Ningbo is a harbor city in Zhejiang province and one of China’s most prominent ports. The Ningbo-Zhoushan port is the fifth-largest in the world and the third-busiest in China after Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It is bound by the East China Sea and Zhoushan Archipelago in the east, by Hangzhou Bay in the north, by Shaoxing in the west, and by Taizhou in the south. In 2007, the Hangzhou bay bridge was built, connecting Ningbo with its neighbors. Ningbo has established intermodal rail services that connect it to 13 inland ports. It also has the largest specialized dock for storing liquefied chemical products in China.

Ningbo serves as the economic center for the southern Yangtze River Delta and has been ranked among the most competitive cities in China. The municipal government of Ningbo encourages foreign investment and various multinational corporations (MNCs) have established operations in and around Ningbo. In 2013, Ningbo’s GDP reached US $108.3 billion (RMB 712.89 billion), up 8.1 percent year on year with an annual growth rate of 9.26 percent. Ningbo’s exports totaled US $65.7 billion while imports amounted to US $34.6 billion. The city ranked second in economic performance for Zhejiang province in 2014, trailing only Hangzhou

Ningbo has a sister city relationship with four cities in the U.S. – Wilmington, Delaware (1988), Houston, Texas (2000), Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2006) and Norfolk, Virginia (2013).

Key Industries

Industry dominates Ningbo’s economic activity, contributing to 52.5 percent of its GDP in 2013, while services accounted for 43.6 percent. The industrial sector also registered a growth rate of 8.4 percent year on year to reach a value-added output of US $51.3 billion (RMB 337.8 billion).

Pillar industries in Ningbo are wide-ranging and include textiles, auto parts, iron & steel, power generation, paper-making, plastics, petrochemicals, chemicals, electrical machinery, telecom equipment manufacturing, IT, and port-related industries. The city’s economic activity benefits immensely from its port. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, this port is one of China’s main entry ports for the import of raw materials such as coal, iron ore and petroleum.

Ningbo is also one of China’s oldest cities – its origins date back to the Hemudu culture in 4800 B.C. In 2013, its cultural and historical sites attracted 62.26 million domestic tourists and 1.27 million foreign tourists. This trend has continued to grow and the city received a total of 2.98 million tourists during the one-week Spring Festival holiday in 2015 alone, showing a 5.4 percent increase over the same period in 2014.

As per 2013-2014 estimates, Ningbo was among the fastest growing Chinese metropolitan economies, registering employment and GDP per capita growth rates above the rest of China.