Ningbo
Introduction
Ningbo City is located in Southeast China, Northeast of the Zhejiang province. Surrounded by sea and mountains and having one of China’s busiest ports, on the Southeast banks of Yangtze River, this city is advanced, developed and even trendy !
Living Prices
Living expenses in Ningbo (like anywhere else in China) depends entirely on the person. Locals survive on 2000 RMB per month but if you like eating steaks, wearing trendy clothes and living in top class apartments don’t expect a cheap city.
Here’s a list of some prices (all prices are RMB, 10RMB=1euro);
- Apartment – 500 to 6000, but between 2000 & 3000 will get a decent apartment
- Steak Dinner – 20 to 100, 20 for local meat & closer to 100 for Aussie & NZ meat
- Fried Rice – 5
- Big Mac Meal - 20
- Taxi Ride (within the city) – 8
- Addidas Runners – 100 for fakes (be prepared to bargain), 500 for the real deal
- Jeans – 550 for Levis or Lee, 50 for local brands
- DVD’s – 8 (quality is inconsistent)
- Beer – 20 for a draft pint, 35 for a bottle of lager in a Chinese up-market night club
To sum it up, in Ningbo if you want to live as cheap as possible; live in the cheapest apartments, eat the local cuisine in side-of-the-road style eateries, wear the cheapest clothes and go to the cheapest bars on the weekends, you will manage on about 5000RMB per month.
However, if you want to enjoy yourself in Ningbo, eat pretty decent food, live in a decent apartment, and not limit yourself to the cheapest bars in the city you will need about 15000RMB per month at your disposal.
Some companies supply apartments, food, health, transport, etc. as benefit packages so if that’s the case you will need less money.
Shopping
Shopping areas include:
TianYi Square (Tian Yi Guan Chang) – Trendy shops and western brands
Gu Lou – Chinese traditional shops, good presents for bringing back home, and a good DVD shop!
Cheng Huang Temple (Cheng Huang Miao) – Cheap local & fake market. Be prepared to bargain when shopping here.
Ego computer market (Located on “Dong Du Lu”) – A pretty decent computer market, selling Laptops, home PC’s, Digital Cameras, flashcards, fax machines, photocopiers, printers, etc.
Carrefour (Jia Le Fu) – Supermarket, here you’ll find everything from daily groceries & cooking equipment to clothes & electronics.
Hymall (Le Gou)– Supermarket, here you’ll find everything from daily groceries & cooking equipment to clothes & electronics.
Metro (Mai De Long) - Supermarket, here you’ll find everything from daily groceries & cooking equipment to clothes & electronics.
Bars
LBB (Located on “Da He Xiang”)– A mainly foreigners bar with a pool table, nothing fancy but a good meeting place for people to start off the night and also to finish the night!
Rating – 7.
Le Cargo (Located in “Lao Wai Tan”) – A French owned café style bar.
Rating – 6.
The Shamrock (Located in “Lao Wai Tan”)– Irish bar, not a bad bar but not very Irish! Get yourself a VIP card and become a regular! –
Rating – 8.
GG bar (Located on “Cai Hong Nan Lu”) – Small Bar.
Rating – 5.
Bourbon Street (Located in “Lao Wai Tan”)– A live foreign band playing every night – worth a visit.
Rating – 7.
Windsor Bar (Located in the Citic International Hotel on “Jiandong Lu”) – a pretty nice western style bar with pool table, darts and shuffleboard. It’s worth a trip but is one of the more expensive bars.
Rating – 7.
Below is a list of Chinese style bars, which are great fun when you first arrive to the city. You go and play some dice games with the bar ladies. The music played in these bars are usually louder than you’ll here in foreign countries. This list does not name every bar in Ningbo, there are bars opening frequently.
King Club (Located in “Lao Wai Tan”)
Parker Bar (Located on “Jie Fang Lu”)
Ala Bar (Located on “Jie Fang Lu”)
MGD (Located on “Jie Fang Lu”)
Barfly (Located at “Tian Yi Guan Chang”)
Half past eight, or “ba dian ban” (Located at “Tian Yi Guan Chang”)
348, or “San Si Ba” (Located at “Tian Yi Guan Chang”)
A8, or “A Ba” (Located on “Kai Ming Jie”)
Dining Out
The best foreign restaurants in Ningbo are:
The Indian (Located in “Lao Wai Tan” behind the Shamrock bar)
The Lebanese (Located on “Zhen Ming Lu”)
Banana Leaf Curry House (Located in “Lao Wai Tan” in front of the Shamrock bar)
Nancy’s Thai (Located on “Zhen Ming Lu”)
There are also plenty of pretty decent restaurants around the Tian Yi Square area and way too many Chinese restaurants to name. Ningbo-ean locals claim the food is the best in China (but so does every other Chinese town!!) and seafood is the most popular dish. You will see locals eating through almost every type of shell!
