Gong Xi Fa Cai!  from all of here at NingboLife.com and Ningboexpat.com

Free visit to TengTou Village for Spring Festival Celebrations

Please als see below the details how to join the 2012 Chinese Spring festival Event in Tengtou village. ALL FREE-- see it here......

!!!!! You will have free transport to and from Tengtou. Start Friday  20th January 12.30 pm Sharp at the parking lot behind the church at Tian Yi Square. (348 Disco)

Free entrance to TengTou village, free Tour, Free Strawberry picking, Free traditional village Spring Festival dinner

Just come with your friends and kids. Limited seats

Well… the western New Year has passed. I could not blog about it because I spent this New Year with a friend in Hangzhou. I cannot very well write a blog about Ningbo from Hangzhou…. Can I?

So instead I’ll write about something a little closer to home.

Tengtou:

Tengtou is a unique Chinese village with a population of just under 900, when last I checked. What makes this place special is what the small group of villagers accomplished for themselves. A number of years ago, they collectively decided to push a unique “tourist” agenda, branding Tengtou as a window into china’s rural village life. While much of the Chinese population was gearing towards a manufacturing and metropolis lifestyle, slowly eating away at the small villages that used to dominate the countryside, Tengtou tried to maintain the village as a shining example of what used to be.

They do this thru some cool interactive attractions and nature based programs aimed at natural sustainability. For example… in one part of the village they have a beautiful expansive greenhouse erected housing some rare plants and focusing on new hydroponic growing techniques. While on the other side of the village they had me monkeying around with hoists, buckets and a devise I can only describe as an enormous exercise bicycle contraption rigged to a rotating system of buckets. The area is meant to interactively show you how villagers in the past manually transported water using old methods. Definitely not the rice harvesting village life I would expect, but in Tengtou, it is a mixture of old and new. On top of the sites, which are fun and educational, there are the villagers themselves. Smiles abound and you can really see a connection with the people to the village. Everywhere you see that people are proud of what they have accomplished, and they should be. Tengtou is an important landmark in Ningbo, and a window into a fading chapter of Chinese life. Text by Mathew AsiaEnglishOnline CLICK for pictures gallery from 2011 event and MORE

The peak flow of passengers in Ningbo Coach Center Station

The peak flow of passengers in Ningbo Coach Center Station

January 17 witnessed the peak flow of passengers before the Spring Festival period. The station dispatched over 730 coaches that day

---

 

Small machine, big function

On the morning of January 16, an officer from the Traffic Police Detachment of Ningbo Public Security Bureau was demonstrating to citizens the operation of the new public security traffic control self-service machine

---

 

Partying to welcome Spring Festival

Partying to welcome Spring Festival

The public transport corporation was partying to welcome the Spring Festival a couple of days ago. The employee performers presented dances, sketches and songs to entertain themselves

---

 

Mom and dau donating blood

A mom and her daughter, a student with the No.7 Middle School were donating blood on the morning of Jan. 15. On the very day, 14 parents donated blood

---

 

Beilun and Zhenhai: vanguards of marine economy of Ningbo

Beilun and Zhenhai are playing a leading role in Ningbo's goal for a competitive international port.

---

 

Colorful campus life

Before the winter vacation, the students of a primary school in Haishu District gave a performance, playing the recorder.

---

 

Hemudu Agricultural Products Fair opened

On January 10, the 3rd China Yuyao Hemudu Agricultural Products Fair opened in the International Conference and Exhibition Center of China Plastics City.

---

 

Ningbo Port Museum started construction

Ningbo Port Museum started construction

Recently, Ningbo started the construction of Ningbo Port Museum and the Ningbo Base of the National Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection in Beilun.

---

 

Ningbo garment producers venture into e-business

"We started to do e-business half a year ago. At first, it was regarded as a way to reduce our stock, but it turned out to be the most competitive marketing model ", said Yu Yong at the launch ceremony of the E-commerce Council under Ningbo Garment Industry Association on January 1st.

Yu Yong is the general manager with Ningbo GXG Co.Ltd. It only takes four years for the terminal sales of its new brand - GXG to reach 3 billion last year. E-business contributes a lot to the legend of GXG.

GXG is one of the brands in Ningbo that are doing e-business skillfully. Famous businesses such as PEACEBIRD and Beyond are on the list of the 60 members revealed by the E-commerce Council under Ningbo Garment Industry Association.

PEACEBIRD is one of the earliest garment enterprises to do e-business. In early 2008, it expanded its distribution channels to the Internet after purchasing an e-business company. Now, the e-business sector is operated solely by its sub-company Mofafs Co.Ltd.

"Although we have more than 2,000 stores across the country, there are still markets we may leave out", said Weng Jianghong, general manager with Mofafs Co.Ltd. It is e-business that helps PEACEBIRD cover all the potential markets including Hong Kong and Taiwan. "It seems that we have a store in the air."

Mofafs Co.Ltd is the fastest growing business of the PEACEBIRD Group. Online sales reached 30 million RMB in 2010 and 230 million RMB in 2011, accounting for more than 4% in the Group's sales volume. Weng predicted that sales would be no less than 500 million this year.

