Jiangdong Neighborhood Center awarded "China Social Innovation Award"

On December 24, the "Jiangdong Neighborhood Center project" got the finalist prize of "China Social Innovation Award", being the only one project in Zhejiang Province to get the award.

It is said that "China Social Innovation Award" is a specialized academic award founded by Compilation and Translation Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Peking University. This year, 24 of the 249 candidate projects got the award, including 10 projects for winning prizes and 14 projects for finalist prizes.

Since 2008, Jiangdong District has begun to organize the neighborhood center to provide services for other community organizations. With the center, a suitable activity venue is available to the community organizations, which makes it possible to activate some long-neglected social organizations and form some new organizations to meet the needs of residents. In the district, each of the 58 communities is equipped with a neighborhood center.

There is also a neighborhood center at the district level to deal with the affairs of all the community neighborhood centers and provide services for other social organizations. 

3-year action plan for life and health industry launched

Recently, Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology held a seminar on the development of the life and health industry in Ningbo. The 3-year (2013-2015) plan for Ningbo life and health industry was then presented to related experts and entrepreneurs for suggestions.

Life and health industry is one of the eight strategic emerging industries in Ningbo, with the characteristics of energy-saving, environmental friendliness, high technology, high output and high added value. After years' development, the industry has formed a solid basis in Ningbo. Currently, there are over 110 scale enterprises in the life and health industry, including such featured fields as bio-medicine, high-end medical instruments, food safety and bio-agriculture. Over 20 of the enterprises are those with an annual output of over 100 million yuan.

To promote the healthy and fast development of the industry, the Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology has organized related experts to carry out theme studies before drafting the 3-year action plan, and has invited some experts and entrepreneurs to discuss about the plan.

According to the plan, in the following period, the life and health industry in Ningbo will focus on the four fields of bio-medicine, medical instruments, food safety and bio-agriculture. By building a range of public service platforms and improving the service system, it is hoped that the industry can make some key breakthroughs in technology and implement a batch of major industrial projects. Through the “3315 plan” and the training project for leading talents, Ningbo is to introduce a range of high-end talents and innovative teams in life and health industry. In addition, by making full play of the "angel investment fund", Ningbo will encourage the civil capitals to establish venture enterprises and support the investment of civil capitals in the life and health industry.

It is estimated that by the end of 2015, the key fields of Ningbo's life and health industry will have gained a fast development, the industrial park will have been formed and R & D ability will have been greatly enhanced, with a total output of 30 million yuan and an annual growth rate of 25%.

Top ten farm tourism festivals announced

Word comes from the Agricultural Affairs Office of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee that the first batch of "top ten farm tourism festivals in Ningbo" has been announced recently, including the bayberry festival of Yuyao County, the persimmon festival of Siming Mountain area and Danshan-Chishui scenic area, the peach blossom festival of Fenghua County, the razor clam festival in the Long Street of Ninghai County, the Lantern Festival parade of Qiantong Ancient Town, the strawberry festival of Shangtian Town, the cherry blossom festival of Zhangxi Village in Siming Mountain area, the mulberry festival of Tiangong Manor, the loquat festival of Xinqiao Town and the bayberry festival of Cixi County.

The farm leisure tourism festivals stem from the traditional farm festivals. Since the beginning of this year, Ningbo has encouraged all the counties and districts to organize various farm leisure tourism festivals. On April 6, the first session of the theme activity of Ningbo farm leisure tourism festival was held during the period of the peach blossom festival in Fenghua County. On November 12, Ningbo Municipal Farm Tourism Office hosted the electing activity of the "top ten farm tourism festivals", under the guidance of the Agricultural Affairs Office of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee, and with the assistance of such media as Ningbo Daily, Ningbo Evening, Southeast Business, www.cnnb.com.cn, www.cnluye.com, and www.njlnb.com. The 20 elected festivals from the 61 candidates were then exposed to vote by readers, netizens and experts and online announcement before the final top ten were determined.

The festivals attract tourists and consequently can promote the sales of farm products. According to statistics, the festival activities in Ningbo have attracted over 3.3 million tourists and led to a total sales volume of 300 million yuan. The farmhouse touring in Ningbo have received 16.311 million tourists and realized a revenue of 1.56 billion yuan, up by 36.9% and 38.2% respectively over the same period last year

Imports and exports of offsite enterprises dominating

It is learned from Ningbo Customs that in the first 11 months of 2012, the total volume of imports and exports by offsite enterprises through Ningbo Port reached US$110.36 billion, accounting for 61.3% of the port's total volume.