Transport
Get used to taxis. If you can’t speak Chinese collect as many name cards as possible!
Buses (Ningbo City) – There are many bus routes throughout the city and the greater city. Ask a local after arriving for further information.
Buses (City to City) – Buses depart beside the train station and leave on a regular basis to almost any reasonable destination. Bus times are very unpredictable because you never know in China what road construction will be ongoing or what traffic accidents you may encounter!
Train station (or “Huo Che Zhan”) – Trains from Ningbo to HangZhou & Shanghai leave regularly. Express train to Shanghai takes about 4 hrs, normal trains take up to 6 hrs. HangZhou is 2 hrs traveling. I recommend getting a soft seat wherever you want to go.
Flights – Ningbo LiShe airport (Fei Ji Zhan) is about a 30 min taxi from the city center. The airport has flights to almost all domestic airports in China. HongKong is it’s only international destination. A flight from Ningbo to Shanghai cost around 500 RMB and takes 30 mins.
Climate
Ningbo’s climate is hot in the Summer, 40 degrees Celsius, and gets cold in the Winter.
In the Summer when it gets really hot be prepared to sweat it out, and your apartment will most definitely need an air-conditioning unit. The problem in the winter is that most buildings do not have appropriate insulation (because of the hot summers) and have inadequate central heating systems, so be prepared to wear extra clothes!
HealthCare
By Chinese standards healthcare in Ningbo is not that bad but if there is anything serious it is highly recommended that you look for specialists in Shanghai if not in your home country.
Ningbo No. 1 hospital (Di Yi Ge Yi Yuan) & Ningbo No.6 hospital (Di Liu Ge Yi Yuan) are the better ones in Ningbo.
In China no matter if you have a common cold or if you have serious illness the local doctors will want to put you on a drip. A drip consists of a Salt water mix and the appropriate antibiotics and medicines (depending on your illness). So receiving medical treatment can be a timely process.
Tourism
Ningbo has lots of neighboring beaches and countryside areas that can be of interest for tourists.
Wu Long Tan (or five dragon pool) has some very scenic waterfalls and small pools in a scenic mountain area.
Pu Tuo Shan Island has got some nice beaches, some very historic Chinese temples and a very big Buddhist gold statue; therefore it is worth a visit
For more information on tourism, there is a tourist office in the Center of TianYi Square where leaflets, brochures and general information van be obtained on Tourism in Ningbo and it’s surroundings.
Miscellaneous!
Renting Apartments – When looking for an apartment in a new city in China the easiest way is to go through an estate agent, however they will probably charge up to 60% of a months rent as a finding fee. There are many of these estate agents in Ningbo but Century 21 is probably the most recognized. They will have a pretty standard contract for both landlords and tenants.
Paying Bills – Paying Bills in China is a hassle; all bills will be in Chinese so the chances are you won’t be able to read them. Ways around this are to get your landlord/company to handle paying these bills or find a Chinese girlfriend/boyfriend as quickly as possible!!
Chinese Money – You are not allowed to change money out of RMB unless you have receipts showing where the money came from. So if you should need to exchange money make sure to keep receipts (bank transactions or pay slips).
Some banks in China will not allow foreigners to open bank accounts. Bank of China is the most internationally recognized and they accept most types of credit cards. You should get help with your company / school on the best options available.
Bargaining – When bargaining in China one of the most important things to remember is 25% of the seller’s asking price is a good price to aim for. So take their starting price and you can begin bargaining at 10% of their price, when bargaining progresses at 20% of the price walk away. They should call you back but if they don’t and if you really want to buy the item you’ll have a better idea of the price when you go to the neighboring stall.
Links
Ningbo Guide
Ningbo Ex-Pat
Intouch Magazine, info on Zhejiang province.
Ningbo Today (Local News)
Ningbo Government