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Hangzhou

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Hangzhou (Chinese: 杭州; pinyin: Hángzhōu; Wade–Giles: Hang-chou) is a sub-provincial city in China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located 180 km southwest of Shanghai, the population in the city proper is now 1.75 million. By the end of 2003, Hangzhou had a registered population of 6.4 million including an urban registered population of 3.9 million. As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well-known for its beautiful natural scenery, with the West Lake (Xī Hú, 西湖) as the most noteworthy location.

Geography

Hangzhou is located in northern Zhejiang province, eastern China, at the southern end of the Grand Canal of China, on the plain of the mid-lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Cháng Jiāng). The prefecture-level region of Hangzhou extends west to the border with the hilly-country Anhui Province, and east to the flat-land Hangzhou Bay. The city centre is built around the eastern and northern sides of the West Lake, just north of the Qiantang River.

History

Leifeng Pagoda on the West Lake

The celebrated Neolithic culture of Hemudu has been discovered to have inhabited this area as far back as seven thousand years ago, when rice was first cultivated in southeastern China.

The city of Hangzhou was founded about 2,200 years ago during the Qin Dynasty, it is listed as one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China, but the city wall was not constructed until the Sui Dynasty (591). It was the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom for more than 200 years, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period.

In 1089, Su Shi constructed a 2.8 km long dike across the West Lake, which Qing Emperor Qianlong considered particularly attractive in the early morning of the spring time. The lake, which itself is artificial, is largely surrounded by mountains. The Baoshi Pagoda sits on one of these hills to the north.

Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty from the early 12th century until the Mongol invasion of 1276, it was known as Lin'an back then. It served as the seat of the imperial government, a center of trade and entertainment, and the nexus of the main branches of the civil service. During that time, the city was the gravity centre of Chinese civilization as what used to be considered the "central China" in the north was taken by the Jin, an ethnic minority dynasty. Numerous philosophers, politicians, and men of literature, including some of the most celebrated poets in Chinese history such as Su Shi (苏轼), Lu You (陆游), and Xin Qiji (辛弃疾) came here to live and die.

The population of Hangzhou was probably around 200,000 in the year 1100 and may have numbered approximately 450,000 by 1170. In the next century, commercial expansion, an influx of refugees from the conquered north, and the growth of the official and military establishments, led to a corresponding population increase and the city developed well outside its 9th century ramparts. Historian Jacques Gernet has estimated that the population of Hangzhou numbered well over one million by 1276, making it the most populous city in the world at the time. (Official Chinese census figures from the year 1270 listed some 186,330 families in residence and probably failed to count non-residents and soldiers.) It is believed that Hangzhou was the largest city in the world from 1180 to 1315 and from 1348 to 1358. [1]

The Venetian Marco Polo visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century and referred to the city as "beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world." "The number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof."

Buddha carvings in Feilai Feng Caves

Because of the large population and densely-crowded (often multi-story) wooden buildings, Hangzhou was particularly vulnerable to fires. Major conflagrations destroyed large sections of the city in 1132, 1137, 1208, 1229, 1237, and 1275 while smaller fires occurred nearly every year. The 1237 fire alone was recorded to have destroyed 30,000 dwellings. To combat this threat, the government established an elaborate system for fighting fires, erected watchtowers, devised a system of lantern and flag signals to identify the source of the flames and direct the response, and charged more than 3,000 soldiers with the task of putting out fires.

The city remained an important port until the middle Ming Dynasty when its harbor slowly silted up.

As late as the latter part of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the city was an important center of Chinese Jewry, and may have been the original home of the more well-known Kaifeng Jewish community.

Hangzhou was ruled by the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi 蒋介石) from 1928 to 1949. On May 3, 1949, the People's Liberation Army entered Hangzhou and the city came under Communist control.

Sights

Economy

Tea plantation in Hangzhou

Hangzhou's industries have traditionally been textile, silk and machinery, but electronics and other light industries are developing, especially since the start of the new open economy in 1992.

Tea is produced on the outskirts of town at Longjing (龙井) or Dragon's Well. It is the only remaining place where tea is still baked by hand and is said to produce the finest green tea in all of China.

The GDP per capita was ¥38247 (ca. US$4620), ranked no. 8 among 659 Chinese cities.

The 2005 overall rank of Hangzhou among all the Chinese cities is No.5. In 2004, Forbes magazine ranked Hangzhou the number 1 city in China for business.

Hangzhou is also one of China's most popular tourist destinations and is an important part of the local economy. The West Lake has been a tourist destination for many centuries.

Climate

Hangzhou has hot and humid summers and cool, relatively dry winters. In July the average high temperature is 33 degrees Celsius; in January the average high is 8 degree Celsius. Hangzhou receives an average annual rainfall of 1450 mm.

Transportation

Old houses of Hangzhou in oil paintings by Chen Cheng-po

Hangzhou is serviced by the Xiaoshan International Airport which has direct flights to Japan, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as numerous domestic routes. Hangzhou Railway Station and Hangzhou East Railway Station serve the city centre, from which one can catch a train to Shanghai and almost anywhere in China. A Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train Line has been proposed. North, east, south and west long-distance bus stations offer regular large and small coach services to towns within Zhejiang province and surrounding provinces.

Public transport within Hangzhou city is primarily in the form of an extensive public bus network. Most standard buses cost one yuan per a one-way trip (any length), and air-conditioned buses (with numbers prefixed with a K) cost two yuan per trip. As the city area is so flat, bicycles were traditionally very popular, and are still popular with the less well-off residents, though many now use electric bicycles and scooters. Taxis are also very common, and are uniformly priced at ten yuan for the first four kilometres, and two yuan per kilometre thereafter. The construction of a subway system had long been planned, and recently received approval from the central government. The completion of the first two lines is expected in 2010.

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport located just outside of the city in the Xiaoshan district is one of the major secondary international airports in China, with regular passenger flights to most destinations in China and also Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

Colleges and universities

Hangzhou Teachers College Campus (soccer field in foreground, foreign student dorms in background)
  • Public
    • China Academy of Art (中国美术学院) (founded in 1928)
    • China Jiliang University (中国计量学院)
    • Zhejiang University of Technology (浙江工业大学)
    • Zhejiang University of Science & Technology (浙江科技学院)
    • Zhejiang Institute of Science & Technology (浙江工程学院)
    • Zhejiang Ocean University (浙江海洋学院)
    • Zhejiang College of TCM (浙江中医学院)
    • Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics[2](浙江财经学院)
    • Zhejiang Institute of Electronics Engineering (杭州电子工业学院)
    • Hangzhou Teachers College (杭州师范学院)[3] (Located on 文一西路)
    • Hangzhou University of Commerce (杭州商学院)
  • Private
    • Zhejiang Shuren University (浙江树人学院)
    • Zhejiang University City College(浙江大学城市学院)

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

Astronomical phenomena

For the urban area of Hangzhou, the next total solar eclipse will be solar eclipse of 2009-Jul-22 which will occur on July 22 2009.

Quotes

Hangzhou appears in the Chinese saying

Born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou, die in Liuzhou.

Another saying is:

There is heaven above, but there is Su(zhou) and Hang(zhou) below. (上有天堂，下有苏杭)

References

  • Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life In China On the Eve of the Mongol Invasion: 1250-1276. H.M. Wright, translator. Stanford: University Press, 1962. ISBN 8047-0720-0 (This work focuses almost exclusively on life in Hangzhou in the period described.)

Sister Cities

Boston, Massachusetts (which is a prosperous touristic and cultural destination in the U.S., as Hangzhou is in China)

Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Oviedo, Spain

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hangzhou.
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