Tianyi Square 天一广场

About Tianyi Square

Tianyi Square (天一广场) is a shopping complex built around a large open square in central Ningbo (宁波), in Haishu District (海曙区) near Sanjiangkou (三江口).

The complex fills the block between Zhongshan East Road (中山东路), Kaiming Street (开明街), Yaohang Street (药行街) and Rixin Street (日新街) and was completed in October 2002. Zhongshan Road, one of its boundaries, follows the main street laid out in 821, when the seat of Mingzhou (明州) moved to Sanjiangkou. The whole site covers 220,000 square metres and was designed by the American firm Madasiban (马达思班) with the Ningbo Architectural Design and Research Institute (宁波市建筑设计研究院). The design brought the complex a China Architectural Art Award (中国建筑艺术奖), presented in April 2004.

At the centre is a 35,000-square-metre square with 6,000 square metres of ornamental water, a musical fountain and a large water screen on which films are projected; English Wikipedia gives the fountain a height of 40 metres and the screen 20 by 60 metres, and counts 22 European-style buildings around the square. The shops, more than 300 of them, are grouped into ten commercial zones selling clothing, household goods and digital products, with restaurants and entertainment. Liu Xiaoliang (刘晓亮), a staff member of the Zhongshan Road renovation project, told Zhejiang Online that the square is like Ningbo's reception room.

The Church of the Assumption (宁波圣母升天堂), the Catholic church at 116 Yaohang Street, stands in the square. A French Jesuit missionary first built a church inside Lingqiao Gate (灵桥门) in 1701; the building took its present name when it was rebuilt in 1865 to 1866. Between 1995 and 2000 it was rebuilt again for the square's construction and moved 40 metres north. The present church mixes Romanesque and Gothic forms, seats 1,000, has a 66-metre bell tower topped by a stainless-steel cross, and keeps the bell of the old church. Dongmenkou (Tianyi Square) Station (东门口（天一广场）站) on Ningbo Metro Line 1, which opened in 2014, is on the north side of the square.

What to look for

• The central square with its 6,000 square metres of ornamental water and musical fountain
• Films projected on the water screen beside the fountain
• The Church of the Assumption (宁波圣母升天堂), with its 66-metre bell tower and doors and windows patterned with Bible stories
• Ten commercial zones with more than 300 shops around the square
• Zhongshan East Road (中山东路), the line of Ningbo's main street since 821, on one edge of the complex

Location & getting there

Getting to Tianyi Square

• Search for 天一广场 with 宁波市 and 海曙区.