Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Ning-po

NING-PO, or Ning-po-foo (i.e., City of the Hospitable Waves), a great city of China, one of the five seaports thrown open to foreign trade in 1842 by the treaty of Nanking, and the principal emporium of the province of Chekeang, stands in a fine plain bounded by mountains towards the west, on the left bank of the Takia or Ning-po river, about 16 miles from its mouth, in 29° 51′ N. lat. and 121° 32′ E. long. It is surrounded by a fine old wall, 25 feet high and 16 feet broad, pierced by six gates and two passages for ships in its circuit of 4 to 5 miles. Just within the walls there is a considerable belt of open ground, and in many places the ramparts are thickly covered with jasmine and honeysuckle. In ascending the river a stranger’s eye is first caught by the numerous huge ice-houses with high thatched roofs and by a tall white tower—the Tien-fung-tah or Ning-po pagoda or obelisk—which rises to a height of 160 feet, and has fourteen stories and seven tiers of windows, but has unfortunately been stripped of its galleries and otherwise damaged. Another striking structure in the heart of the city is the Drum Tower, dating from before the 15th century. As is natural in a place long celebrated for its religious and educational pre-eminence, there is no lack of temples, monasteries, and colleges, but few of these are of any architectural significance. Brick is the ordinary building material, and the dwelling-houses are mostly of one story. Silks, cottons, carpets, furniture, white-wood carvings, and straw hats are the chief products of the local industry. Large salt-works are carried on in the vicinity, and thousands of fishermen are engaged, mainly between April and July, in catching the cuttle-fish. In spite of the powerful competition of Shanghai, Ning-po has a valuable foreign trade. It is regularly visited by the vessels of the China Navigation Company and the Chinese Merchants Steam Navigation Company. From 216,191 register tons in 1873 the tonnage of the port had increased to 303,109 in 1880,—British shipping having advanced from 18,592 tons to 86,175, and Chinese shipping from 17,972 to 209,487, though on the other hand the American total had sunk from 170,351 to 2100. The principal import is opium, £982,507 being the average value of the annual quantity between 1876 and 1880. Lead for packing tea was formerly a leading item, but it now enters mainly by other ports. Straw or grass hats, straw mats, samshu (from the Shaou-hing district), Chinese drugs, vegetable tallow, and fish are among the chief exports; in 1877 (the maximum year) the hats numbered 13,724,822, though in 1863 they had only amounted to 40,000, and the mats, mainly despatched to South China, average from 500,000 to 1,000,000. After the storming of Chinhai—the fortified town at the mouth of the river on October 10, 1841, the British forces quietly took possession of Ning-po on the 12th. In 1864 the Taipings held the town for six months. Missions are maintained in Ning-po by the Romish Church, by the Church Missionary Society (1848), the American Presbyterians, the Reformed Wesleyans, the China Inland Mission (1857), &c. A mission hospital was instituted in 1843. The population of the city and suburbs is estimated at from 400,000 to 500,000.