HangzhouChina Wade-Giles romanization Hang-chou , conventional Hangchow

The county of Qiantang was first established at this site under the Qin dynasty (221–207 bce) but did not start developing until the 4th and 5th centuries ce, when the Yangtze River delta area began to be settled. A prefecture named Hangzhou was created there in 589, during the Sui dynasty (581–618), which is the source of the city’s name. It became a major local centre with the completion of the Jiangnan Canal (then the southern section of the Grand Canal) in 609. During the Ten Kingdoms (Shiguo) period (907–960), Hangzhou was the capital of the state of Wu-Yue. In the later Song period (960–1279), northern China fell to the Jin (Juchen) dynasty (1115–1234); from 1127 the Song rulers were confined to southern China, and they made Hangzhou (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 million to 1.5 million.

Although it never again reached the peak of importance that it had achieved as capital of the Nan (Southern) Song, Hangzhou remained important. Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911/12) dynasties, it was a superior prefecture, in addition to being the provincial capital of Zhejiang. It became immensely wealthy, being at the centre of a fertile rice-growing area as well as being 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 Hangzhou Bay gradually silted up and as its outport, Ganpu, became useless. From the 14th century its trade gradually shifted to Ningbo to the southeast on the southern shore of the bay and, in the 19th century, to the new city of Shanghai, some 100 miles (160 km) to the northeast at the mouth of the Yangtze. In 1861, during the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), the city fell to the rebels and suffered severe damage.

Subsequently, although no longer a major port, it remained a commercial centre for domestic trade and was opened to foreign trade in 1896. Its commercial role was later augmented by the construction of a railway to Shanghai (1909), of another to Ningbo (1914), and of a main line to Jiangxi and Hunan provinces in 1936–38. Since the construction of railways in Fujian province in the 1950s, Hangzhou has become the focus of rail traffic from the southeastern provinces to Shanghai. It was also the focus of the earliest network of modern motor roads, constructed in the 1930s. Hangzhou was held by the Japanese from 1937 to 1945.