Qiliyu Lighthouse

Qiliyu Lighthouse

Qiliyu Lighthouse is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Qiliyu Lighthouse is located on Qiliyu Island at the mouth of the Yong River in Zhenhai District, Ningbo City. It was jointly built in the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign (1865) by the Zhejiang Maritime Customs, supervised by the British, and the Qing Dynasty’s Ning-Shao-Ta Dao. The lighthouse covers an area of 2.5 square meters. With an overall height of 10.1 meters, it originally housed a plant oil lamp. The tower is octagonal in shape, constructed from reinforced concrete, with each side of the base measuring 1.7 meters. There is an internal spiral concrete staircase leading from the base to the lantern room. Major renovations were carried out in 1872 and 1924. In 1995, the Ningbo Navigation Mark Bureau of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration relocated the original lighthouse to a reef about 100 meters north of Qiliyu Island after a new lighthouse was put into use, preserving it as an exhibit for visitors to view.

This lighthouse has a long history and is one of the earliest built in China and even the Far East. It is one of the few staffed lighthouses still in existence in Ningbo and holds significant value for studying the century-long evolution of Ningbo Port. It was designated as a district-level cultural relics protection unit on March 2, 2012, and was announced as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit in March 2013.