London, UK to Ningbo, China from £400

🌍 About Ningbo, China

Ningbo is where tangyuan came from — the glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame, sugar and lard that the rest of China eats at Lunar New Year were invented here in the Song dynasty, and the local version is still the benchmark. It's a working port at the mouth of the Maritime Silk Road, and the food leans hard on seafood: the dish to order is drunken crab (zuixie), raw crab cured in rice wine, soft and cold and not for everyone — get it anyway. For something quieter, Tianyi Pavilion is the oldest surviving private library in China, built in 1561 and still standing by its little lake. Come March–May or September–November for mild days. Skip the May–June rains and September, when typhoons hit; summers are sticky-hot, winters cold and damp.