Catch Ningbo seafood and sights

It is always a pleasure to discover a new place little by little, savoring it with a lot of walking, stopping for snacks, ducking into interesting buildings, chatting with locals, and eating more snacks.

Ningbo is such a place.

Mention Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, and most people think of the sea, seafood and snacks. But the city also has forested scenery, a developed economy and quite a few tourist destinations.

"Ningbo is a leisure tourist destination, with high tourist satisfaction," said Chen Gang, deputy director of the Ningbo Tourism Bureau.

Officials claim the coastal city has been ranked No. 3 among 60 cities nationwide for several seasons on a "tourist satisfaction index" by China Tourism Academy.

Last year more than 62 million domestic tourists and 1.27 million foreign tourists visited Ningbo, which has 5.8 million residents in the greater metropolitan area and 2.3 in the main urban area.

It is not hard to understand why tourists feel satisfied. The streets are clean and the air is fresh. People aren't rushing about and talking fast. They like to take it easy in a tea house or restaurant, enjoying tea, seafood and a good life.

In this special issue, Shanghai Daily collects the best spots in the urban and suburban areas and provides travel details so readers can arrange a trip.

In Urban Area

Nantang Old Street

Many Chinese cities feature historic streets but most are filled with stores selling souvenirs, silk scarves and "stinky" tofu. Not Nantang Old Street, which is clean, not too crowded and features nicely decorated restaurants, cafes and other spots.

Bounded by Nantang Canal on the west, it is crossed by an arched stone bridge near the southern entrance. Built in 2011, it is basically a food street where you can check out all the options before you gorge.

Let's start from the west entrance. The first two stores on the left and right are pastry shops.

On the right side, it sells xiekehuang, or yellow crab shell, a fluffy sesame-coated pastry filled with pickled vegetables. It doesn't contain crab but looks like a shell.

The snack is popular in Shanghai as well as Ningbo and that's a testament to the two cities' close relations. When Shanghai opened as commercial port more than a century ago, many Ningbo people moved there. No wonder the dialects of the two cities are so similar.

A shop on the opposite side sells qiancengbing or thousand-layer cookie, a flaky pastry coated with white sesame and seaweed nori powder — nori is a city specialty. It's green and salty. In front of the store, a line of ovens shows how the seaweed squares are first baked before they are powdered.

Nori is used in another Ningbo signature snack — youzanzi, a deep-fried dough twist. It's sold from street stalls and if you keep walking 10 meters, you'll probably see a line of people, money in hand, walking away with bags of youzanzi.

In other Chinese cities, similar twist pastry is larger and called mahua, but Ningbo-style youzanzi are small, around a palm's length. Nori is mixed with the flour so the stir-fried twist is more savory than greasy. There's also a sweet twist made with sugar and without nori.

Ningbo people love the twists and in the 20-square-meter store you can see a dozen workers sitting around a low table, continuously rolling and twisting the dough. Two of them fry the dough in two huge pots. One fellow takes the customers' money.

Even so, the place is so popular that each buyer is limited to 20 yuan's (US$3.22) worth of salty and another 20 yuan's worth of sweet twists. One bag costs 10 yuan.

Keep walking. A wonton store is a great place for a bowl of hot soup to go with the pastry you just bought. Or you can choose xiaolongbao, small steamed buns. The eatery also offers corn-and-meat buns, and the corn is famously sweet.

Caution: never bite right into xiaolongbao, or hot juice and oil from the meat filling will squirt you, or someone nearby. Just bite a corner, put it in a dish with vinegar, let the juice ooze out and let some vinegar in. Enjoy it bit by bit.

After the wonton shop, you will pass a congee vendor and some pastry stores. Don't miss Wu's mianjie — a bowl of soup containing a roll of pork wrapped in beancurd.

Keep on going and try another snack you cannot find anywhere else in the world, mimantou (rice buns). These are steamed buns made from rice powder, not flour, so they are more glutinous than the usual mantou and slightly sweet. They can be served hot or cold and Ningbo people like to coat it with nori power and sugar.

