Tianyi Pavilion · Moon Lake Scenic Area
China's oldest extant private library; a national key protected cultural site and a national 5A-level scenic area (the combined Tianyi Pavilion · Moon Lake area)
Visitor info
- Opening hours
- 08:30-17:30 (closed Monday afternoons)
- Ticket
- CNY 30
Price is indicative — final quote on inquiry.
China's oldest extant private library, a national key protected cultural site and a national 5A-level scenic area (the combined Tianyi Pavilion · Moon Lake area). The route runs Baoshu Tower — Tianyi Pool — Dongming Cottage — Mahjong Origin Museum — Qin Clan Ancestral Hall, with book and building united and garden and residence as one; its fire-prevention and ventilation design subtly embodies the notion "heaven-one gives birth to water". Built by Fan Qin, Right Vice Minister of War, after retiring to his hometown during the Ming Jiajing reign (from about 1561); he dug the pool against fire, drawing on the Book of Changes' idea that "heaven-one gives birth to water". Fan family rules protected it for four hundred years, and scholars through the ages, including Huang Zongxi, climbed the tower to read; the seven northern and southern pavilions built under Emperor Qianlong to house the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku Quanshu) were all modeled on it—hailed as a sacred site of Chinese book-collecting culture.
Getting there: Metro Line 1, Ximenkou Station
Photos
More in Ningbo
- Old Bund
A riverside district of modern concession-era character on the Yong River, opened as a treaty port in 1844, about twenty years before Shanghai's Bund; surviving protected buildings include the Gothic Catholic church (built 1872), the former Zhejiang Customs House, and the Jiangbei police station; bars and restaurants coexist with historic buildings, and the night-view photo spot is in front of the Catholic church…
- Gulouyan Historic and Cultural District
Site of the ruins of Ningbo's ancient inner city; Haishu Tower, repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt on the original site of the inner city's south gate from the first year of the Tang Changqing reign (821), combines a Western-style clock tower with a Chinese-style gate platform—an iconic hybrid landmark of Ningbo
- Nantang Old Street
A Jiangnan water-town district along the Nantang River; its one-river-one-street layout recreates the look of old Ningbo's wharf, with Ming- and Qing-style buildings split into north and south streets
- Ningbo Museum
A signature work by architect Wang Shu after winning the Pritzker Prize; its walls are built from hundreds of thousands of bricks and tiles salvaged from the old city, and its form resembles a mountain or a ship—the building itself is an exhibit
- Qing'an Guild Hall (Eastern Zhejiang Maritime Folk Museum)
A Tianhou (Mazu) temple combined with a guild hall, built in 1853 (the third year of the Xianfeng reign) with funds raised by Ningbo's Northern-trade ship merchants; its brick, wood, and stone carvings are famed as the 'three wonders,' and the gilded coiling dragon in the opera-stage caisson is its crowning sight
- Baoguo Temple
A masterpiece of Northern Song timber architecture in the 'beamless hall' style; the main hall, built in 1013 (the sixth year of the Dazhong Xiangfu reign), is the oldest and best-preserved wooden structure standing south of the Yangtze, listed in 1961 among China's first batch of national key cultural heritage sites