Ningbo, meaning serene waves, or Yong for short, is one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in China and one of the 5 municipalities with independent planning status. It is a megacity entitled to make local legislation, one of the 14 coastal cities further openning up to the outside world and a famous historical and cultural city approved by the State Council in Zhejiang Province.

As a famous historical city, Ningbo is the birthplace of Hemudu culture some 7,000 years ago. In the Qin Dynasty（259-210 B.C.), Yingzheng, the First Emperor, sent Xufu to go overseas for elixir. From the north of Dapeng Mountain in Ningbo, Xufu set out to Japan, but never to return. In the Tang Dynasty, it was the starting point to the Maritime Silk Road and a major port, along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou, for foreign trade. In Song Dynasty, it was one of the three major ports, along with Guangzhou and Quanzhou, to do business with Japan, Korea, Southeast Asian countries and European countries. In the Ming Dynasty (in 1522 A.D.), the Portuguese set up an office in Shuangyu as a transfer dock and distribution center to trade goods, but the office was later destroyed by the Ming forces. Since the mid of 16th century, during the Great Geographical Discovery, Ningbo became one of the largest free-trade ports in the world.

On the 24th year under the reign Emperor Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1685 A.D.), Ningbo became one of the earliest four customs in China, or Zhehai Customs (along with Jiangnan, Minhai and Yuehai Customs). After the Opium War, it was one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing. Moreover, the Siming Mountain Red Revolutionary Base recorded a heroic story about the Chinese people fighting for national independence and liberty. Nowadays, Ningbo is the most economically developed city in Zhejiang Province. As a major port in eastern coastal China, the Port of Ningbo has opened ship routes with more than 600 ports in 216 countries and regions. It is also a component of the pivotal port of China International Shipping Center in Shanghai. Ningbo has a rich culture heritage. Historically, there have been many influential and unique local schools of thoughts in Ningbo, such as Siming, Yaojiang, Zhedong School of thought as well as cultural scholars, for instanc, Yu Shinan, Gao Zecheng, Wang Shouren, Zhu Shunshui, Huang Zongxi, Wan Sitong, Quan Zuwang and Zhang Huangyan. Ningbo also has a long history of collecting books with a large number of towers each collecting thousands of scrolls of books.

With a history of 400 years, Tianyi Chamber is the oldest existing book-collecting tower in China, one of the oldest existing libraries in Asia and one of the three earliest and biggest family libraries in the world. Established in Ming Dynasty by Fan Qin, a then retired military minister. In 1772, Emperor Qianlong declared the order to edit and write the Si Ku Quan Shu, or Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature. In response, Fan Maozhu, a descendant of Fan Qin, contributed 638 sorts of books, so Emperor Qianlong ordered to plan and build Tianyi Chamber to store one branch of the Si Ku Quan Shu, making it known all over the country. Since Ming and Qing Dynasty, the learned men have been proud of getting in the Tianyi Chamber to read books. It is one of the master pieces of China’s book-collecting towers.

The Buddhism is also very popular in Ningbo. A famous line of poem well depicts what the Tiantong Temple, one of the top five temples of Chan Buddhism, is like: walking some 10 kilometers deep into the pine woods, you will see a looming temple between green mountains. Asoka Temple keeps the Buddhist relics of Sakyamuni while Xuedou Mountain where the Maitreya Buddha temple is located is one of the top five buddhist mountains in China. Baoguo Temple is the oldeset wooden structure building in the southern reaches of the Yangtse River and one of the first batch of key cultural relics under state protection.

Ningbo not only boasts beautiful landscape, but abounds in varied resources and natural produce, in particular the “Four Fragrance”, or the fragrance of rice, fish, book and ink. Its major specialties include sea food, dry seafood, special foods, seasonal fruit, traditional handicrafts and clothing. The seafood in Ningbo is particularly fresh and tasty in that it is located in the estuary of Yangtze River to East China Sea with a long coastline. Ningbo is one of the major regions in China producing various sorts of seafood, such as Yellow croaker, ribbon fish, cuttlefish, grouper, sweet fish, mudskipper, conger eel, swimming crab, prawn, boold clam, Chinese razor clam, oysters, snail, mussel, jelly fish, green moss. Among the dry seafood, the most famous ones are shark's fin, sea cucumber, dried salted yellow croakers, red paste spicy crab, snail, dried shrimps, abalone, dried small shrimps, fresh air eel, jellyfish, kelp, roasted and sliced squid. The Ningbo residents are accustomed to sending these seafood as gifts to friends and families. The Tangyuan, or rice dumplings, and boiled glutinous rice balls in fermented glutinous rice are among the most famous Chinese snacks! Ningbo is also home to many Chinese compatriots, some 4.3 million local people residing in more than 50 countries and regions. Overseas Ningbo community has become a very important bond connecting Ningbo with other parts of the world. As one of the four business communities (Jin, Hui, Yong and Yue), the world-renowned Ningbo community has played a significant role in China and the world at large economically, culturally and scientifically. Just as Dr. Sun Yat-sen said, “the Ningbo community has a major influence on trade and business at home and abroad.”

Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of reform and opening up in China, once made a statement, calling on the overseas Ningbo community unite together to build a prosperous Ningbo. Under such appeal, the Ningbo community at home and abroad were inspired and have contributed a lot to the reform and modernization drive in Ningbo over the past 30 years. Those contributions, alas, are clear testament to the care, toil and sweat of the Ningbo community.