The barman, JC, at Easy cocktail bar in Ningbo’s Moon Lake Flourishing Garden district, twirls a bottle before catching it in the tumbler. I’m taking a break in this bustling entertainment area whose buildings riff off Ningbo’s san-hoyuan architecture, or “three-section-compound” – a style consisting of a central building with two perpendicular wings built with the local grey brick.

But “compound” doesn’t do the area justice; there are are plenty of atmospheric back alleys just off the main drag to dive in and explore. The emphasis here is on higher-end restaurants, spas and bars, along with the international coffee-shop chains that seem to breed like rabbits across the planet. For now, as with Ningbo as a whole, tourists have yet to discover Moon Lake Flourishing Garden.

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