Hangzhou is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located 180 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, as of 2004 the entire Hangzhou Region or Prefecture-level city had a registered population of 6.4 million people. As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well-known for its beautiful natural scenery, with the West Lake (西湖) as the most well-known location.
