Editing Ningbo (section)

===Tang and Song dynasty===

[[File:Tianfeng Tower.jpg|thumb|left|Tianfeng Tower, originally built during the Tang dynasty, is the symbol of old Ningbo.]]
[[File:A rock garden inside Tianyi Chamber.JPG|thumb|left|A rock garden inside Tianyi Chamber]]

Since the [[Tang dynasty]], Ningbo has been an important commercial port. Arab traders lived in Ningbo during the [[Song dynasty]] when it was known as Mingzhou or Siming,<ref name="Hagras 102">{{Cite journal|last=Hagras|first=Hamada Muhammed|date=2017-06-20|title=An Ancient Mosque In Ningbo, China "Historical And Architectural Study"|url=https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/72535-EN-an-ancient-mosque-in-ningbo-china-histor.pdf|journal=Journal of Islamic Architecture|volume=4|issue=3|pages=102–113|doi=10.18860/jia.v4i3.3851|issn=2356-4644|doi-access=free}}</ref> since the ocean-going trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time.<ref>
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</ref><ref>
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|title=Islam: an illustrated history
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|author1=Greville Stewart Parker Freeman-Grenville
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|edition=illustrated, revised
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|archive-date=27 May 2013
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}}
</ref> It was a well known center of ocean-going commerce with the foreign world.<ref>
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|archive-date=12 December 2013
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}}
</ref> These merchants did not intermingle with native Chinese, instead practicing their own customs and religion and inhabiting ghettos. They did not try to proselytize Islam to the Chinese.<ref>
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|title=Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia
|year=2009
|author1=Tan Ta Sen
|author2=Dasheng Chen
|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
|edition=illustrated
|isbn=978-981-230-837-5
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|access-date=17 July 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212044645/http://books.google.com/books?id=vIUmU2ytmIIC&pg=PA94&dq=mosque+ningpo&hl=en&ei=VwrcTdTRPOLf0QG_7tC5Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAzgy
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</ref> There was also a large Jewish community in Ningbo, as evidenced by the fact that, after a major flood destroyed [[Torah]] scrolls in [[Kaifeng]] in 1642, a replacement was sent to the [[Kaifeng Jews]] by the [[Jews]] at Ningbo.<ref>[[Xu Xin (Judaic scholar)|Xu Xin]], ''The Jews of Kaifeng'', Ktav Publishing House c 2003</ref>