City Development Plan
The new edition of Ningbo's general city development plan was completed in 1995, it was approved by Zhejiang People's Government in November 1997, and approved by the National Council in July 1997. The stages of the new general plan: Short term form 1995 to 2000, long term from 2001 to 2010, the prospective outlooks till the middle of 21st century. The plan covers three levels: the urban area is 9,365 square kilometers, planed city area is 1,965 square kilometers. The key points of the central city plan which covers an area of 350 square kilometers including San Jiang, Beilun and Zhenhai. Further study the population and land utilizing scale in the city, reasonably adjust the outline and structure of land utilization in the city, pay attention to the ecological environment construction in the city, well adjust the coast line and landmark of the port city, perfect the transportation network and further study the water resources.
The new edition of general city development plan confirm the nature of Ningbo as a city: The important industrial base and foreign trade port in East China, the economic center in south part of Yangtze Delta and historical & cultural city of national level, the key international deep water port of Shanghai International Shipping Center and the international modern city.
The new general plan confirmed 4 objectives for the city's development: First is the general development objective, which is the 15-year strategic objective. The main index of Ningbo's social economic development to reach the level of current medium developed countries, to be highly industrialized, urban modernized, economic outside connected, economic market-oriented, and achieve obvious improvement in economy, society and environment. "Boom the city by port, promote the port by city", to turn Ningbo into an international modern port city which is powerful in economy, highly open to the outside world, well-developed in science & culture, rich in people's life, good in the social morale and beautiful in the environment. Second is the economic development objective, basically make it the economic center in the south part of Yangtze Delta in 2000, the GDP to be 130 billion RMB Yuan, 23,600 Yuan per person, the port handling capacity to be 0.1 billion tons, and the third industry takes 36% of the GNP; by 2010 the port handling capacity to be 0.2 billion tons and the third industry takes over 50% of the GNP. Third is the social development objective, to set up an all-round social security system with high spiritual civilization and harmonious development of people with the environment. Fourth is the urban construction & development objective, to complete the systematic network of four levels: central city-sub-central city-central town -regular town within the urban area. Construct the urban infrastructure according to the high standard, to build up a highly efficient modern urban management system, keep the urban ecological balance and improve the environment quality. By 2000, the percentage of urbanization to be 50%, by 2010 to be 65%, basically shape the international modern port city within 30 years. To improve the housing standard, guarantee the people's high-quality living standard, at least 15 square meters for each person; to build up a modern, safe, efficient and comfortable urban transportation system by enlarging the Lishe Airport (it will be constructed according to the 4E standard in the future), make Beilun port the ocean-going container transferring hub of Shanghai International Shipping Center. To create a good urban ecological environment, improve the urban green land, the average green land for each person to be no less than 10 square meters.
In order to suit the need of economic construction and social development, the new edition of the general urban development plan was presented in 2000. "One big, five medium and fifteen small" city & town outline was basically set up, the old part of the city was renovated, the short-term construction project and the traffic plan was completed, and the downtown parking lot plan was modified. According to the outline of city & town, all the counties (cities) compiled their own city & town plan. By the end of November, 2000, the city & town plan of Yuyao, Cixi, Fenghua, Ninghai and Xiangshan was approved by the government, and the general development plan of the above five cities as sub-central cities was also approved by the provincial & municipal government one after another.
Housing Development
Since 1980s, Ningbo has experienced a boom of urban housing construction.Ningbo A total investment of 25.82 billion yuan was put into real estate development, an all-time high. During the year, newly started housing projects represent a total floorage of 6.1million square meters, on-going housing projects 8.4 million square meters, completed housing projects 4.82 square meters and booked housing 4.18 square meters. The per capita floor space of urban dwellers goes up to 38.59 square meters as compared with 5.6 square meters for 1986.
Over the recent years, the city has followed the principles of "Proactive Planning, High-standard designing, High-grade development, high-quality construction and high-standard (property) management" to upgrade the overall quality of housing construction and provide pleasant and comfortable residences.