Now walk a little further and get your camera ready for another rice-based dessert, pearl balls, or zhenzhu tangyuan. These are steamed balls of red bean paste pudding made with white glutinous rice flour. They look like pingpong ball-sized crystal balls made of mochi rice, chewy and sticky.

There's also a special Ningbo-style tangyuan, a sweet dumpling made from glutinous rice flour and typically boiled. The store also sells traditional tangyuan, which are rather sweet.

After hitting the food stalls and shops, you probably won't have the appetite for a proper meal at a proper restaurant. Take a look at the posted picture menus instead and make plans for a return trip. Before leaving, pick up some snacks for friends and colleagues.

Tip: It's a 5-minute drive from Ningbo Train Station, and a nice way to start your trip after you check into your hotel.

Time: It takes around an hour to walk down the length of the street, but you can take your time, stopping in a restaurant, cafe or tea house.

Ningbo Museum

Many cities have their own museums, but Ningbo's museum is a landmark and a work of art. It is one of the signature works of architect Wang Shu, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2012 for his body of work. He was the first Chinese to win the prestigious award.

There are no sweeping expanses of glass or concrete. The museum is "piled up" from recycled bricks and tiles — Wang's style. It's not regular or smooth. The wall texture is rough, bricks and tiles are unpainted. Some walls are aslant at odd angles. There's no organized pattern of windows, but squares of different sizes are embedded seemingly at random.

When it opened in 2008, locals called it a "bizarre, giant thing" and they lined up day after day to view it inside and out. Today it is Ningbo's pride.

The design concept is a combination of mountain, water and ocean — all part of Ningbo. The East China Sea especially has been crucial in the history of Ningbo, a trading city. The museum focuses on area history and traditional customs.

The building starts to "tilt" on the second floor, giving the whole structure the feeling of a mountain or a boat. It refers to the geography as well as the city's seafaring history.

The outer walls are made in two ways. Some are built using millions of old bricks and tiles collected in the area. In the old days, some houses were built in this fashion, with meticulous placement of stone and without cement. Other walls are cement bearing bamboo patterns.

The main exhibit on the second floor covers the history of the Ningbo area, which dates back more than 5,000 years, to the present day.

Exhibits feature ancient cultures, expansion of the city, overseas trade, the development of the Eastern Zhejiang Scholars literary group and the modern Ningbo Commercial Group. Many artifacts, models and old photos are displayed. The third floor contains an exhibition about folk customs as well as intangible cultural heritage. Wax models, building reproductions and technology are used to recreate a traditional commercial street.

Address: 1000 Shounanzhong Rd, Yinzhou District

Admission: Free

Opening hours: 9am-4pm (closed on Mondays)

Time: Quick tour takes an hour.

How to get there: Taxi from city center costs around 25 yuan.

Lao Waitan

Note: This is not "laowai tan," something for "laowai." It's Lao Waitan or the Old Bund, like Shanghai's "waitan" but older. In fact, this is China's oldest "waitan" or bund. It is also the old foreign concession area from Ningbo's days as a treaty port in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Today it is still connected with foreigners since it has been designed as a restaurant and entertainment district. It's a pleasant place to spend evenings, with everything from an Irish pub to Indian cuisine along its cobblestone streets. There's also a 17th century Catholic church.

On the bank of the Yong River, Lao Waitan contains many international-style bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants. It is a favorite gathering place of the city's expat community.

Among others, The Shamrock Pub and Office Bar often televises sports events and it contains pool tables.

Another spot, Miss Bar, features a talented guitarist these days. The Studio and Bass Clef offer live music, while Le Cargo and Wonderland are often the last stops of the night for some dancing.

For a relaxed, up-market night in Lao Waitan, try the Constellation Bar, an American-styled cocktail bar with wait staff formally dressed, wearing bow ties and white gloves.

Across the river from Lao Waitan, Heyi Avenue provides an alternative for an evening out. In addition to international cafes, bars and restaurants, it has a number of bars alongside Ningbo's dancing fountains.

A number of venues offer outdoor seating in warm weather, making for a perfect evening.