Hangzhou, China

Hangzhou ), formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern china. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division ("shì", 杭州市) or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people. The Urban agglomeration of the Hangzhou metropolitan area (杭州市区) has a resident population of 3.9319 million as of 2003, of which 2.6367 million are permanent residents. There are 1.91 million residents in the six urban core districts.A core city of the Yangtze River Delta, its position on the Hangzhou Bay 180 km southwest of Shanghai gives it economic power, and moreover, it has also been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years, due in part to its beautiful natural scenery; the city's West Lake is its most well-known attraction.