Old City Renovation
The city embarked on renovation of the old city since 1998. The cumulative floorage of old houses pulled down till now totals 6.00 million square meters, including residences of 3.20 million square meters in floorage. This means the relocation of 70,000 people from the small, damp and squalid residence to apartments complete with all necessary living facilities. During the recent years in particular, the city has stepped up with the renovation of low-lying and non-apartment residences in the urban area.residence districts have been repaired which cover an area of 6.14 million square meters.About 30 thousand tamilise have moved into their new houses.wellers in low-lying parts of the city were basically free from the pestering of ponding. Also in 2001, as part of the urban infrastructure construction campaign, the city renovated non-apartment residences of 1.5million households . In their place, a number of residential quarters and office buildings were erected complete with necessary supporting facilities. Total 310 or more high-rise buildings are now either completed or under construction.
Road Construction
Till now, dozens of main road were built in Ningbo, the total length is about 2143 kilometers, the road area per caput has reaches 16.17 square weters. In 2002, the construction of Century Boulevard, Jiangnan Avenue and Tong Tu Road started, Zhong Shan Road was widened. A road network suits the need of city development was basically set up. At present, the flow of people and vehicles speeded up and less traffic noise were heard, and road situation greatly improved.
Bridge Construction
There are rivers across the Ningbo city, Fenghua River, Yuyao River and Yong River join together at the downtown area. After 1949, 24 large bridges including Xinjiang Bridge, Jiefang Bridge, the bridge for railway over Fenghua River, Xingning Bridge, Yuyao river Bridge, Yong river Bridge, Jiangxia Bridge, Qin Bridge and Yongfeng Bridge etc were built up. The Yong River Tunnel was put into operation formally in December, 1995. The Zhaobao Mountain Bridge which connects Zhenhai with Beilun is in service. The old Lingqiao Bridge was renovated to be more widen. Several overhead walkway and overpass were built.
There are over 250 large and small bridges in the downtown area in Ningbo.The project proposal of Ningbo-Shanghai sea bridge across Hangzhou Bay was approved by the State Council, With a total investment of 8 billion yuan, the project will be 36km long, including about 33 km for the main bridge. It is designed to be six bi-directional lanes and 100 km/h for the driving speed. After the competition of the bridge in 2008， it will only take 2 hours to drive from Ningbo to Shanghai.
Public Transportation
By the end of 2005, there are altogether more than 128 public traffic routes, cover a total length of 2800 km; 1800 vehicles for transportation, handling capacity is 685,000 per person/time, there are 14.5 vehicles for every 10,000 people.
The cities and counties administrated by Ningbo also open up the traffic routes. Beside that, there are over 3,311 taxies in Ningbo.
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Water Supply & Drainage
The total water source of Ningbo is8.78 billion cubic meters. In 2005, Ningbo has accomplished a total water supply of 2.016 billion cubic meters. It includes recycling water supply of 11 million cubic meters.
The total water consumption of Ningbo is 2.016 billion cubic meters. It includes 202 million cubic meters water consumption for urban residents living, 90 million cubic meters water for environmental use, 407 million cubic meters water consumption for state owned companies and large-scale industries, and 50 million cubic meters water consumption for small-scale industries.
The compositive average personal water consumption of Ningbo is 362 cubic meters in 2005. The compositive living water consumption of urban residents of Ningbo is 207liters/person/day. The compositive living water consumption of town residents is 202 liter/person/day.
Ningbo has 5 large-size and 21 medium-size reservoirs. The total water reserves of these reservoirs are 626 million cubic meters.
Urban gas supply
The city started to develop its urban gas supply facilities as early as 1977. As of now, Ningbo Xinguang LPG Group Company has an LPG storage capacity of more than 12660 cubic meters, with 6 large pipelined LPG supply stations which caters to over 150,000 households and 21 LPG bottling stations (9 in downtown Ningbo). Its LPG sales volume in 2005 was 210,000 tons. The urban coverage of LPG supply is almost 79%.
In the 21st century, the fuel industry will enter into an age of LNG, the clean energy. So far, the city has completed the construction of 202-km-long medium-pressure pipelines and 360-km-long household-access pipelines. An unprecedented effort is being made to develop the urban gas supply facilities to make preparation for the advent of LNG in 2006.
