There are numerous temples and pagodas to be visited in the countryside around Ningbo, but unless you have an extra day to fill here, they offer few contrasts with their counterparts elsewhere in China. Perhaps the most interesting is Baoguo Si (daily 7am-4.30pm; ¥5), some 15km northwest of town, the oldest wooden building south of the Yangzi. Buses #331 and #332 run every thirty minutes from just north of Xinjiang Bridge, out into a landscape of endless green paddy fields broken only occasionally by villages with their obligatory duckponds. After about forty minutes you reach the temple, nestling into a hill which rises from emerald green at its base to a deep green, darkly forested summit. The temple itself is one of the oldest wooden buildings in China, built in 1013 and restored under the Qing, but left bare so that its structure can be clearly seen. The entire hall was originally constructed without nails, relying on its interlocking structure to stay upright, although every Ningbo schoolchild knows the workmanship has started to fall apart in recent years and nails have been drilled in. Beyond the temple, continue up the steps to a pavilion - the view of the temple is half-concealed by trees from here, but there's a fine vista of the flat lands beyond the ridge, with ribbons of water threading through the paddies into the distance.

Southeast of the city are a couple more sites which can be combined into a single excursion. Ayuwang Si , the temple of king Asoka, is about 20km east of town, on the slopes of Tai Ba Shan. Built in the fifth century, it's notable for its miniature stupa which allegedly contained a cranium bone of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, until the Cultural Revolution, when Red Guards spirited it away. One of the monks shuffling around can give a heartfelt, tearful recount of this tragic episode. The architecture is rightly renowned, too - a spectacular blend of orange tile and dark red wood against the green of the hill, with cool grey steps and a refreshingly shadowy interior (daily 6.30am-4.30pm; ¥3). Bus #82 runs out here from near the ferry terminal, but it might be more comfortable and quicker to take a minibus from Ningbo's East bus station - they leave the station every ten minutes nonstop to the temple, while the public bus is overcrowded and makes frequent stops. Buses #514 and #604 run from Xinjiang Bridge and Dongmen Kou to East station. You can also rent a private car and driver from a travel service to see these sights, although this option is far more expensive.

A few kilometres farther on from Ayuwang Si, the Children of Heaven Temple - Tiantong Si (daily 5am-5.30pm; ¥3) - is a splendid collection of buildings at the base of a group of hills, set deep in the forest. Founded in the third century AD, this is one of the largest monasteries in China, with 963 halls and many important Buddhist works of art - the Zen Buddhist sect considers this their second most important pilgrimage site in the country. At the centre of it all there's a very large, very fat Buddha with an enormous smile. You may also see a crowd of Japanese visitors - the Japanese monk Dogen came here to study in 1223 and on his return home founded the Sotoshu sect, which now has some eight million adherents in Japan. From Ayuwang Si, there are frequent minibuses that go directly to Tiantong Si.

A little farther afield, Chiang Kaishek's birthplace sits in the delightful small town of XIKOU , 63km south of Ningbo, characterized by verdant paddy fields and (increasingly) flotillas of Taiwanese tour groups. The house where Chiang was born no longer stands, but some of his childhood haunts, including his grade school and his ancestral graveyard, still remain. To get here, take a bus from the East station bound for Fenghua (ask the driver where to get off).