The Tianyi Pavilion, which adjoins the Moon Lake with elegant sceneries, is a book-storing tower with the longest history existent in our country, the oldest library existent in Asia, and one of the three largest family libraries existent in the world.
In the 4th year of Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty（the year 1665）, Fan Wenguang, the great grandson of Fan Qin, additionally built pond pavilion, planted trees around the pavilion and constructed artificial hills arranging rocks into piles shaped like lifelike and exquisite animals such as “nine lions and one elephant”, which is characteristic of gardening in the Yangtze River Delta.
In 1994, Ningbo Museum and Cultural Protection Bureau merged together, and therefore the Tianyi Pavilion Museum was established. Now the museum has been expanded into three functional areas of book-storing culture, exhibition, and gardening leisure, which blends book-storing culture, history of society, culture and arts into one and becomes a window to show history and culture of Ningbo.
