Ningbo (; Ningbo dialect: gnin² poq⁷ , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Ningbo is the southern economic center of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, and is also the core city and center of the Ningbo Metropolitan Area. To the north, Hangzhou Bay separates Ningbo from Shanghai; to the east lies Zhoushan in the East China Sea; on the west and south, Ningbo borders Shaoxing and Taizhou respectively. As of the 2020 Chinese national census, the entire administrated area of Ningbo City had a population of 9.4 million (9,404,283), of which 4,479,635 lived in the built-up (or metro) area of its five urban districts. Within the next decade, the cities of Cixi, Yunhao and Fenghua will likely also be conurbated, expanding the Ningbo metro area to 8,140,660 inhabitants. Ningbo is one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in China, and is one of the five separate state-planning cities in China (the other four being Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Shenzhen), with the municipality possessing a separate state-planning status in many economic departments, rather than being governed by Zhejiang Province. Therefore, Ningbo has provincial-level autonomy in making economic and financial policies. In 2020, the GDP of Ningbo was CNY 1240.87 billion (US$191.68 billion), and it was ranked 12th among 300 cities in China. Moreover, Ningbo is among the wealthiest cities in China; it ranked 8th in terms of average yearly disposable income in the year of 2020. As of 2020, Ningbo has global headquarters and registered offices of over 100 listed companies, and many regional business headquarters. In 2021, Ningbo featured the seventh most listed companies of all cities in China. Furthermore, Ningbo was among the top 10 Chinese cities in the Urban Business Environment Report released by the Chinese state media China Central Television (CCTV) in 2019. As a city with rich culture and a long history dating back to the Jingtou Mountain Culture in 6300 BC and the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC, Ningbo was awarded "City of Culture in East Asia" by the governments of China, Japan, and Korea in 2016. Ningbo is one of the top 200 cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index. The