Hangzhou (Chinese: 杭州; Hanyu Pinyin: Hángzhōu; Wade-Giles: Hang-chou) is a sub-provincial city in China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located 180 km southwest of Shanghai, the population in the city proper is now 1.75 million. By the end of 2003, Hangzhou had a registered population of 6.4 million including an urban registered population of 3.9 million. As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well known for its beautiful natural scenery, with the West Lake (Xī Hú, 西湖) as the most noteworthy location.
Hangzhou is located in northern Zhejiang province, eastern China, at the southern end of the Grand Canal of China, on the plain of the mid-lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Cháng Jiāng). The prefecture-level region of Hangzhou extends west to the border with the hilly-country Anhui Province, and east to the flat-land Hangzhou Bay. The city centre is built around the eastern and northern sides of the West Lake, just north of the Qiantang River.