Visiting Ningbo
This year we had 8 days off for the combined holiday of Mid-Autumn Festival + National Week, and I was thinking about where to go. For a while I considered travelling to Guilin and Yangshuo, an area in the south of China with beautiful landscapes, but I was scared it would be too crowded considering that everybody would travel within China this year. So I settled for Ningbo, a city on the coast that is only a 3.5 hours drive for Suzhou.
Ningbo is not exactly a tourist destination. It’s mainly known as one of China’s busiest cargo ports, and apart from that I didn’t know anything about it. Turns out it’s also one of the oldest cities in China! There’s a Neolithic site nearby, although we didn’t go there. It also has several other places of interest, like the oldest private library in the country and a popular history museum. Plus, its seafood is very well known! It is also a vibrant and dynamic city, or so it seemed to me, with lots of young people, and it’s surrounded by lush mountains that I could even see from the hotel room.
We went there by car and traffic was very fluid, considering it was a national holiday. It seems not many people were travelling in the direction of Ningbo! After doing the check in at the hotel, we went for a stroll around the area. There was a Catholic cathedral (which accepted donations through WeChat and Alipay, of course!), a big square surrounded by lots of shops and restaurants and, after crossing the river, another small Catholic church and an area known as the Old Bund. Yes, Bund as in Shanghai! It turns out, Ninbo was one of the first cities to become an expat hub, a couple of centuries ago! The Old Bund is now a very lively street full of bars and there is also a very good Italian restaurant where we had dinner.
The Ningbo Cathedral.
Tianyi Square.
Catholic church with Chinese characteristics.
On our second day it was raining. Boooh! I love rain, but not when I’m on holidays! We took the chance to visit the Ningbo Museum. There was a very long line at the entrance, but it was quite fast and we were inside after just 15 minutes waiting. Entrance was free although you need to register your information on their WeChat miniapp. Oh, and foreigners needed to do a separate registration and fill a form at the entrance. I guess this is done as a “service”, to contact you asap in case there was a covid-19 case in the museum, but I felt singled out! Oh, and I also found out that foreigners cannot register and use the mobile payment on buses. That was not cool, Ningbo! After the museum, we had a lunch of the famous Ningbo seafood at a very popular restaurant.
The Ningbo museum.
The next day we visited the Moon Lake park and Tianyige, which is the old library that I mentioned before. However, the place doesn’t really look like a library, it was similar to the Suzhou gardens. The park was very nice, it had a lake in the middle where you could rent a boat, old houses (Chiang Kai-Sek lived in one of them, it seems) and a playground where we did the compulsory pit stop for Baby A.
The Moon Lake park.
On our final day, we visited what used to be a temple but is now an ancient architecture museum, in the suburbs of Ningbo. It was called Baoguo Temple and was perched on top of a hill. The security guard in the parking lot told us it was not a good idea to bring the stroller, and Baby A. was a good boy and went up and down all the stairs by himself!
Climbing up the stairs…
Feeding the fish.
And those were our holidays! I’ve been so busy with work this past week that I already forgot the feeling of not having anything to do!
That sounds like a pretty good holiday, especially with a toddler.
Actually, going on any kind of trip sounds fabulous. We are still pretty restricted, thanks to the incompetent federal response to COVID.
Yes! I have to say, China screwed at the beginning but they got their act together very quickly. We’ve been able to have a normal life for months now (albeit with masks).
Sounds like a very nice holiday getaway, Marta. I love the architecture, especially the blend of western and Chinese around the cathedral. Glad you enjoyed your travels. Just wait until Baby A decides he can take all those stairs faster than you can. :-)
Thank you! Haha, I hope that moment doesn’t come too soon!
Wonderful photos, such a beautiful Cathedral. Also, enjoyed the Moon Lake Park. Glad you are still blogging, so we know what is going on in “your world.” :)
Thank you! I’m extremely busy with the new job but I want to keep blogging! That is, if I find topics to share, haha. I don’t have a lot of inspiration lately!
I went through a phase of lack of inspiration too, but I blog with my friend and we agreed that we would post “once a week.” So, somehow I ALWAYS think of something. It’s good, it keeps me writing and connected. YOU TOO… hey, you haven’t written about any movies or books you’ve seen/read lately. Always enjoy that. Do you celebrate Halloween?
Halloween wasn’t really a thing when I was a child (we had Carnival in February). But this year we are planning to go to a Halloween party! I’m already preparing my costume and I’m very excited hahaha.
Ok… waiting to see it!! :)
Looks lovely. It’s nice that we can explore and get to know the countries we are living in. I know Thailand is trying to encourage local tourism. Take care, xo
Yes, domestic tourism is the way to go! International travel will have to wait… Who knows for how long.
I know. With second waves hitting Europe, we’ve talked about June 2021 as a possibility. Crazy, right?
That wouldn’t even be so bad, considering how things look right now… I just hope I can attend my brother’s wedding at the end of May!
It’s worthwhile to avoid what everyone else is doing. Ningbo looks like a good place to spend the holiday–a beautiful cathedral, a peaceful lake, and fish to feed.
Doesn’t Ningbo have a connection to the Jewish community in China?
Uh, I’m not sure, I didn’t see anything about that in the museum! I do know Shanghai took on a lot of Jewish refugees during WWII though!
I think you made the right decision not going south for the holidays; so many people. But Ningbo looks really lovely – what a great place to visit. Thanks for the tour Marta – I am positive I never went there as don’t recall any of the sights.
Well, to be honest I wouldn’t recommend it as a must-go, but if you’re nearby… you can take a look, haha.
This sounded like a peaceful getaway in Ningbo. The cathedral looks magnificent and the museum looks quite unique from the outside. Sometimes all you need is a quiet, maybe almost boring holiday to relax.
Especially with a small child now, all I can aspire to is a quiet holiday, hahaha!
Nice post. I went to Ningbo many years ago on a tour (6 days, 5 cities) but I didn’t see much. We only went to a temple that was the city’s most famous one. Your post here makes the city seem much more interesting, and the museum and cathedral look quite attractive.
Hi! I’m based in US but am a long term frequent visitor to Ningbo (or at least was, pre-COVID)! Looks to me like you did well hitting many of the high points. Curious that they are restricting foreigner access to bus/Metro passes. I have one … wonder if it has been cancelled?
Yes, the Ningbo “bund” dates back to the time when Ningbo also had an “extraterritorial” treaty port. To this day there is competition between the Shanghai and Ningbo seaports, and Ningbo gets a fair amount of shipping business from its own turf as well as the rest of Zhejiang province.
I’ve visited the neolithic site — it’s pretty interesting, too, though it takes more than a 1 hour drive so probably reasonable to omit it from the first priority list. best……… Brad
Hi Brad, thanks for your comment! Yes, I used to work in the manufacturing industry and most of our shipping containers went and came through Ningbo! I was under the the impression that its port was way busier than Shanghai’s.
Oh, foreigners are not restricted on buses and metro! It’s just that for some reason we cannot register and use the mobile payment app. I’m sure the physical pass is totally fine!