With the expansion of Ningbo Port and various convenient customs clearance measures by Ningbo Customs, the competitiveness of Ningbo Port has been enhanced and has gradually become the preferred port of international trade for the enterprises in the surrounding areas. Statistics from Ningbo Customs show that in the first 11months, the enterprises in Zhejiang Province (except Ningbo) reached US62.27 billion, accounting for 56.4% of the total volume of offsite enterprises

Ningbo to strengthen eco-environment protection

On December 20 and 21, after an inspection of Zhenhai District and Beilun District, Wang Huizhong, Member of the Standing Committee of Zhejiang Provincial Part Committee and Secretary of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee, pointed out that environmental protection will be the focus of next year's work for Ningbo. The government will make great efforts to protect the eco-environment and build Ningbo into a more beautiful and livable city.

On the afternoon of December 20, accompanied by some related officials, Wang Huizhong and Vice-mayor Wang Renzhou arrived in Zhenhai District to have an on-site inspection of Zhehai Environmental Monitoring and Control Center. After watching the monitoring, Wang Huizhong said that eco-environment is people's major concern, so it is important to have strict monitoring and law enforcement. It is also important to provide convenient and open accesses to information for the people. The inspection team also went to Zhenhai Metal Industrial Park and the Coal Wharf of Zhehai Port of Ningbo Port Bureau. Wang Huizhong carefully examined their operation and requested the two units to take effective measures to implement transformation or transfer for the improvement of the eco-environment as soon as possible.

On the morning of December 21, accompanied by Chen Lixing, Member of the Standing Committee of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of Beilun District Party Committee, Wang Huizhong arrived at Beilun Yandong Drainage Corporation to inspect the sewage treatment and reclaimed water reuse project. Wang Huizhong was pleased to hear about the sewage treatment capacity of 210,000 tons and the daily water regeneration capacity of 100,000 tons, and commented that this is a kind of "win-win" situation of economy and environment. The inspection team also examined the comprehensive afterheat utilization project of Beilun Electricity Plant, which has respectively reduced sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide by 14,000 tons and 940,000 tons since its operation. Wang Huizhong praised the effectiveness of the project in environmental protection and pointed out that it is sensible to encourage and promote similar projects to recycle the resources for a better environment.   

During the inspection, Wang Huizhong listened to the reports of this year's work and next year's working plans of the two districts. He said that the governments should actively respond to the people’s concern for environment and make eco-civilization construction their priority to promote green, recycling and low-carbon development. They should make efforts to address the environmental issues and let the people see and feel the significant improvement of the eco-environment. Great efforts should also be made to reduce the emission of pollutants to such an extent as not only to meet the standards of the monitoring indexes but also to make the people feel the difference, thus avoiding the conflicts between monitoring indexes and the people’s senses. According to the regional industrial characteristics, the governments should focus on the comprehensive treatment of organic gases, coal dusts and vehicle emissions, the standardized construction of buildings and the improvement of facility protection to reduce the air pollution. Finally, it is desirable to strengthen the inland river improvement and forest coverage rate in order to build Ningbo a beautiful city suitable for both residence and industry.

Provincial "Culturally Strong Towns" and "Cultural Demonstration Villages" awarded

Recently, Zhejiang Provincial Culture Bureau issued the results of the election of "Zhejiang Provincial Culturally Strong Towns" and Zhejiang Provincial Public Cultural Service Innovation Awards. Among the 28 towns (streets) titled as "Culturally Strong Towns" and 105 communities (villages) titled as "Cultural Demonstration Villages (Communities)", there are 21 units from Ningbo. Besides, 21 grass-roots programs for public cultural services and 16 individuals got the "Provincial Public Cultural Service Innovation Awards".

It is said that the newly-elected "Culturally Strong Towns" in Ningbo include Baidhe Street of Jiangdong District, Chunxiao Town of Beilun District, Hengxi Town of Yinzhou District, Kandun Street, Longshan Town and Guanhaiwei Town of Cixi County, Langxia Street of Yuyao County and Xidian Town of Ninghai Street. All these winners attach great importance to cultural construction. With an area of 2500 square meters for public cultural services, each of them has been actively organizing various cultural activities that are well received by the local people. They emphasize the protection of material and non-material cultural heritages and have established the colorful and healthy cultural markets that are in line with their economic and social development. Besides, they have full-time staff to manage the public cultural facilities and provide free services, and have established at least one free service brand.

