July 4, 2021

Are you one of the thousands of Americans who are thinking "Ningbo?!! Never heard of it!" this morning?

It's a city of almost 10 million people. Don't you think it's odd that there are cities on this earth that large that you have never heard of, whose names sound like sheer nonsense? 

The first character in the city's name ning (宁 or 寧) means "serene", while its second character bo (波) translates to "wave"... It was once named Mingzhou (明州; Míngzhōu). The first character (明) is composed of two parts, representing two lakes inside the city wall: the Sun Lake (日湖) and the Moon Lake (月湖) dating back to Tang Dynasty 636 AD. Today, only the Moon Lake remains, and the old Sun Lake dried up in 19 century...

Ningbo is one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating to the Jingtou Mountain Culture in 6300 BC and Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port for foreign trade along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and Quanzhou and Guangzhou in the Sung dynasty.

If you don't know why Ningbo is nagging at us this morning....

Now, hop away on your Biden bunny, you nerd.

ADDED: "The Hemudu culture (5500 BC to 3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture...." I think this is where they put the bacon fat:

1 comment:

Ann Althouse said...

Based on the photograph, I'd say it looks like Austin.