Print from steel engraving titled Vue de Hang-tcheou Capitale de la province de Tche-kiang, published in a volume of L'Univers, Histoire et description de tous les peuples, approx. page size 22.5 x 13.5 cm.

Hang-chou,

Pinyin Hangzhou, conventional Hangchow, city in northern Chekiang sheng (province), China. It is the provincial capital. The city stands on the north bank of the Ch'ien-t'ang River estuary at the head of Hang-chou Bay. It has water communications with the interior of Chekiang to the south, is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, and is linked to the network of canals and waterways that cover the Yangtze River delta area to the north. The city stands at the foot of a scenic range of hills, the Hsi-t'ien-mu Shan (“Eye of Heaven Mountains”), and on the shore of the famous Hsi (“West”) Lake, celebrated in poetry and paintings for its beauty and a favourite imperial retreat. Hang-chou's buildings and gardens are also renowned, and it is situated among hills and valleys in which some of the most famous monasteries in China are located.

The county of Ch'ien-t'ang was first established at this site under the Ch'in dynasty (221–206 BC) but did not begin to develop until the 4th and 5th centuries AD when the Yangtze River delta area began to be settled. It became a major local centre with the completion of the Chiang-nan Canal (then the southern section of the Grand Canal) in 609. During the Five Dynasties (907–960), Hang-chou was the capital of the state of Wu-yüeh. In the later Sung period, northern China fell to the Juchen (Chin) dynasty, and the Sung dynasty, then confined to southern China, made Hang-chou (then known as Lin-an) their capital. A centre of commerce, it was visited in the late 13th century by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who called it Kinsai, or Quinsay; it then had an estimated population of 1,000,000–1,500,000.

Although it never again reached the peak of importance that it had achieved as capital of the Southern Sung dynasty (1126–1279), Hang-chou remained of importance. Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Ch'ing (1644–1911) dynasties it was a superior prefecture, as well as the provincial capital of Chekiang. It became immensely wealthy, being at the centre of a fertile rice-growing area as well as the site of the most important silk industries in China. It also was famous as a centre of culture, producing numerous writers, painters, and poets. Its importance as a port dwindled, however, as Hang-chou Bay gradually silted up and as its outport, Kan-p'u, became useless. From the 14th century its trade gradually shifted to Ning-po and, in the 19th century, to the new city of Shanghai. During the Taiping Rebellion the city fell to the rebels in 1861 and suffered severe damage.