Environmental problems
Ningbo has been the subject of severe environmental concerns that have been attributed to the Ningbo Chemical Economical Development Zone in the Zhenhai district on its eastern coast. Research has shown that the mortality rate from cancer in Zhenhai rose significantly between 2007 and 2009.[24]In October 2012, the local population protested against a 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) investment program on a large chemical plant that will affect more than 9,800 households.[25]
Administrative StructureEdit
The mayor of Ningbo is Liu Qi. Wang Huizhong is the secretary of CPC in Ningbo, who is first-in-charge of the city. The Communist Party Secretary is always the highest official in cities in China and overranks all other officials.Ningbo Local Government OfficesNingbo Foreign Affairs Office[26]Ningbo Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau[27]Ningbo Govt.[28]The sub-provincial city of Ningbo has direct jurisdiction over 6 districts (区 qu) (urban), 3 county-level cities (市 shi) and 2 Counties (县 xian):Ningbo is an important port city located 220 kilometres (140 mi) south of Shanghai. The city's export industry dates back to the 7th century. Today Ningbo is a major exporter of electrical products, textiles, food, and industrial tools.Historically Ningbo was geographically isolated from other major cities. In 2007 the Hangzhou Bay Bridge was built, cutting highway transit time between the two port cities to two and a half hours from four.In 2009, Ningbo's economic activity reached USD 60.8 billion, down 10.4% from 2008. The exports totalled USD 38.65 billion, down 16.6% from the previous year. In addition, Ningbo imported USD 22.16 billion of goods, up 3.1% from the previous year.[29]Ningbo's economy grew 8.6 percent in 2009 to 421.5 billion yuan (US$61.7 billion). The city's per capita output was US$10,833, about three times the national average.[30]Ningbo is famous for the Si Lan Nong Xiang flower. Used for dyeing cloth, 2008 exports were responsible for 3% of the Ningbo economic growth.
Economic and Technological Development Zones
Ningbo Economic & Technological Development Zone
Located in the north-east of Ningbo, behind Beilun Port, NETD is 27 km (17 mi) away from the city center. With more than 20 years of great effort, NETD has already formed the general framework for large scale construction and development, and established perfect investment environment. It is situated close to the Ningbo Port and Ningbo Lishe International Airport. Major Investors include Exxon Mobile, Dupont and Dow Chemical.[31]
Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone
Ningbo National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone was founded in 1999 and was upgraded to a national level zone in January 2007. It is only 10 km (6.2 mi) away from Ningbo International Airport and 18 km (11 mi) away from Ningbo Port. The zone serves as the important technical innovation base of Yangtze River Delta. Industries encouraged include Chemicals Production and Processing, Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals, Raw Material Processing, Research and Development.[32]
Ningbo Free Trade Zone
Ningbo Free Trade Zone is one of the 15 free trade zones authorized by the State Council of China, and is the only free trade zone in Zhejiang Province. It was established by State Council in 1992, covering the area of 2.3 km2 (0.89 sq mi). It lies in the middle of the coastline of Mainland China, at the south of Yangtze River Delta. In 2008, its industrial output value was RMB 53.33 billion and grew at 19.8% as compared to 2007.[33]
Nordic Industrial Park
The Nordic Industrial Park Co. Ltd. (NIP) is one of the first wholly foreign-owned industrial parks in China located in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. NIP is managed and operated by a Scandinavian management team.[34]
Ningbo PortEdit
Main article: Port of NingboNingbo is not just an ordinary city – it has the same authority as provincial governments for economic administration – and has a port second only to Shanghai around the world in terms of annual cargo throughput. Unlike Shanghai, the port is deepwater and capable of handling 300,000 tonne vessels. The port is located mainly in Beilun district and Zhenhai district. In 2006, Ningbo Port started its expansion to the neighbouring island City of Zhoushan for the purpose of building an even larger port with higher capacity to compete with neighbouring ports in the region, such as Shanghai's Yangshan Deep-Water Port. The statistics in 2010 showed that total cargo throughput was 627,000,000 tonnes and container throughput 13,144,000 TEUs. With bulk container breakdowns, hugely improved logistics, and massive chemical and foodstuff, processing developments, Ningbo could yet win the race with Shanghai as port of choice for servicing the Chinese east coast.[35]
