Haishu District 海曙区

History

The area formally became Ningbo's administrative centre in the Eastern Jin, when Liu Yu (刘裕) moved the seat of Gouzhang County (句章县) to Yinjiang (鄞江镇). In 821 the prefect of Mingzhou (明州) moved the prefectural seat to the west bank of Sanjiangkou (三江口, 'three rivers' mouth'), which has been the centre of the city for more than 1,200 years since. Under the Qing the area was the seat of the Ningshaotai circuit (宁绍台道). Zhenming District (镇明区) was merged into Haishu in 1984, and in 2016 the part of Yinzhou west of the Fenghua River was added.

What to see

Haishu holds seven national key protected sites, more than any other county or district of Ningbo. They are the Tianyi Pavilion (天一阁), a private library, with the Qin family ancestral hall (秦氏支祠), the Tashan Weir (它山堰), the Yongfeng storehouse site (永丰库遗址), Tianning Temple (天宁寺), Baiyun Manor (白云庄), the Qianye Guild Hall (钱业会馆), where Ningbo's native banks settled bills, and the Lin residence (林宅). Moon Lake (月湖), in the east of the district, began as a reservoir dug in the Tang and is now a city-level historic conservation area. Tianfeng Pagoda (天封塔) is the landmark of the old city, and Tianyi Square (天一广场) is a major shopping area.

The Tashan Weir at Yinjiang, built in 833 of stacked stone slabs, is a 113.7-metre weir on the Yin River (鄞江). It split the river, holding back the salt tide and storing fresh water that irrigated farmland in Yinxi (鄞西), the western part of old Yin, and flowed into the city, where it formed the Sun and Moon lakes. It was listed as a national key protected site in 1988 and as World Irrigation Heritage in 2015. Yinjiang holds temple fairs for the weir on the third day of the third lunar month, the sixth of the sixth and the tenth of the tenth.

Setting and local stone

Meiyuan stone (梅园石), a pale purplish-grey volcanic tuff, was quarried at Yinjiang. Ningbo Daily reports that a Tianyi Pavilion Museum expert in 2003, and Japanese geologists in 2008, traced to it the stone lions at the south gate of Tōdai-ji in Nara, carved more than 800 years ago by masons from China, some of them from Ningbo.

Getting oriented

Ningbo railway station is in Haishu, on the Hangzhou–Ningbo high-speed line, and Metro Line 1 crosses the district, meeting Line 2 at Gulou (鼓楼站).

Highlights

• Tianyi Pavilion 天一阁: Private library listed as a national key protected site together with the Qin family ancestral hall.
• Tashan Weir 它山堰: Stone weir of 833 at Yinjiang; World Irrigation Heritage since 2015.
• Moon Lake 月湖: Tang-era reservoir, now a city-level historic conservation area.
• Qianye Guild Hall 钱业会馆: Where Ningbo's native banks settled bills; national key protected site.