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China Information » Places in China » Zhejiang Province
Places in China: Zhejiang Province
The name of Zhejiang Province is sometimes abbreviated to 'Zhe". The name of the province is derived from the old name of the Qiantang River which passes through the provincial capital of Hangzhou. The river is now called Zhejiang which means 'crooked river'.
The municipality of Shanghai is to the north of Zhejiang Province while Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces form its other borders. The East China Sea is on the eastern border, making Zhejiang a coastal province of the People's Republic of China.
Zhejiang was under the nominal control of the unified Chinese state from 221 BC although it was largely a frontier area at that time. Later, under the Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal of China was built, connecting Hangzhou to the North China Plain, bringing the province into more contact with the centres of Chinese civilization.
Hangzhou became prosperous and quite important as the capital of the Han Chinese Southern Song Dynasty after 1127. Opulence and luxury abounded in the city and its province from then until the present day. Among visitors to Hangzhou, Marco Polo referred to the city as 'Kinsay' and called it 'the finest and noblest city' on Earth.
The land area of Zhejiang Province including the islands which also are part of the province is 101,000 square kilometres. There are 47,200,000 inhabitants of this very wealthy province. The population density is rather high at 464 persons per square kilometre.
The people of Zhejiang are almost entirely Han Chinese with less than one percent being made up of She, Hui, Manchu, and Miao.
Although a blue-green ceramic was highly-produced in Zhejiang until into the Ming Dynasty, the present products of the province include rice, tea and silk. The artists of Zhejiang also have renowned skill in paper cutting. Of course, being a coastal province, fishing is very successful as an income producer.
Being near to Shanghai has encouraged entrepreneurship in the province. Small businesses offer low-cost exports.
The 3000 small islands, which are part of the province, and coastal towns deal in tourism to a great degree. Many Buddhist attractions bring visitors to this province. One of the outstanding destinations is Guoqing Temple with its Hall of 500 Arhats.
Zhejiang has a subtropical monsoon climate with short, rather-mild winters and long, very hot summers.
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