In addition, 13 units, including Bailun Community of Zhaobaoshan Street in Zhenhai District, Xiushui Community of Gulou Street in Haishu District and Sanqishi Village of Sanqishi Town in Yuyao County, are listed as "Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Demonstration Villages (Communities)"

Municipal Winter Traffic Emergency Plan Started

Snow fell in parts of Ningbo’s mountain area on December 18. According to Yinzhou traffic police, municipal winter traffic emergency plan was started. Real-time supervision of mountain road condition was conducted. Warning boards were placed on the icy road leading to Xizhang, Lihu and Yanma Villages. More traffic policemen were ordered to patrol roads and workers were organized to clear the snow to ensure a smooth road condition.
The traffic police advised villagers to reduce private car travel and to take public transport as far as possible. It also suggested the drivers to drive in a slow speed on an icy road to keep safety.
In addition, hitting the brake for several times before stopping the car was a good way to remind the car followed to slow down and avoid rear-end collision. If the snow was too big to indentify the road condition ahead, the driver had better pull over and turn on the flashlight. If they met big difficulties, they should call the police on time.

Trade Surplus Reached Record High in Past 5 Years

News came from Ningbo Customs that Ningbo’s total volume of imports and exports reached 88.4 billion US Dollars in the first 11 months of 2012, a decrease of 1.5% over the same period last year, reaching the record high over the same period in the past five years. Among which, the imports reached 32.1 billion, US Dollars, a decrease of 6.28% over the same period last year and the exports reached 56.3 billion US Dollars, an increase of 1.5% over the same period last year. The trade surplus totalled 24.2 billion, an increase of 14%. The surplus expanded significantly was mainly due to the sharply fall of commodity futures, steel and copper imports in this year

Meeting of NAIEC Held in Ningbo

The fifth session of the fifth president meeting of the Ningbo Association for the Improvement of Economic Construction was held in Ningbo on December 18. Presidents of all branches of the NAIEC and the Ningbo Chamber of Commerce attended the meeting. Liuqi, Chen Yijun and Wang Jianshe granted an interview to the representatives. Liu Zhongli, Ye Rutang, Zhuang Xiaotian, Zhang Weiwen, Wang Zhuohui, Chen Yunjin and Wang Xiaobo attended the meeting.

At present, 16 branches of the NAIEC and 30 branches of the Ningbo Chamber of Commerce were set up in China, which have made large contributions for the economical and social development of their cities. The educational fund, established by all the branches of the NAIEC and the Ningbo Chamber of Commerce, has invested 2500 Ningbo poverty-stricken students for their educational expenses.

Liu Zhongli made the work report of the NAIEC at the meet. The meeting noted that the association should properly conduct the election, widely introduce talents and make sound consulting work, attracting more investment from overseas Ningbo merchants and give full play to the brand, service and information advantage of the “Ningbo Merchants”, safeguard their legal rights and interests, strengthen the propaganda work and further improve the influence and social status of the “Ningbo Merchants”

My local haunt By Jon Sims-Nngbo

Please find another lively story of the long time Ningbo citizen and entrepreneur Mr Jon Sims.

please find more stories on his blog; http://www.simplesite.com/JonSims/132729929

A date etched indelibly in my memory is 18th December 1995. It was the day I stepped off an aeroplane into the world that is China. 

It was cold, it was damp, it was grey, it was confusing, it was messy, it was noisy! If I had been able to speak Chinese then I would most probably have bought a ticket at the aiport and gone home, with no regrets. 

As it was I couldn't and so I didn't and because of that I am still here. The rest is history as they say. In this case mine! 

There were no roads to speak of. Just rutted lanes which may or may not have been sealed at some time in the past or future. Vehicles of all descriptions and sizes appeared out of the misty dampness with nary a though for laws, life or limb. There were accidents everywhere, queues of vehicles caused by people going gung ho for the closest gap to plug and the incessant blare of horns noisy enough to drown out an entire fleet of 747 becoming airborne at the same time. 

In 10 years I rode that machine over most of the roads of Zhejiang Province and most of those roads now, no longer exist. They have real ones now with tar seal, or concrete and are really nice. What surprises me is although people here have to pass driving tests the majority of them have scant regard still for the rules of the roads, leaving it to the police and insurance companies to sort out should anything happen.

In those days there were no digital cameras, no internet (here) and no gps. The maps were scant and sometimes almost accurate. The only way to get around was to follow your nose. Being a "bignose" I had something to follow. The Chinese call us bignoses as we have conks somewhat larger than theirs and I guess if you're going to follow your nose a big one will be easier to follow and prevent you getting lost. 

But then, in those days, being lost was simply a point of view. Everyone knew where they were then because nobody traveled. The problem started when the trip did.

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Cyclists training around Dongqian Lake

A group of cyclists were cycling around Dongqian Lake on Wednesday morning, warming up for the coming 12-day race held in Taiwan.

Newly recruited soldiers of PLA start off

China's People's Liberation Army started the yearly winter recruitment in Ningbo this Monday. A total of 545 new recruits from Ningbo will set off this weekend to join their army units in Sichun, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Hainan provinces.