Tourism
Notable peopleEdit
Main article: Ningbo PeopleMany well known Chinese came from Ningbo or their ancestral home was Ningbo.People in mainland ChinaZhang Jianhong (張建紅), freelance writer, playwright, poet, and also a democracy activist.Pan Tianshou (潘天寿), artist in Chinese painting.Zhou Xinfang (周信芳), artist in Peking Opera.Sha Menghai (沙孟海), the Master Calligrapher.People in Hong KongRun Run ShawTung Chee HwaTung Chao YungChen Din HwaStephen ChowSammo HungPeople in TaiwanChiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), political and military leader of 20th century China.Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國)Morris Chang (張忠謀)People overseasShien Biau WooYo Yo MaYéro Al Ousseynou Ba, Senegalese businessman
Transportation
MilitaryEdit
Ningbo is the headquarters of the East Sea Fleet of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. Its responsibility includes projecting force in the region around the Republic of China (Taiwan), which the People's Republic of China views as a renegade province.Ningbo is known for Ningbo Tangyuan, small stuffed buns which are boiled. The stuffing is usually ground sesame mixed with sugar. It can also be mixed with pork. The stuffing is wrapped with sticky rice powder. Even more so, Ningbo is famous throughout China for its seafood. Seafood markets are abundant, carrying countless varieties of fish, crabs/lobsters/shrimp, shellfish, snails, jellyfish and other invertebrates, and sea vegetables in all stages of preparation from "still swimming," to cleaned and ready to cook, to fully cooked.CountryGermanyStateNorth Rhine-WestphaliaAdmin. regionKölnDistrictAachenAachen (German pronunciation: [ˈʔaːxən] ( )), also known as Bad Aachen (Ripuarian: Óche,Limburgish: Aoke, French: Aix-La-Chapelle, Italian: Aquisgrana, Dutch: Aken, Spanish: Aquisgrán,Latin: Aquisgranum) is a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Sometimes in English (especially in old use), the city is referred to as Aix-la-Chapelle (French pronunciation: [ɛkslaʃapɛl]). Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and later the place of coronation of the German kings. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost city of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, 61 km (38 mi) west-southwest of Cologne.[2][3] It is located within a coal-mining region, and this fact was important in its economic history.[3] RWTH Aachen University, one of Germany's Universities of Excellence, is located in the city.[nb 1][4] Aachen's predominant economic focus is on science, engineering, information technology and related sectors. In 2009, Aachen was ranked 8th among cities in Germany for innovation.[5]The name Aachen is of uncertain derivation. The location has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic era, approximately 5000 years ago, attracted to its warm mineral springs. The rootAa, or variants such as Ae, E, Ee, Ie, or IJ, are found in the names of rivers or other water sources throughout Germanic-speaking areas of northern Europe, particularly the Netherlands and northwest Germany.These river names are derived from Old Germanic aha or ahwô, meaning "water". These words share an older Indo-European root with Latin Aquae.The Latin term "Aquae" is the source of the Roman name Aquae granni, which meant "water ofGrannus", referring to a Celtic deity worshiped in the area.[6] However, an alternative etymology attributes the element granni to a Roman official of the name Grenus, who established a Roman military camp in the location under Emperor Hadrian around the year 124. This name became Aixin French, and subsequently Aix-la-Chapelle after the construction of a cathedral in the city under the direction of Charlemagne in the late 8th Century, who had made the city the capital of his empire.In this manner, the derivative toponyms relating to the term "water" in the Germanic andRomance languages is a case of parallel evolution. The city is known by a variety of different names in other languages:The local dialect of the city is called Öcher Platt and belongs to the Ripuarian language group.Early history
