Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang Province. It is located along the banks of the Qiantang River, at the southern end of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal.

                One of the seven capitals of ancient China, Hangzhou is an ancient cultural city and a well-known tourist city. It is most famous for the beautiful scenery of the West Lake. With an area of 6,047 square miles inhabited by a population of 5.2 million, it embraces six urban districts and seven suburban counties, namely Yuhang, Xiaoshan, Fuyang, Tonglu, Lin'an, Jiande and Chun'an. The Fuchun and Xin'an rivers and Thousand Island Lake are national scenic areas. In the 13th century, Marco Polo praised Hangzhou as the most beautiful city in the world. Hangzhou is also famous for its silk and tea products.

Population
China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.25909 billion people at the end of 1999, about 22 percent of the world's total. This figure does not include many Chinese in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Taiwan Province and Macao Special Administrative Region. The population density in China is 130 people per sq km. This population, however, is unevenly distributed. Along the densely populated east coast there are more than 400 people per sq km; in the central areas, over 200; and in the sparsely populated plateaus in the west there are less than 10 people per sq km. The population in cities and towns makes up 30.4 percent; and that in rural areas, 69.6 percent. The male population is 50.8 percent; and the female population is 49.2 percent. People 14 years or younger make up 25.7 percent; those from 15 to 64, 67.6 percent; and those 65 or older, 6.7 percent.

History
Terra-cotta Warrior

China, with a recorded history of 5,000 years, was one of the world's earliest civilizations. China was one of the countries where economic activity first developed. As early as 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, people in the Yellow River valley had already started farming and raising livestock. In the 21st century B.C., China established a slave society with the founding of the Xia Dynasty, thereby writing a finale to long years of primitive society.

Geography
China's land drops off in the escarpments eastward to the ocean, letting in humid air currents and leading many rivers eastward. Among the rivers totalling 220,000 kilometres in length in China; the Yangtze and the Yellow are the two major ones.

China Culture

Calligraphy has traditionally been regarded as China's highest form of visual art - to the point that a person's character was judged by the elegance of their handwriting! Decorative calligraphy is found all over China, in temples and adorning the walls of caves and the sides of mountains and monuments. The basic tools of calligraphy - brush and ink - are also the tools of Chinese painting, with linework and tone the all-important components.

Divorce in Modern China. New York Times August 22, 1994

By SETH FAISON

c.1995 N.Y. Times News Service

BEIJING - For centuries, ordinary Chinese have greeted each other on the street with a question that reflected the nation's primary concern: ``Chi le ma?'' or ``Have you eaten?''

Now, according to a popular joke in Beijing, people who see a friend on the street voice a new concern with a new question: ``Li le ma?'' - ``Have you divorced?''

In China, where rapid economic growth is creating new hopes and fears and where government interference in personal lives is receding daily, many Beijing residents say one of the most profound changes in their society is the surge in divorce.