page_title: Hangzhou
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Hangzhou / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Jade cong, Liangzhu Culture, 5200-2200 BC. Shanghai Museum
context_page_description: Hangzhou, also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, People's Republic of China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay, which separates Shanghai and Ningbo. Hangzhou grew to prominence as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium. The city's West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site immediately west of the city, is among its best-known attractions. A study conducted by PwC and China Development Research Foundation saw Hangzhou ranked first among "Chinese Cities of Opportunity". Hangzhou is also considered a World City with a "Beta+" classification according to GaWC.
  Hangzhou is classified as a sub-provincial city and forms the core of the Hangzhou metropolitan area, the fourth-largest in China. During the 2010 Chinese census, the metropolitan area held 21.102 million people over an area of 34,585 km². Hangzhou prefecture had a registered population of 10,360,000 in 2019.
  Hangzhou was repeatedly rated as the best commercial city in mainland China by Forbes.
context_section_description: The celebrated neolithic culture of Hemudu is known to have inhabited Yuyao, 100 km (62 mi) south-east of Hangzhou, as far back as seven thousand years ago. It was during this time that rice was first cultivated in southeast China. Excavations have established that the jade-carving Liangzhu culture (named for its type site just northwest of Hangzhou) inhabited the area immediately around the present city around five thousand years ago. The first of Hangzhou's present neighborhoods to appear in written records was Yuhang, which probably preserves an old Baiyue name.
caption: A ceremonial jade cong of the Liangzhu culture.
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