Flint quarries on the Lousberg, Schneeberg, and Königshügel, first used during Neolithic times (3,000-2,500 b.c.), attest to the long occupation of the site of Aachen, as do recent finds under the modern city's Elisengarten pointing to a former settlement from the same period. Bronze Age (ca. 1600 b.c.) settlement is evidenced by the remains of barrows (burial mounds) found, for example, on the Klausberg. During the Iron Age, the area was settled by Celtic peoples[10] who were perhaps drawn by the marshy Aachen basin's hot sulphur springs where they worshipedGrannus, god of light and healing.Later, the 25-hectare Roman spa resort town of Aquae Granni was, according to legend, founded by Grenus, under Hadrian, in ca. a.d. 124. Instead, the fictitious founder refers to the Celtic god, and it seems it was the Roman 6th Legion at the start of the 1st century that first channelled the hot springs into a spa at Büchel,[nb 2] adding at the end of the same century the Münsterthermespa,[12] two water pipelines, and a likely sanctuary dedicated to Grannus. A kind of forum, surrounded by colonnades, connected the two spa complexes. There was also an extensive residential area, part of it inhabited by a flourished Jewish community.[13] The Romans built bathhouses near Burtscheid. A temple precinct called Vernenum was built near the modernKornelimünster/Walheim. Today, all that remains are two fountains in the Elisenbrunnen and the Burtscheid bathhouse.[citation needed]Roman civil administration fell apart in Aachen between the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th centuries. Rome withdrew its troops from the area but the town remained populated. By 470, the town came to be ruled by the Ripuarian Franks[14] and subordinated to their capital, Cologne.
The Middle Ages
After Roman times, Pippin the Younger had a castle residence built in the town, and Einhardmentions that in 765–6 Pippin spent both Christmas and Easter at Aquis villa ("Et celebravit natalem Domini in Aquis villa et pascha similiter."),[15] which must have been sufficiently equipped to support the royal household for several months. In the year of his coronation as King of Franks, 768, Charlemagne came to spend Christmas at Aachen for the first time. This is in dispute, as some history books state that Charlemagne was in fact born in Aachen in 742.[16] He went on to remain there in a mansion which he may have extended, although there is no source attesting to any significant building activity at Aachen in his time, apart from the building of thePalatine Chapel in Aachen (since 1929, cathedral) and the palatial presentation halls. Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814. Aachen became the focus of his court and the political centre of his empire. After his death, the king was buried in the church which he had built; his original tomb has been lost, while his alleged remains are preserved in the shrine where he was reburied after being declared a saint; his saintliness, however, was never very widely acknowledged outside the bishopric of Liège where he may still be venerated by tradition.[2]In 936, Otto I was crowned king of the kingdom in the collegiate church built by Charlemagne. While Otto II ruled, the nobles revolted and the West Franks raided Aachen in the ensuing confusion.[17] Aachen was attacked again, this time by Odo of Champagne who attacked the imperial palace while Conrad was absent. He relinquished it quickly and was killed soon thereafter.[18] Over the next 500 years, most kings of Germany destined to reign over the Holy Roman Empire were crowned in Aachen. Charles IV was not crowned in Aachen after his fatherJohn dies in battle, due to Aachen siding with Ludwig, in a dispute dating back twenty years. So he was crowned in Bonn.[19] The last king to be crowned here was Ferdinand I in 1531.[2][20]During the Middle Ages, Aachen remained a city of regional importance, due to its proximity toFlanders, achieving a modest position in the trade in woollen cloths, favoured by imperial privilege. The city remained a Free Imperial City, subject to the Emperor only, but was politically far too weak to influence the policies of any of its neighbours. The only dominion it had was overBurtscheid, a neighbouring territory ruled by a Benedictine abbess. It was forced to accept that all of its traffic must pass through the "Aachener Reich". Even in the late 18th century the Abbess of Burtscheid was prevented from building a road linking her territory to the neighbouring estates of the duke of Jülich; the city of Aachen even deployed its handful of soldiers to chase away the road-diggers.
