Ningbo is an important port city in the world and a frontier of opening up in China. After it opened as a trading port in the late Qing Dynasty, a great number of foreigners flowed to China and stayed in Ningbo for political, economic, cultural and diplomatic events with a focus on missionary. In a first-hand manner, they were able to experience and understand Ningbo regional culture in an unprecedented depth. The foreigners' knowledge of Ningbo challenged the prevalent negative view of China that Western societies held at the time, and reshaped their overall perception of China.

In missionary affairs, by getting to know the regional culture of Ningbo, the missionaries were able to adapt their strategies and develop an educational missionary approach of “Confucius plus Jesus”, which facilitated the acceptance of Christian beliefs among the lower classes of Ningbo. Finally, the exploration of regional culture in Ningbo by foreigners in the late Qing Dynasty profoundly influenced the development of Western Sinology from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.