Shaoxing city is located in the central-northern part of Zhejiang Province, and south of the Qiantang river mouth, linking Ningbo to the east, Taizhou and Jinghua to the south, and Hangzhou to the west, facing Jiaxing to the north crossing the Qiantang River. The city is located in the meeting point of three kinds of geographic configurations namely mountainous and hilly area of west and east Zhejiang and the plain of north Zhejiang, forming a geomorphology of surrounding mountains, basins in the center and concentrated plains. The terrain is in form of the Chinese character SAN which means mountain. The west is Longmen Mountain, Kuaiji Mountain is in the middle, and Siming-Tiantai Mountain in the east and southeast. Located between the mountains are Xinsheng Basin of Caoe River, Sanjie-Zhangzhen Basin, and Zhuji Basin of Puyang River. The terrain tilts from southwest to northeast, the average altitude is about 5 meters in the Shaoyu Plain in the north, while the average altitude of the main ranges of the four mountains in the south reaches 500 meters and above. In general, the geomorphology of the city can be summarized as four mountains, three basins, two rivers and one plain. The distance from the east to the west is 130 kilometers, and the wide from the south to the north is 116 kilometers, the total area is 7901 square kilometers, in which hills and mountains occupy 66.07%, basins 16.48%, and plains 17.45%. The area of farm land by the end of 1997 is 167.45 thousand hectares.

Shaoxing was called Yuyue in ancient times, and served as capital of Yue Kingdom in the period Spring and Autumn and Warring States. In the 25th year of emperor Zheng of Qin Dynasty ( 222 B.C. ), Kuiaji Prefecture was established in Yue place, with jurisdiction over 20 counties covering the southern part of Jiangsu and majority of Zhejiang of today. In the 9th year of Kaihuang of Sui Dynasty ( 589 ), Kuaiji Prefecture was renamed as Wuzhou, with jurisdiction over Kuaiji County. In the 1st year of Daye ( 605 ), Wuzhou was renamed as Yuezhou, with jurisdiction over Shanyin. In the Tang and Northern Song Dynasty, the jurisdiction covered 8 counties namely Shanyin, Kuaiji, Xiaoshan, Zhuji, Yuyao, Shangyu, Yan and Xinchang. The number of counties under its jurisdiction had been stable for a long time since then. In the 4th year of Jianyan of the Southern Song Dynasty ( 1130 ), the emperor Zhaogou ( Gaozong ) visited Yuezhou, and in the second year he changed the name of the place to Shaoxing which means to construct forest of ten thousand generation and begin the great undertaking of a hundred emperors. Zhaogou then upgraded Yuezhou to Shaoxing Fu imitating the story of Xingliangzhou of Dezong of Tang Dynasty. That is how the name Shaoxing came from. In the 13th year of Yuanzhiyuan ( 1276 ), the name was changed to Shaoxing Lu. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the name was changed back to Shaoxing Fu. In the 24th year of the Republic of China ( 1935 ), the Shaoxing Administrative Inspection Zone was established. In October, 1949, the Shaoxing Special Zone was set up, which was abolished in January, 1952 and re-established in September, 1964. In July, 1983, the regional administration was replaced by the Shaoxing municipality, which was subordinated to the Provincial Government. By the end of 1997, the city¡¯s jurisdiction includes Yuecheng District, Shaoxing County, Shangyu City, Shengzhou City, Xinchang County and Zhuji City, with 102 towns, 34 villages, 6 residential districts, 359 neighborhood committees and 5146 rural residents¡¯ committees, the total population is 4.2894 million.

Since 1978, instructed by the guideline, principal and policy of the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Party congress, the people of Shaoxing have made great achievements in the construction of socialist material and ideological civilization. During the 20 years from 1978 ( calculated according to the price of 1980 ) to 1997 ( calculated according to the price of 1990 ), the city¡¯s agricultural output increased from 853 million yuan to 4.829 billion yuan; total industrial output increased from 1.012 million yuan to 148.28 billion yuan, GDP increased from 1.129 billion yuan to 59.45 billion yuan, fixed asset investment increased from 430 million yuan ( full population) to 16.4 billion yuan ( whole society), total retail of consuming goods from 491 million yuan to 15.98 billion yuan, total purchase value of foreign trade increased from 114 million yuan to 16.5 billion yuan, revenue increased from 186 million yuan to 2.7 billion yuan, deposit and loan surplus of fiscal system in the end of the year increased from 229 million yuan to 40 billion yuan and from 362 million yuan to 31.61 billion yuan respectively.