16th through 18th Centuries
As an imperial city, Aachen held certain political advantages that allowed it to remain independent of the troubles of Europe for many years. It remained a direct vassal of the Holy Roman Empire throughout most of the Middle Ages. It also was the site of many important church councils. These included the Council of 836, and the Council of 1166, a council convened by the antipope Paschal III.[3] In 1598, following the invasion of Spanish troops from theNetherlands, Rudolf, deposed all Protestant office holders in Aachen and even went as far as expelling them from the city.[21] From the early 16th century, Aachen started losing its power and influence. It started with the crowning of emperors occurring not in Aachen but in Frankfurt, followed by the religious wars, and the great fire of 1656.[22] It then culminated in 1794, when the French, led by General Charles Dumouriez,[14] occupied Aachen.[20]Aachen became attractive as a spa by the middle of the 17th century, not so much because of the effects of the hot springs on the health of its visitors but because Aachen was then — and remained well into the 19th century — a place of high-level prostitution in Europe. Traces of this hidden agenda of the city's history is found in the 18th-century guidebooks to Aachen as well as to the other spas; the main indication for visiting patients, ironically, was syphilis; only by the end of the 19th century had rheuma become the most important object of cures at Aachen and Burtscheid. Aachen was chosen as the site of several important congresses and peace treaties: the first congress of Aachen (often referred to as Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in English) in 1668, leading to the First Treaty of Aachen in the same year which ended the War of Devolution.[23] Thesecond congress ended with the second treaty in 1748, finishing the War of the Austrian Succession.[2][24] In 1789, there was a constitutional crisis within the Aachen government.[25]
The 19th century
On 9 Feb. 1801, the Peace of Luneville removed the ownership of Aachen and the entire "left bank" of the Rhine from Germany and granted it to France.[14] In 1815, control of the town was passed to Prussia, by an act that was passed by the Congress of Vienna.[20] The third congresstook place in 1818 to decide the fate of occupied Napoleonic France.By the middle of the 19th century, industrialisation swept away most of the city's medieval rules of production and commerce, although the entirely corrupt remains of the city's medieval constitution was kept in place (compare the famous remarks of Georg Forster in his Ansichten vom Niederrhein) until 1801, when Aachen became the "chef-lieu du département de la Roer" in Napoleon's First French Empire. In 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Prussia took over and the city became one of its most socially and politically backward centres until the end of the 19th century.[2] Administered within the Rhine Province, by 1880 the population was 80,000. Starting in 1838, the railway from Cologne to Belgium passed through Aachen.[26] The city suffered extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions up to 1875 when the medieval fortifications were finally abandoned as a limit to building operations and new, less miserable quarters were built in the eastern part of the city, where drainage of waste liquids was easiest. In December 1880, the Aachen tramway network was opened, and in 1895 it was electrified.[27] In the 19th century and up to the 1930s, the city was important for the production of railway locomotives and carriages, iron, pins, needles, buttons, tobacco, woollen goods, and silk goods.
The 20th century
After World War I, Aachen was occupied by the Allies until 1930.[20] Aachen was one of the locations involved in the ill-fated Rhenish Republic. On October 21, 1923 an armed band took over city hall. Similar actions took place in Munchen-Gladbach, Duisburg, and Krefeld. This Republic lasted only about a year.[28] Aachen was heavily damaged during World War II. The city and its fortified surroundings were encircled 13 September–16 October 1944 by the US 1st Infantry Division and 3rd Armored Division in conjunction with the US 2nd Armored Division and 30th Infantry Division during the prolonged Battle of Aachen, later reinforced by US 28th Infantry Division elements. Direct assaults through the heavily defended city finally forced the German garrison to surrender on 21 October 1944.[29] Aachen was the first German city to be captured by the Allies, and its residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators.[30] The city was destroyed partially — and in some parts completely — during the fighting,[2] mostly by American artillery fire and demolitions carried out by the Waffen-SS defenders. Damaged buildings included the medieval churches of St. Foillan, St. Paul and St. Nicholas, and the Rathaus (city hall), althoughAachen Cathedral was largely unscathed. Only 4,000 inhabitants remained in the city; the rest had followed evacuation orders. Its first Allied-appointed mayor, Franz Oppenhoff, was murdered by an SS commando unit.
