About - English

This book is a look back at some of the hardest years since I left Germany a little over 30 years ago. But it is also a tribute to the sincere warmth, sympathy and support of countless Chinese people, not only in Ningbo, who supported my wife in her 42-month battle with cancer.

It is astonishing with what false eyes China is still viewed in large parts of the world. Personally, I have been able to experience a development here that can only be compared to the reconstruction of Germany. My mother, born in 1926, often described to me how people had to build a functioning life in dignity and prosperity from scratch. I can now experience this in a comparable way here in China.

During the Japanese occupation, Ningbo was a stronghold of resistance. Numerous locations have been preserved and are listed as historical monuments. Unlike in Germany, the atrocities of the occupiers, the Allies, are not glossed over here.

Ningbo is a city with a long history. Although the name has changed from time to time, the area is one of the oldest known settlements. There is talk of up to 7000 years. Excavations in "Hemudu" have confirmed this. Later, Ningbo was a starting point of the "Silk Road on the Sea" and contributed significantly to the economic development of not only China. Ningbo is connected by the "Grand Canal" through several provinces to Beijing. Also in the war against the British and French occupation in 1841 and 1885, Zhenhai, today's district of Ningbo, was an important strategic point.

The history of the city and the province is changeable and there were also times when Ningbo played a rather unimportant role as an almost neighbor of Shanghai. If you wanted to be successful, you had to relocate to Shanghai or go abroad. Even today, a large part of Shanghai's inhabitants can be traced back to families from Ningbo. The group of emigrants sees itself as "Ningbo Bang", which is a kind of family of the successful. Some of the Ningbo Bang members have amassed great wealth and returned it to society in China and abroad as philanthropists.

As everywhere in China, the business acumen here is  very strong and a network of mutual help is developing in a natural way. My wife and I were able to learn that this sense of community is not limited to Chinese people, but makes no distinction between skin color, origin or level of education.

In my experience and from many conversations with my students and colleagues at the university, I have learned to understand that the Chinese people see themselves as one big family. This is also where I see the great power that lies in the development here. The pursuit of security and sustainable development towards a peaceful future of prosperity and independence.

Ningbo as a city also has a dynamic development and the modern city has literally been recreated. When I arrived here in 2002, the territorial reform had just been completed, which laid the foundations for economic development and the improvement of infrastructure and sustainable development that went hand in hand. Before the territorial reform, Ningbo (Ning Po) was about the size of Frankfurt (Hesse-Germany) with about 600,000 inhabitants. In 2023, this is now about 6,000,000 inhabitants, i.e. 10 times as many. This growth was necessary in order to create a corresponding potential for the establishment of the required environmentally friendly and advanced industries. Accordingly, universities are creating skilled workers who now also have the opportunity to settle here in the region. The supply of housing is sufficient and is growing together with the high demand. Development goes hand in hand and the manufacturing industry is also the driving force behind this sustainable development. In contrast to many Western countries, especially Germany, owning one's own apartment with a good standard plays a major role in the private life of the Chinese. On the other hand, my students often smiled at the "retro idea" of the Germans, who prefer a bicycle to a car and waste weeks every year on vacations and carry the money abroad instead of investing it wisely. It's not that the Chinese don't like to travel and were really unhappy during the COVID-19 days that it wasn't possible, but this travel is rather exhausting. You may have heard of 5 countries in 7 days.

Chinese people enjoy their freedom and not only when traveling. It is important to be able to freely choose one's profession, life partner and investments. Based on this, a modern digital smart city will be created where once there were swamps and rice paddies. People are at the center of these plans and emphasis is placed on providing safety and the highest possible quality of life. Subways, high-speed trains (350 km/h) and modern roads to relieve traffic are only part of this future-oriented development. Just as an indication of the speed of development. When I arrived in Ningbo, the night ferry to Shanghai had just been discontinued and a new highway with a bypass of the provincial capital Hangzhou was opened. However, at that time the train from Ningbo to Shanghai took about 6 hours on its long way around the Hangzhou River Delta. Today, in comparison, it only...... please see more in the book