mountain through some of the most beautiful forest in China.

Xikou Town

Had Mao and company tired of Long Marching, this place would have gotten a lot more traffic in the past sixty years. It’s the birthplace of Chiang Kai-Shek. Then again, long before Chiang and Mao got to squabbling, the Maitreya Buddha performed his transcendental rites here, for all the attention he was paid during China’s troubled times. Then yet again, the town abuts Xuedou Hill and Tingxia Lake, a preserve of quiet natural beauty.

It all makes for an esoteric combo of tourist sites and attractions, at least a day’s worth of gadding about, photo-taking, and wondering what’s on for the next meal. The thirty five kilometer trek southwest from Ningbo City is best undertaken relatively early in the morning, as you’ll want two or three hours in town, a nice lunch, and then the shank of the afternoon on the hill or lake.

Chiang Kai-Shek’s family seat, and the Chiang’s Yutai salt shop are interesting as much for their peek into pre-liberation Chinese life as for being where China’s runner-up ruler entered this world. Elsewhere in town, the Wuling Gate Tower, Xikou Museum, and Pavilion of the Supreme Educator round out the cultural edification.

Xuedou Waterfall

At six hundred meters, Xuedou might not be worthy of the “mountain” label, butit’s definitely a whole heap of hiking fun. The two-hundred meter Qianzhang waterfall is a sensual reward after traipsing about the Miaogao Tearrace and Xufu Crag, and crossing the Yangzhi Bridge. Best of all is the prospect of the Ningbo city lights on the trip home, and renewed respect for the amenities a big city affords.

Yonju Opera

Sure it counts as a destination. You can catch a show at Ningbo’s Grand Theater, or the Yi Fu Theater. Then when some wannabe Sinophile starts enthusing about Peking Opera, you can one-up with your experience of a much rarer form of Chinese stage performance.

Although stylized and symbolic as all stage performance must be, Yongju isn’t nearly as esoteric and rigidly structured as its Peking analogue. Its been around since the Qing Dynasty, undergoing name changes and becoming progressively less formal to its current incarnation, launched in 1950.

So what you won’t see at a Yongju opera are a lot of outlandish costumes and plodding mythic story lines. The operas are much more attuned to the drama of domestic life, as names such as “Mother Gets Remarried” and “Borrowing a Wife” indicate. The roles allow for flexibility, so that the personality of not only individual characters but the actors who play them can really shine through.

Have a look before you go. If the Mandarin sounds especially incomprehensible, that’s the authentic Ningbo dialect.

Lao Waitan

As a twenty first century consumer creature, you need your retail venue disguised as cultural milieu. Tianyi Square has its bustling charm, and Gulou its seedy delights, but Lao Waitan is the premier shopper-tourist destination. It sits by the river, with all the romantic, water-gazing, over priced F&B business that entails. And, like Houhai, it has been eviscerated and remodeled in sanitary, consumer-friendly form. But the combination of treaty-port era architecture, complete with cobblestone streets and old churches, mixed with restaurants from steak house to Mexican, will draw your disposable income as ineluctably as a magnet draws iron.

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