10 Days in Ningbo

The walled garden of Tianyi Pavilion, built between 1561 and 1566 by the retired minister Fan Qin, holds what grew to some 70,000 volumes at its Ming peak — the oldest private library surviving in China; the lake beside it makes the afternoon.

1. ningbo tianyi pavilion
2. ningbo yuehu lake

The riverfront opened as a treaty port in 1844, two decades before Shanghai's Bund, its church tower raised in 1872; the Qingan guild hall of 1853 faces the harbour quarter at the confluence of the three rivers.

1. ningbo old bund
2. ningbo sanjiang confluence
3. ningbo qingan guild hall

The Drum Tower marks the Tang-era walled town founded in 821; the afternoon goes to the canal-side food lanes of Nantang, long the market quarter outside the south gate.

1. ningbo gulou
2. ningbo nantang old street

The wooden hall of Baoguo, rebuilt in 1013, is the oldest surviving timberwork of the lower Yangtze; the restored county-seat quarter of Cicheng keeps yamen buildings, a Confucian temple and old lanes to the north.

1. ningbo baoguo temple
2. ningbo cicheng ancient town

Some 20 square kilometres of water about 15 km from town — three times the size of West Lake — with a park gathering the stone figures of Southern Song tomb ways on its shore.

1. ningbo dongqian lake
2. ningbo southern song stones

The Hemudu site, found in 1973, holds the remains of a village of some 7,000 years ago — pile dwellings and early rice — in a museum opened in 1993; in Yuyao, the old residence of the philosopher Wang Yangming (1472-1529) opens its courtyard to visitors.

1. ningbo hemudu site
2. ningbo wangyangming residence

About 40 km west, the river town of Xikou keeps the old family houses of its best-known modern family — visits are of the buildings and their history, plainly told; above it the Xuedou temple area has stood for over a thousand years.

1. ningbo xikou
2. ningbo xuedou mountain

An honestly labelled cross-city day — two hours by road to Zhoushan's Zhujiajian pier, then a short ferry to the island of Putuoshan, the Guanyin pilgrim island, where a 33-m bronze figure was raised in 1997 and three great monasteries work up the hillside.

1. ningbo putuoshan day

Another cross-city day, labelled as such — under an hour by rail to Shaoxing for the former home of the writer Lu Xun (1881-1936), the Song-era Shen garden and the old stone quarries of Donghu.

1. ningbo shaoxing day

Two old monasteries east of the city — Ayuwang, first raised in 282, and Tiantong, begun around the year 300, where the Japanese monk Dogen studied in the 1220s; an evening train or flight closes the trip.

1. ningbo ayuwang temple
2. ningbo tiantong temple