Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai

The legend tells of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, classmates whose love endures into death and ends with the two transforming into a pair of butterflies. Formed some 1,600 years ago in the Jin dynasty, it is one of China's four great folk legends; Ningbo is regarded as a key birthplace, with a temple and tomb to Liang Shanbo in old Yin county (today's Yinzhou) and rites and tales passed down for generations.

The legend spreads chiefly by word of mouth and has branched into opera, ballad-singing, music and temple-fair worship, remaining a living tradition in Ningbo and beyond.

In 2006 it was jointly declared by Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shaoxing in Zhejiang together with sites in Jiangsu, Shandong and Henan, and entered the first batch of national ICH as item I-7, ranking among the most widespread and influential of China's oral-tradition arts.

In Ningbo the legend is carried and presented mainly around the Liang-Zhu Culture Park in Yinzhou.