Developing History
of Hangzhou Public Transport
The city of
Hangzhou is located along the southeast coast of China, it is
in south part of Changjiang Delta and at a backward position of
Qiantang River, it had been called Yuhang, Qiantang,Lin`an and
Renhe in ancient time. 5000 years ago, our ancestors had been
living and working here and created very famous Liangzhu culture.
According to ancient legend, Yu the Great had sailed by, so Hangzhou
was originally called Yuhang. In the Chunqiu Dynasty, the State
of Yue built a fortification at Xixing along the south bank of
Qiantang, which was the earliest port and water army foundation.
At the 25th year of Qin Dynasty( 222 B.C.), County of Qiantang
was set up. In the 11th year of Sui Dynasty (591), County of Qiantang
was moved toward west, and was firstly called Hangzhou. In Han
Dynasty, Hangzhou was becoming more and more important. In South
Dynasty, the county administration changed to a prefecture. The
Sui Dynasty saw the extension of the Grand Canal southward from
the Changjiang River that transformed Hangzhou from a sleepy fishing
village to an economic, agricultural and cultural center. In Tang
Dynasty, Hangzhou became a “famous prefecture in the southeast”
through further exploration and development. In 907, Hangzhou
began to serve as the capital of Wuyue after King Qian Liu chose
the region to found his kingdom, which lasted 79 years, giving
Hangzhou relative stability in a turbulent period of Five Dynasty.
Till North Song Dynasty, Hangzhou got the reputation of “No.1
County in Southeast”. Hanghou was selected as the capital of the
South Song Dynasty, hence is among “seven great capitals” and
was very prosperous and famous at that time even in abroad. In
Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty, Hangzhou was not so important as
in South Song Dynasty, it was still very important city in south
east part of China. When the very famous Italian traveler Marco
Polo can to Hangzhou in Yuan Dynasty, he called Hangzhou “City
in Heaven” and praised it as “Most beautiful and splendid city
in the World”
The city construction of Hangzhou initiated in
Qin Dynasty built as county of Qiantang. In Sui Dynasty, in the
61st year, the county was moved to west of Liupu (now east of
the Fenghuang Mountain) with Yanqiao River (now Middle River)
at the east, the Westlake at the west, Fenghuang mountain at the
south and Qiantangmen at the north (now the area near Liu Park).
In Tang Dynasty, the city was expanded. In Five Dynasty, the city
was expanded. It was expanded again in Song Dynasty with the pattern
and principal axis unchanged, the residence in the city was called
Fang and Xiang, now some of the place in Hangzhou are also named
with Fang and Xiang, such as Qinghefang and Hai`erxiang. The shape
of the city was like a waist drum.
In the year 1912, as the population increased,
the city wall, from Qiantang gate and Yongjin gate, the area was
built to a park. The ten gates were pulled down one after another
for the development of city transport. In 1992, the first public
transport rout was launched between Hubing and Linying. From Minguo
year 12,four main transport lines centering the city of Hangzhou
wre successively constructed. On November 11th in Minguo year
23, designed and planned by the famous bridge expert Mr. TaoYisheng,
the first suspension bridge Qiantang River suspension was started
constructing. It was the first double layered suspension in China
with both railway and highway. At the end of year 37, there were
67 bused and 9 public transport routs which a total distance of
88.7 kilometers. From April 20th Minguo year 38, all those routes
were terminated because of economic inflation and social chaos.
Before Hangzhou was liberated the urban area was 150.68 square
meters and the streets wre totally 30788 kilometers long. After
the establishment of People’s Republic of China, especially after
the third meeting of the 11th national representative conference,
the policy of open and reform brought about good developing chances
to the city of Hangzhou, the city was going over drastically changes.
On August 18th 1998, Hangzhou Party Committee
and government successively issued “Several Comments on Accelerating
Metropolizing Development of Hangzhou”, “Several Comments on Hangzhou`s
Development into a Powerful City in Economy” and “Several Comments
Hangzhou`s Development into a Culture Celebrated City”, setting
a general target that to construct Hangzhou into an international
modernized city featured in scenery tourism. In the city system,
downtown area of Hangzhou is the center with afilitated towns
as backing. Authorized by National Congress in 2001, Xiaoshan
and Yuhang was changed from twon to district, hence the city area
of Hangzhou was expanded from 683.65 square meters to 3068 square
meters. That was a great promotion on Hangzhou`s development.
Recently, in order to build hangzhou into an
international scenery city, national historical and cultural city
and key city in Changjiang Delta, the government has taken several
steps: to move the population center and industry center eastward,
to arrange the city area as “one master city, three deputy cities,
six districts around two axis, six ecological scenery zones.”
The maste city is devided into four districts; the three deputy
cities are Xiaoshan city, Binjiang city and Jiangnan city; sic
districts are Liangzhu, Yuhang, Tangxi, Yipeng, Guali and Linpu.
The fundamental facility of Hangzhou has gone
through great development. Modernized city road structure is gradually
constructed. With public transport as main body, efficient and
convenient shifting system as backing and other transport measures
as assistant, a multi-layered modern city transport system is
accomplished.