The city's cultural facilities are also being upgraded. The newly built or renovated cultural facilities include the painting and calligraphy hall of Tianyi Pavilion, the Historical Museum of Coast Defense in Zhenhai, Minguang Movie Center, Ningbo Movie Center, Ningbo Yifu Theatre, the municipal library, Sha Menghai Painting and Calligraphy Institute of Yinxian County, Liang Zhu Cultural Park, Yue Lake (first-phase), Zhongshan Square, Times and Culture Square and Pan Tianshou Square, all of good size and standard. Eight additional cultural facilities under construction include Sanjiang (three-river) Cultural Corridor, Ningbo Grand Theatre, Ningbo Library, Ningbo Concert Hall and Ningbo Art Gallery. At the same time, the renovation of Lanjiang Theatre, Ningbo Theatre and the municipal library will add to the glory of the municipal cultural facilities.
Gardening & Planting
Since the 9th Five-year plan, the gardening and planting became a very important work in Ningbo. By 1996, more than 30 hectares land was made green. 36.83 hectares land was made green in 1997 and 70 hectares land was made green in 1998, and the Zhong Shan Square was built up at the same time; the Moon Lake Garden was renovated in 1999 with investment of 0.6 billion RMB yuan; several planting projects were implemented in 2000. In order to make the 3 rivers and 6 banks more beautiful, the green land in the downtown area in creased by 150 hectares.
So far there are more than 500.00 hectares pack green land in Ningbo, average 11.5 square meters per person. The area with planting is 35% and green land takes 33.8%. There are more than 60 gardens in the city, which placed a solid foundation for being the national garden city.
Environment Protection
In recent years, in order to promote the environment protection work, the system of job responsibility for the chief of city and county in Ningbo was set up.
The quality of environment in Ningbo down town area is greatly improved. So far noise control in 56.55 square kilometers area is up to the standard. The smoke/dust control area is 100%. There are thousands sewage treatment works, 35.92% sewage were treated. There are 487 public toilets in the city; 1,739 tons of daily life garbage was handled, the daily treatment ability is 1,501 tons per day. At the same time, the ecological environment was actively promoted. The utilization of methane in Li Jia Village in Yinzhou District and the solid agriculture in Ten Ton Village in Fenghua was praised by the national environment department, it was entitled the "500 best of the world" by the environmental department of the United Nation.
Ningbo's charms not only come from its scenic beauty, but also from the culture in its neighborhoods with pervasive moral influence. With the setting up of civilized residential quarters, Ningbo City, old but rejuvenated, is becoming a cozy home, beautiful garden and paradise of culture.
Cultural Entertainment on the Squares for Neighborhoods The frequent cultural entertainment on the squares makes Ningbo resounded with pleasant melodies all the year round, and animates the residents' faces with constant bursts of laughter.
Service in Neighborhoods The networks for quick household, health and recreation service are well established. Only by a phone call, can the residents get easy access to satisfactory material and mental life enjoyment within the neighborhoods.
Environment in Neighborhoods The residential quarters in garden style have accounted for 90% of the total. Most of residents are living in the picturesque surroundings where their doors and windows are open onto greens and flowers. Blue sky, green trees, fresh flowers, wide grassplots and clear rivers fascinate Ningbo people with pleasure and peace.
Facilities in Neighborhoods The fine libraries and well-equipped gym rooms in neighborhoods have become good places of pastime for residents.
Safety in Neighborhoods What residents in Ningbo feel most satisfied with is its safety in which no other cities can be compared with. Police guardrooms have been set up in every neighborhood of the city, where disputes can be well mediated between families and alarms for help find immediate police response.
Recreation, Shopping & Accommodations
Shopping & Recreation
Ningbo is provided with the multinational supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Metro, Trust-Mart, Hymall and Auchen, and the multi-functional gymnasium, racecourse, golf links and other recreation grounds, which fully meet the requirements of residents and visitors for shopping and relaxation.
Hotels & Dwellings
There are now 178 hotels in Ningbo, including 4 deluxe, 14 high comfort and 41 average comfort hotels, with a total of 16086 guestrooms and 28984 beds. Admission to the hotels totaled about 488.300 overseas and 23.52million domestic tourists in 2005. Besides these, Ningbo also boasts numerous deluxe villas, high comfort apartment houses and private building with hotel service, thus meeting the requirements of all investors and businessmen for residing in Ningbo.
Ningbo Cuisine
Ningbo cuisine is composed of the special dishes in the coastal area of Zhejiang. The seafood such as yellow croaker, swimming crab, razor clam and oyster in East China Sea provides Ningbo Cuisine with rich raw materials. Smoked, cooked, roasted or stewed, Ningbo cuisine is featured in its unique flavor of fresh, tender and salty with original aroma and taste.