Trip to NingBo

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So much like the trip to Suzhou, Ningbo was on my list of places to go see. Of course I didn’t realize I’d have to pack in so many places in such a short time but still an adventure is an adventure. And it just so happened that when I was covering for people at Wulin I had the same weekend days off as Rebecca so we went off on another adventure together before I left.

We had decided that we’d catch a super early train (it’s the weekend no one gets up before 11am on their days off, let alone my working days haha) and therefore caught the 8am train to Ningbo from Hangzhou East station. My public transport was super slow and the Hangzhou East station is a bit further away than the usual Hangzhou station so we had our first crazy moment of the day running to catch the train because we nearly missed it. Now before we left I researched and double checked where we would be leaving the station at Ningbo in order to work out which bus we’d need to get in order to reach the city center and then work our way to the sights from there. On the map of Ningbo there is only one clear train station and that is Ningbo East. Now I’m certain that when I booked/looked up the tickets that, that was the station we would be getting off at. It turns out as we found out on the way home that in fact we were dropped off and picked up at Ningbo South station. Thankfully the tourist information booklet that I had produced and printed off had some of the bus numbers that were at the train station and we worked our plans from that.

Now there’s not actually that much to see in Ningbo unless you go to the outer limits of the city and that’s only really feasible if you have a car. But there was still some stuff to visit and most importantly for the geographer in me seeing where 3 of Chinas rivers met before going off into the China sea.

We started off by walking along the river to try find the spot where it was best to view the three rivers converging but it was being constructed on so we stumbled across a gorgeous Catholic church instead. We stopped off for an early lunch at a Eurdoras where their sign told us ‘no chess games’ I had no idea that chess was just a violent sport haha. We decided to walk to one of the tourist visiting places and managed to stumble across the ‘pedestrian street’ which is similar to Hefang street in Hangzhou, full of tourist shops with Knick Knacks. In the park nearby there were large groups of pensioners doing karaoke and playing games.

Our first stop was to Tianyi Pavilion which is held within Chinas oldest private library. Tianyi Pavilion was built in 1561 in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The founder of this library was called Fan Qin, who had been appointed as an official in several cities around China. Having a liking for books, Fan Qin collected local annals, records about jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination held in the palace under the emperor's supervision) of various dynasties and contemporary anthologies. Books given by Fan's friends and handwritten copies of books were an important part of the collection. Thanks to his efforts, the library already had 70,000 volumes at the time of his death. The library has amassed a collection of 300,000 volumes, 80,000 of which are rare books. There were some amazing pieces of literature within the rooms. Although my best find was a spider sat upon one of the books inside an air tight glass case. Baffled yeah me too. There was also a sign that made me and Rebecca giggle stating “Sloppily dressed people, alcoholics or mental disorders should not get into Northern Book storehouse”. The place gave off a very tranquil feel and of course had some places within it that required well screamed cheesy photo at them. And I finally found a place to hide amongst the bamboo for the photo I’ve been waiting to have taken for ages. When in China its completely necessary to be a Ninja ok.

After we had finished at the Library we walked along one of the side streets and came across a pond which had these islands of plants that were moving about freely. It made me think of ‘The day of the Tryphids’ I tried to take a video but they seemed to know and were very still. We walked towards the lake that was in-between the library and the Pagoda we were going to visit and were immediately distracted and in awe of the pedlo boats that they had there. So we purchased 30mins in the pedlo and toured around, it was a great laugh especially trying to work out the Chinese symbols for steering the boat which was like a stick drive car. And even when I’d gotten hang of it I still went the wrong way a few times, but yeah it was good fun and we even did a 360 sing a long spin of the lake to one of the F1 songs we sing at work.

After the lake we headed towards the Tianfeng pagoda which was positioned next to a shopping market mall which we perused around for a while. On the way Rebecca went into a Cathedral that we came across whilst I waited outside and whilst in there was told not to take pictures when there were Chinese tourists doing exactly that but being ignored. There is defiantly a resounding rule for the locals and rules for foreigners in and around China and sometimes it gets extremely frustrating. If I’d have been in there I would have likely kicked off at that point. I’m beginning to get into that mind set with smokers in public places, especially elevators currently. I think the ban in the UK is the best thing that’s happened in a while. There is a ban here but it’s in no shape or form enforced at all. By that time that I was super tired. The stairs inside the pagoda got smaller and tighter going up the floors. On the way up I found some great examples of Chinglish which coincided with some of the lessons I’ve been teaching about ordinal numbers 1^st-12^th. I’ve included some photos to show you what I mean. With a height of about 51 meters (167 feet), this hexagonal building is a landmark and the tallest ancient structure in the city. The guide states that “It appears as a seven-storey tower with another seven stories underground” Not overly convinced about this as the floor you enter in is called the 1^st floor. It’s renowned for its long history, architectural value and ancient artifacts.

The tower was first built in 695 in the Tang Dynasty (618-907); hence it is also known as the Tang Pagoda. Since then, the pagoda had been destroyed and reconstructed on many occasions from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) to the Qing Dynasty (1644--1911). The current tower was built in 1989. Guarded by a male and a female stone lion on the two sides, it is surrounded by a red wall, ready to tell people its long history, which reminds me of the massive dragon that winds its way around the Yu gardens in Shanghai.

The train back wasn’t until 8pm because we didn’t know how long it would take to get around the city as they don’t have a metro system in place currently, and therefore after the Pagoda we had some time to kill. We headed for the Burger King we passed near the Cathedral. As I walked in I looked behind to notice that Rebecca was still outside bent over in laughter, it wasn’t until she had calmed down and pointed to the sign on the door did I find out why. One of the new summer drinks is translated into PooPoo basically meaning Mango and foam something or another. After a well deserved burger and icecream we headed for the river bank and watched some Chinese dancers and kite flyers. Futher along the river bank we came across a sign that stated 'no jumping' of course a sign like that in the middle of nowhere to make any sense of has to be abused. There are some amazing time lapse photos taken in sports mode on my camera of us jumping. Hey come on China you kinda let yourself in for that one. The one memory that I hope will forever stick in my head from my adventures with Rebecca happened when we were trying to find the bus back to the train station, We were casually walking down the street when I noticed that the bus we needed was about to stop a few feet from where we were, I shouted something like ‘Quick Rebecca’ and headed onboard the bus only to turn around and see Rebecca glued to the railings the other side of the street thinking I was telling her to get out of the way of the cyclists that had been passing her. Her face was a picture and so was the pose. I don’t think anyone will match the great adventures that I’ve had with her and I will treasure the memories when I eventually move. I’ve been saying that when I move I’ll be comparing those adventures with the ones we’ve had saying things like ‘aww now Rebecca would have done something silly right then’ or ‘Now that was a defiant Rebecca moment’

I look forward to organizing a trip to see her in Georgia in the future, mainly as I’ve told her before because she lives near Atlanta where The Walking Dead is filmed.

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Photos

In the pedlo
Managed to get the camera propped up enough for a quick shot without losing it in the lake

No Jumping
A very random sign that needed abusing

Public Library
A vending machine for books