The city to remove more coal-fired boilers next year

Ningbo has so far removed all coal-fired boilers in the National High-tech Zones as the last two were permanently shut down on Wednesday. The Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said Ningbo has accomplished the second phase of its smoke-fee zone project.

Ningbo plans to start the third phase of the smoke-free zone construction by removing more coal-fired boilers in suburbs and counties next year.

The peak season for heating comes around mid-November to March in Ningbo. According to Sun Shiwei, deputy director of the heating network department of Ningbo Kefeng Heating Equipment Co., Ltd., the company's two fire boilers were used for heating National High-tech Zone and the eastern part of Jiangdong District. Currently, the two old-style coal-fired boiler were shut down and replaced by two 40-ton-capacity steam gas boilers. "We can save 12,507 tons of coals and reduce 100.056 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions, 36.77 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions, 33 tons of soot emissions in a year." Sun Shiwei said.

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Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform listed China's top ten

Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform was elected into the "top ten smart city cases", according to a report released by the China Smart City Forum recently held in Peking.

Based on Internet of Things (IOT)，artificial intelligence, and information technology, Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform serves as an overall supply logistics network service platform. It is one of the key projects on smart logistics system during the 12th Five-Year" period. The platform includes two parts, namely, the Ningbo E-port and fourth party logistics. It distinguished others in three aspects. Firstly, it is the first to propose the construction of the fourth party logistics market based on the logistics information service and online transaction in china. It integrates e-commerce and logistics and optimizes the resources of the buyer, the seller, the logistics provider. Secondly, the platform reforms the logistics service mode by promoting “green” logistics and reducing logistics costs. Thirdly, the platform makes wide use of GPS, IOT, and electronic sealed lead technology to ensure the real-time supervision of logistics and transport, and thus improve the efficiency of customs clearance.

Ninghai fruit growers move to processing industry

White loquat, a widely known fruit grown in Ningbo's Ninghai County, is expected to bring more profit to local farmers. In Yishi Township, a major loquat plantation, the loquat processing industry begins to take shape.

As the annual blossom season sets in, the loquat trees are creating one of the most stunning scenes. To ensure a good harvest, the farmers are picking up unnecessary flowers. Numerous petals are falling down. The clever farmers will collect them and make flower tea and wine with it.

After ten years of painstaking efforts, Yishi Township boasts 1.2 million acres of the white loquat trees, which brings an output value of 150 million yuan. Loquat planting has become one of the leading farming industries in the town. However, the local farmers were not content to be fruit growers or sellers. They learned through experiments and innovations and started their fruit processing industry to enlarge their income.

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Ningbo player elected the world's best rower a disability

According to a mail recently sent by the International Rowing Association (FISA), Huang Cheng, a Ningbo-native rower, was elected the world's best rower with disabilities (2012).

Due to time conflict, Huang Cheng was unable to attend the awards ceremony held on November 2 in Limerick, Ireland, but he produced a five-minute video of acceptance speech to express his excitement and inspiration with this award.

Huang won the championship of AS-level Men's Single Sculls Final with a score of 4 minutes 52 seconds 36 in London Paralympics Rowing. This is also the first rowing gold medal in the Paralympics.

Ningbo imports new Dutch-grown flower bulbs

Ningbo has recently imported Netherlands cultivated hippeastrum for the first time through Ningbo Port. The flowers have passed the safety test carried by Ningbo Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. Currently, its sample has been cultivated separately from other seedlings in a local seedling nursery.

The import includes 15,256 mature hippeastrum bulbs and 52 species. This is Ningbo's first import of hippeastrum bulbs from the Netherlands. With the development of national economy, florists have to import flowers to meet the rising demand of customers. China has seen a rising flower imports for both indoor and outdoor decoration. Ningbo Port imported 6.5 million or 14 batches of Dutch bulbs (mainly lily bulbs and tulip bulbs), worth US$1.8 million.

Hippeastrum is a bulbous plant in the family of Amaryllidaceae. Most Hippeastrum bulbs are between 5 to10 cm in diameter. It has more species and colors than tulips and hyacinth. Depending on the species, it bears large flowers even better than Lily and is thus loved by local consumers.

Ningbo Textile Industry Chamber of Commerce established

Ningbo Textile Industry Chamber of Commerce was recently established in Keqiao of Shaoxing, the center of the Chinese textile industry. The newly founded chamber of commerce is a new home for Ningbo-native businesspeople in Shaoxing and another professional trade association next to Ningbo Chamber of Commerce established in Yiwu.

Currently, Ningbo Textile Industry Chamber of Commerce has attracted more than 100 member companies in the textile and service industries, an estimated worth of 1,000 million yuan. It is reported that over 10,000 Ningbo entrepreneurs are running around 600 companies in Shaoxing.