Hangzhou

About Hangzhou

Hangzhou (Chinese: 杭州; Hangzhounese pronunciation: [ɦɑ̃.tse], Standard Mandarin pronunciation: [xǎŋ.ʈʂóu] ), 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 (13,353 sq mi). 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. As the headquarters of Internet industry enterprises such as Alibaba, Hangzhou has strongly attracted people who work in the Internet industry. Therefore, in the new growing cities that became popular in the 2010s, Hangzhou is one of the main representative cities. Since 2014, the rapid growth of population has caused the rapid growth of local housing prices. In September 2015, Hangzhou was awarded the 2022 Asian Games. It will be the third city in China to host the Asian Games after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010. Hangzhou, an emerging technology hub and home to the e-commerce giant Alibaba, also hosted the eleventh G20 summit in 2016.

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• Population: 22.6M inhabitants
• Demonyms: