It was Saturday and the rate on my hotel room was about to quadruple for the night, so I figured I'd spend the morning on the beach and take an afternoon speedboat ferry to Ningbo for the night. The boat ride was through a pretty landscape of bays, islands, and peninsulas, many connected by impressive new suspension bridges, pretty at least where the green mountains have not been blasted apart to create more level land for container ship ports, shipyards, oil refineries, and highrise housing complexes. By the looks of all the enormous oil tankers waiting to dock, Shenjiamen must be a major oil importation port.


Ningbo is another prosperous business center at the confluence of several tidal rivers with ultra-modern skyscrapers and a flurry of new construction . It does not have much in the way of attractions, though, so for me was only a night stop on my way to Hangzhou. Coincidentally, the hotel I wandered into for a room near where the shuttle bus from the port dropped me off was across the street from a historic Portuguese church and not far from Ningbo's "Bund", a huge riverside entertainment center with restaurants devoted to every cuisine from around the globe, Irish bars, a German beer hall, English pubs, day spas and nightclubs. Indian food has never tasted quite so good to me.