Ningbo in the context of "Wu (region)"

The Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is the busiest port in the world in terms of cargo tonnage. It handled 888.96 million tons of cargo in 2015. The port is located in Ningbo and Zhoushan, on the coast of the East China Sea, in Zhejiang province on the southeast end of Hangzhou Bay, across which it faces the municipality of Shanghai.

The port is at the crossroads of the north–south inland and coastal shipping route, including canals to the important inland waterway to interior China, the Yangtze River, to the north. The port consists of several ports which are Beilun (seaport), Zhenhai (estuary port), and old Ningbo harbor (inland river port).

Zhejiang is a coastal province in East China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, with other notable cities including Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangsu and Shanghai to the north, Anhui to the northwest, Jiangxi to the west and Fujian to the south. To the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lies the Ryukyu Islands. The population of Zhejiang stands at 64.6 million, the 8th largest in China. It has been called "the backbone of China" because it is a major driving force in the Chinese economy and being the birthplace of several notable people, including the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and entrepreneur Jack Ma. Zhejiang consists of 90 counties (incl. county-level cities and districts).

The area of Zhejiang was controlled by the Kingdom of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. The Qin dynasty later annexed it in 222 BC. Under the late Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty that followed it, Zhejiang's ports became important centers of international trade. It was occupied by the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and placed under the control of the Japanese puppet state known as the Reorganized National Government of China. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Zhejiang's economy became stagnant under Mao Zedong's policies. After China's economic reform, Zhejiang grew to be considered one of China's wealthiest provinces, ranking fourth in GDP nationally and fifth by GDP per capita, with a nominal GDP of US$1.27 trillion as of 2024.

Zhoushan is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of Hangzhou Bay off the mainland city of Ningbo. The prefecture's city proper is Dinghai on Zhoushan Island, now administered as the prefecture's Dinghai District. During the 2020 census, Zhoushan Prefecture's population was 1,157,817, out of whom 882,932 lived in the builtup (or metro) area consisting of two urban districts of Dinghai and Putuo.

On July 8, 2011, the central government approved Zhoushan as Zhoushan Archipelago New Area, a state-level new area.

Strictly speaking, China's legal system neither recognizes the concept of "sub-provincial administrative divisions" (Chinese: 副省级行政区; pinyin: Fùshěngjí xíngzhèngqū) or "sub-provincial cities" (Chinese: 副省级城市; pinyin: Fùshěngjí chéngshì) nor provides specific legislation for such designations, and these categories are absent from official statistical classifications. The so-called sub-provincial divisions or sub-provincial cities refer to special administrative status granted to selected prefecture-level cities during specific historical periods. This status is operationally defined by appointing deputy provincial-level (deputy ministerial-level) officials as the top leaders of municipal party and government organs. Correspondingly, institutional heads under these jurisdictions hold ranks half a grade higher than their counterparts in regular prefecture-level administrative divisions – specifically, party and government department leaders are designated as deputy departmental-level officials.

China has 15 sub-provincial cities, including Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen and 5 separately planned cities (Chinese: 计划单列市). Additionally, the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang holds sub-provincial status as an autonomous prefecture, governing three administrative prefectures: the directly-administered counties and cities under Ili Prefecture, this refers specifically to the core jurisdictional area of Ili Profecture in its narrow administrative sense and also the administrative division-based statistical scope of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and Tacheng (Tarbagatay) Prefecture and Altay Prefecture.

The Grand Canal (Chinese: 大运河; pinyin: Dà yùnhé) is a system of interconnected canals linking various major rivers and lakes in North and East China, serving as an important waterborne transport infrastructure between the north and the south during Medieval and premodern China. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world and a World Heritage Site.

The Grand Canal has undergone several route changes throughout history. Its current main stem, known as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, is thought to extend for 1,776 km (1,104 mi) linking Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south, and is divided into 6 main subsections, with the southernmost sections remaining relatively unchanged over time. The Jiangnan Canal starts from the Qiantang River at Hangzhou's Jianggan District, looping around the east side of Lake Tai through Jiaxing, Suzhou and Wuxi, to the Yangtze at Zhenjiang; the Inner Canal from Yangzhou across the Yangtze from Zhenjiang, going through the Gaoyou Lake to join the Huai River at Huai'an, which for centuries was also its junction with the former course of the Yellow River; the Middle Canal from Huai'an to Luoma Lake at Suqian, then to the Nansi Lakes at Weishan; the Lu Canal from the Nansi Lakes at Jining and into the present course of the Yellow River at Liangshan, splitting off downstream at Liaocheng's Dong'e County before continuing to the Wei at Linqing; the Southern Canal (named for its location within Hebei) from Linqing to the Hai River at Tianjin; and the Northern Canal from Tianjin to Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing. As such, it passes through the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, and the municipalities of Tianjin and Beijing. In 2014, the Chinese government and UNESCO recognized the Eastern Zhejiang Canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo along the former Tongji and Yongji Canals also as official components of the Grand Canal.

Hangzhou Bay is a funnel-shaped inlet of the East China Sea on the middle eastern coast of Mainland China, bordered by the province of Zhejiang to the west and south, and the municipality of Shanghai to north. The bay extends westwards to its head at the city of Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, from which its name is derived. The east and southeast margin of Hangzhou Bay are marked by numerous islands off the shores of Ningbo, collectively called the Zhoushan Islands, which are an urbanized archipelago that forms the prefecture-level city of Zhoushan.

At Hangzhou, the Qiantang River flows into the bay, providing fresh water from the west, while seawater comes in from the east. Thus, Hangzhou Bay, especially its western end, is sometimes called the Qiantang River Estuary in the scientific literature.

Beilun District (simplified Chinese: 北仑区; traditional Chinese: 北侖區; pinyin: Běilún Qū; Wu: Poh-len Chiu) is a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, China. It is dominated by Beilun port, an international port of the easternmost edge of the southern coast of Hangzhou Bay. It primarily services the regional city of Ningbo. Beilun district has 380,000 permanent residents and 850,000 residents. Beilun district has a land area of 615 square kilometers, a sea area of 258 square kilometers and a coastline of 150 kilometers. It is the largest sea area and the longest coastline area within the jurisdiction of Ningbo city.

Quanzhou is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's most populous metropolitan region, with an area of 11,245 square kilometers (4,342 sq mi) and a population of 8,782,285 as of the 2020 census. Its built-up area is home to 6,669,711 inhabitants, encompassing the Licheng, Fengze, and Luojiang urban districts; Jinjiang, Nan'an, and Shishi cities; Hui'an County; and the Quanzhou District for Taiwanese Investment. Quanzhou was China's 12th-largest extended metropolitan area in 2010.

Quanzhou was China's major port for foreign traders, who knew it as Zaiton, during the 11th through 14th centuries. It was visited by both Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta; both travelers praised it as one of the most prosperous and glorious cities in the world. It was the naval base from which the Mongol attacks on Japan and Java were primarily launched and a cosmopolitan center with Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches, including a Catholic cathedral and Franciscan friaries. A failed revolt prompted a massacre of the city's foreign communities in 1357. Economic dislocations—including piracy and an imperial overreaction to it during the Ming and Qing—reduced its prosperity, with Japanese trade shifting to Ningbo and Zhapu and other foreign trade restricted to Guangzhou. Quanzhou became an opium-smuggling center in the 19th century but the siltation of its harbor hindered trade by larger ships.