Developing History
of the City of Hangzhou
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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
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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.
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