History Evolution
　　Hangzhou has a long history of over 2,200 years since the Qin Dynasty established a county here for governance. Hangzhou is one of the origin places of China civilization. As early as over 4,700 years ago, people had lived and multiplied here generation by generation and produced Liangzhu Culture which has been called as the dawn of civilization.
　　Hangzhou was once the place to be built as the capital for State Wu and Sate Yue in the Five Dynasties and the Southern Song Dynasty and served as one of seven great ancient capitals of our country.
　　Hangzhou was called as Qiantang in the ancient. The name as Hangzhou appeared in the history for the first time when the Sui Dynasty abolished Qiantang Eparchy and set up Hangzhou in the 9th year of Kaihuang Period. In the 3rd year （1129）of Jianyan Period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong transited to Hangzhou that located in the south of China and promoted Hangzhou as Lin’an Prefecture. In the 8th year of Shaoxing Period （1138）, the Southern Song Dynasty formally settled at Lin’an, determined it as the capital and lasted over 140 years. In the first reign year of the Republic of China（1912）, the original Qiantang and Renhe County was merged as Hang County. In the 16th year of the Republic of China（1927）, the urban area of Hang County was separated to set up Hangzhou City, which has became a city since then. The liberation of Hangzhou on May 3rd in 1949 has opened the new historic chapters for the development of Hangzhou.

Geographic Location
　　Serving as the capital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou is the centre of the provincial politics, economy, science, education and culture, is a national key scenic tourism city, a historical & cultural famous city and is a deputy provincial level city. Hangzhou stands at the south wing of the Yangtze River Delta, the west end of Hangzhou Bay, the lower reaches of Qiantang River, the south end of Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Cannel and is an important central city of the Yangtze River Delta and the transportation hinge of southeastern China. The geographic coordinate of the heart of Hangzhou City is at 30°16' of north latitude and 120°12' of east longitude.

Administrative Division
　　Eight districts in terms of Shangcheng District, Xiacheng District, Jianggan District, Gongshu District, Xihu District, Gaoxin (Binjiang) District, Xiaoshan District and Yuhang District, three county level cities in terms of Jiande, Fuyang and Lin’an and two counties as Tonglu and Chun’an are subordinated to Hangzhou City which covers the total area of 16,596sq.km of which 3,068 sq.km. is for the urban area.

Resources and Climate
　　Hangzhou enjoys the natural surroundings that is melted with rivers, lakes and mountains. The hillock and highland cover 65.6％, the plain covers 26.4％ and rivers, lakes and water reservoirs cover 8％ of the total area of the whole city which is passed by the world longest man-made cannel – Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Cannel and Qiantang River which is famous for grand tides. The west, middle and south of Hangzhou belong to middle and low hilly land in the west of Zhejiang and the northeast of Hangzhou belongs to plains of the north of Zhejiang with crossed rivers, dense lakes and rich products. Hangzhou has enjoyed the reputation as “The town of fish and rice”, “The capital of silk” and “The paradise of the world”.

　　Hangzhou has a great number of living creatures types of which 13 types are for the national Grade I protection animals, 55 types are for the national Grade II protection animals and 13 types are for Grade II protection animals. The forest coverage rate of the whole city is 62.8%. As for mineral resources, there are large and intermediate non-metal and metal mineral deposits. Changhua, Lin’an produces a kind of world rarely seen blood stone which is the gem for collection stones and seal stones.

　　Hangzhou belongs to subtropical monsoon climate with distinct four seasons and is mild and moist with sufficient sunshine and abundant rainfall. The annual average temperature is 17.5℃, the average relative humidity is 69.6％, the annual rainfall is 1,139mm and the annual sunshine time is 1,762 hours.

Honors
　　In 2001 and 2002, Hangzhou was honored as “Habitat Award of the United Nations” and “International Garden City” respectively;
　　Hangzhou has been selected as “Strongly Recommended Investment City” by Taiwan Association of Electric Machinery and Electronics Industry for eight consecutive years since 2000;
　　Hangzhou has been selected as the No. 1 of “The Best Cities of Overall Investment Surroundings among China’s Cities” by World Bank for four years in succession since 2004;
　　 In（2002-2003）Development Report on China’s Cities issued in 2004 and the Competitive Power Report on Global Cities (2005～2006) issued in 2006, the city’s comprehensive development capability of Hangzhou was ranked as the 6th among all national large and intermediate cities, as the 85th as for the global comprehensive competitive power and such ranking was the 8th place among cities of China and the 5th place among cities in the mainland of China;
　　 Hangzhou has taken the first place as “The Best Top Ten Commercial Cities Billboard of the Mainland of China” selected by the US magazine Forbes for four years in succession since 2004;
　　 In 2006, Hangzhou was designated as “The Best Tourism City of China” by the State Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China and World Tourism Organization of the United Nations;
　　In October 2007, Hangzhou won the International Tourism Golden Star Award;
In November 2007, Hangzhou took the first place as China’s Top Ten Leisure Cities;
In December 2007, Hangzhou took the first place as China’s Top Ten Most Happy Cities;In January 2008, Hangzhou was honored as “China’s Most Vibrant City of Civil Economy”.
　　Besides, Hangzhou has won many honors as National Sanitary City, National Greening Example City and National Environment Protection Example City etc. Hangzhou is building the city brand as “Study in Hangzhou, Live in Hangzhou and Establish Business in Hangzhou”.