Hangzhou is situated along the southeastern coast of China, on the lower reaches of Qiantang River, a famous national tourist city with cultural civilization and history. It is the provincial capital with vice provincial level, also the center of politics, economy and culture as well as the economic development hub in the southern flank of Yangtze River Delta.

Located in the subtropical monsoon climate area, Hangzhou enjoys distinct seasons, mild and humid weather with the annual average temperature of 16.2©bC, non-frost period of over 230 days and an average annual precipitation of 1321 mm. Its northwest and southwest areas belong to the Zhongshan highland of Zhejiang Province with Qingliang Peak as its highest point of 1787 meters above sea level which located along the boarder between Zhejiang and Anhui Province. Its northeast and southeast areas are plains of north Zhejiang with rivers densely distributed. The land area of the city covers 16,596 square kilometers, highland covers 65.6% and plain covers 26.4%, rivers and lakes cover 8%. Its downtown area situated in the jointing point of highland and plains, terrain tilts from southwest to northeast with an average altitude of 100 meters in its southwest and an altitude of 3-6 meters of plain in the northeast. It is 33 km from the south across the city to the north and 12 km from the east to the west, covering 683 square kilometers. There are 6 districts under its jurisdiction, namely Shang Cheng, Xia Cheng, Jiang Gan, Gong Shu, Xi Hu and Bing Jiang, and 5 cities, namely Xiao Shan, Yu Hang, Fu Yang, Jian De and Lin An and 2 counties as Tong Lu and Chun An. The population of the city by the year 1997 is 6.07 million, of which 1.69 million of the down town areas.

Hangzhou is one of the cradles for Chinese civilization. Its ˇ°Liangzhu Cultureˇ± could be dated back to 4700 years ago with human living in this area. As one of the seven ancient capitals and a famous ˇ°home of cultureˇ± in China, for 2200 years ever since the Qin Dynasty, the Wu and Yue Kingdoms and the Southern Song Dynasty set up their capitals in Hanghou. Ever since the 3rd session of the11th plenary of the Party and the reform and opening policy, Hangzhou has witnessed a compelling achievements in economic and social development with its great efforts.