History of Aachen Jews
During the Roman period, Aachen was a site of a flourishing Jewish community. Later on, during the Carolingian empire, a Jewish community was found near the royal palace.[13] In 802, a Jew named Isaac accompanied the ambassador of Charlemagne to Harun al-Rashid. During the 13th Century, many Jews converted into Christianity, as shown in the records of church ST. Marry. In 1486, the Jews of Aachen offered gifts to Maximilian the first, during his coronation ceremony. In 1629, the Aachen Jewish community was expelled out of the city till 1667, when six Jews were allowed to move back to the city. Most of Aachen Jews settled in the nearby town of Burtscheid. On May 16, 1815, the Jewish community of the city offered an homage to the prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm the third. in its synagogue. The city synagogue was built in 1860 and destroyed during the Kristallnacht in 1938. A Jewish cemetery was acquired in 1851. 1,345 Jews lived in the city in 1933 and in 1939, after emigration and arrests 782 Jews were left in the city. After World War 2, 62 Jews lived in the city. In 2003, 1,434 Jews were living in Aachen.[31] In Jewish texts, the city of Aachen was called Aish, or Ash (אש).In 1372, Aachen became the first coin-minting city in the world to regularly place an Anno Dominidate on a general circulation coin, a groschen.The Scotch-Club in Aachen was the first discothèque; it has been open since 19 October 1959. Klaus Quirini as DJ Heinrich was the first DJ ever.The local specialty of Aachen is an originally hard type of sweet bread, baked in large flat loaves, called Aachener Printen. Unlike gingerbread (German: Lebkuchen), which is sweetened with honey, Printen are sweetened with sugar. Today, a soft version is sold under the same name which follows an entirely different recipe.Aachen is also famous for itscarnival (Karneval, Fasching), in which families dress in colorful costumes.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Georg_von_M%C3%B6llendorff
Germans in Korea have a long history, though they have never formed a very large population.The first German to set foot on Korean soil, in 1832, was the Lutheran missionary Karl Gützlaff, who is also credited with importing the potato. He was followed by Shanghai-based businessman Ernst Oppert, who from 1866 to 1868 made three attempts to force Korea open to foreign trade, and German consul to Japan Max von Brandt, who in 1870 landed at Busan in an attempt to open negotiations, but was sent away by Korean officials there. Prussian orientalistPaul Georg von Möllendorff lived in Korea from 1882 to 1885 as the director general of the customs service. One German trading company, H. C. Eduard Meyer & Co., set up operations inIncheon at his suggestion in 1886. Several Germans also became prominent in Emperor Gojong's administration; Japan-based bandmaster Franz Eckert composed the Anthem of the Korean Empire for the emperor in 1902, while Richard Wunsch served as Gojong's personal physician from 1901 to 1905, and Antoinette Sontag (the former housekeeper of Karl Ivanovich Weber) was hired as majordomo in charge of the palace's household affairs.[2]After the signing of the 1905 Eulsa Treaty, which deprived Korea of the right to conduct its own foreign relations, German diplomats in Korea were required to leave the country. Many more private individuals had departed by the time of the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.[3]However, when Hermann Lautensach visited Korea in 1933, there were still a handful living there, including an entire monastery of Benedictine monks near Wonsan, Kangwon-do.[4] They continue to operate a monastery at Waegwan, near Daegu.[2]Some Koreans settled in Germany during the 1960s and 1970s have begun returning to South Korea after retirement, bringing German spouses with them; this return migration has resulted in the creation of a "German Village" of roughly 75 households in South Gyeongsang's Namhae County.[5] The German population in South Korea shrank by roughly 25% between 1999 and 2005.[6]Ferdinand Krien set up the Imperial German Language School in Seoul, which ran from 1898 to 1911.[2] The German School Seoul International was founded in 1976 for the families of German expatriates in and near the South Korean capital.[7] The Goethe-Institut opened a reading room inPyongyang in 2004, but closed it in 2009 over censorship concerns.[8]Norbert Vollertsen, human rights activist who worked in North Korea from 1999 to 2001
