Ningbo boasts a long history. It is the birthplace of the "Neolithic Hemudu Culture" dating back more than 7,000 years. It has been a well-known key port for foreign trade ever since ancient time, ranked with Yangzhou and Guangzhou as the three biggest ports for foreign trade in Tang Dynasty and with Guangzhou and Quanzhou in Song Dynasty. After the First Opium War, Ningbo was opened as one of the five commercial ports linking to the outside world. Nowadays, Ningbo port has become one of the most important ports in China. Its container throughput of the port reached 14.51 million TEUs, ascending to the 6th place all over the world..

Partly owing to the advantaged conditions，the social economy of Ningbo has been developed rapidly since opening up to the outside world. Ningbo has become an important industrial city and foreign trade port in East China, a key city and chemical industrial base in Yangtze River Delta and an economic center of Zhejiang Province.

Ningbo is characterized by the subtropical monsoon climate featuring mild temperature, moderate humidity and distinctive seasons. The city is an ideal tourist place with culture monuments and historical sites.

By the year 2012, Ningbo will be developed into an international port city featuring modernization, socialization, with strong economic strength, further opening, advanced science and culture, enjoying comfortable life, fine social morality and beautiful environment.

Foreign Trade & Economy
As a historical port city for foreign trade, Ningbo became one of the three ports for foreign trade in China as early as the 7th century. In 2011, the import and export trade volume of Ningbo amounted to 98.19 billion USD, an 18.4% increase from a year earlier, among which the export trade volume rose to 60.83 billion USD with a rise of 17.1% from last year, and the import part expanded at an annualized 20.8% to 37.36 billion USD.