Beyond Group is also a big winner in e-business. During the sales promotion at Taobao.com on November 11th last year, the sales exceeded 60 million RMB on that single day, ranking the first on that website and becoming the best record ever in the history of e-business by Chinese home textile industry.

"Last year, e-business contributed over 1 billion RMB to the sales volume while the year before, it was only 150 million RMB." Lin Yunhua, director with the non-traditional promotion office of Beyond Group, is quite confident about the large potentials of e-business.

"In fact, e-business brings more than visible sales to Ningbo garment industry; it also brings more customers and feedback which will facilitate the follow-up analysis about our markets and brand. In this way, it can be combined with the sale and precision marketing can be carried out", said Lin.

"E-business is the trend", Zhou Xueming, deputy director with Ningbo Economy & Information Committee, said in the interview. As the representative of traditional industries in the "4+4+4" system, garment and textile industry will innovate in the marketing model with the aid of e-business, which will play an important role in the industrial restructuring and upgrading.

Beyond, PEACEBIRD and GXG were awarded Best E-business Brand at the meeting yesterday while Youngor, Firs, Roman, Progen, Rouse, Mobi Garden, Seduno, Alphabet, Es Back, Chun Yazi, MQD and Snowwolf were awarded The Most Valuable E-business Brand

---

 

Retail sales of consumer goods in Ningbo exceeded 200 billion yuan last year

According to the recent statistics released by Ningbo Municipal Statistics Bureau, retail sales of consumer goods last year reached 201.89 billion yuan, up 18.4% year on year. Towns and cities still play a major role in it, up 19.5% and 20.2% respectively, 1.1% and 1.8% higher than the average level of the whole city.

---

 

Open economy in Ningbo developing vigorously against the downturn

As Chinese New Year is drawing near, foreign trade companies in Nordic Industry Park, Zhenhai District, are working in full swing. “In recent months, our company has been running at full capacity because our products have replaced some of the imports”, said Zhu Weizhen, financial manager with NMF A/S, a machinery manufacturer mainly producing spare parts for wind power generation equipment. He also added that sales were expected to double this year.
Despite the slow recovery of the world economy and the shrinking external demand, lots of foreign trade companies like NMF A/S have sprung up in Ningbo. Therefore, open economy in Ningbo has maintained fast yet steady development. According to the latest statistics given by Ningbo Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau, in 2011, contracted foreign investment utilized has reached 5015 million USD, increasing by 23.9 % and overseas investment by Chinese enterprises was 1100 million USD, increasing by 112.2 %, both of which hitting a record high. Total export-import volume is expected to reach 98 billion USD, including 60.5 billion USD in export, which will increase by about 18 % and 16 % respectively.
Facing the political turbulence in some north African countries and the Middle East, as well as the outbreak of EU debt crisis, departments of Ningbo Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau immediately help enterprises to exploit international market. Last year, the city acknowledged the first batch of 64 public service platforms, providing R&D, designing and trade incubation for over 10,000 foreign trade enterprises. Meanwhile, 90 million RMB has been distributed to support the economic restructuring of foreign trade. And 30 million RMB from Ningbo Municipality will be added to subsidize enterprises in overseas exhibition and export credit insurance.
Under the guidance of government policies, foreign trade enterprises in Ningbo have sped up the pace of going global. Junsheng Corporation, the auto parts giant in Ningbo, leaps to the front-end of the automotive industry chain after purchasing the German Preh Gmbh. Chunhe Corporation purchased 77.6 % of the stake of MAG, a large Canadian listed company and will launch a large potash project in Congo (Brazzaville) with an annual production of 1200,000 tons. Some foreign trade enterprises also take part in new industries, effectively avoiding the dilemma of shrinking market demand.
Foreign capital of today is foreign trade of the future. Learning from Hangzhou and Dalian, Ningbo has introduced large enterprises and projects, putting equal emphasis on quantity and quality. IBM R&D Institute in Ningbo, which is the fourth in China, has been officially started. Tata Group of India, one of the largest software outsourcing businesses, has established a software outsourcing base in Ningbo. The quality foreign capital has become the driving force for the development of foreign trade. Statistics show that the actual foreign investment utilized is 2809 million USD, which has increased by 20.9 % than the previous year, reaching a historical high. The actual foreign investment in the service sector is 1528 million USD, increasing by 119.9 %.
The open economy in Ningbo, transforming from the traditional foreign capital, foreign trade and foreign economy to new industries such as service outsourcing and service trade, is now rising to the challenge. Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show that in 2011, the export volume of Ningbo has exceeded that of Beijing, ranking fifth in China.
Yu Danhua, Director General of Ningbo Municipal Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau, said that considering the new situations in domestic and international economy, we will continue to adhere to the policy of putting equal emphasis on quantity and quality of foreign capital, on export and import, and on a steady development and economic restructuring. We should improve the ability of turning crisis into opportunity in order to maintain fast yet steady development of the open economy in Ningbo