Sun Yat-sen Square, Ningbo, Public square in Ningbo, China.
Sun Yat-sen Square covers 8.38 hectares in central Ningbo, of which 6.27 hectares are green space. It combines the former Zhongshan Park, Ningbo's first public park (1929), with the former city sports stadium into three sections: a traditional culture park, a century-crossing plaza and a future plaza. The park gate, a 10-metre concrete triumphal arch with Doric columns, stands at the south end.
The site held Ningbo's prefectural and provincial government offices from the Tang dynasty, when governor Han Cha built the city, until the Xinhai Revolution. In 1927 a committee led by Yan Kangmao and Yu Zuoting raised funds from the Ningbo Chamber of Commerce to build Zhongshan Park, completed in autumn 1929 as Ningbo's first park. In 1998 the park and the former Ningbo Stadium were merged into the square.
The name recalls Sun Yat-sen, and the 1916 visit when he posed for a photograph with Ningbo figures in the building now called Yixian Lou, which has housed the Yongshang Celebrity Culture Exhibition Hall since November 2016. Nearby stands a set of Maori carved posts given by New Zealand's Waitakere in 1999, placed south of Zhang Cangshui's residence.
The square lies in the heart of Ningbo, with the historic gatehouse at its southern end and the sunken plaza and Future Plaza to the north. The former sports stadium area now holds a sunken plaza with a stage and ring seating, while the northwest corner has a small gym, basketball and tennis courts. The 1998 expansion removed the entrance fee.
In 1999, Waitakere, New Zealand, gifted a set of Maori carved totem poles to Ningbo; they stand south of Zhang Cangshui's former residence, inside the square. The poles mark the sister-city tie between the two places, a detail most visitors walk past on the way to the historic buildings.
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