Zhejiang

(2001 pop. 47 million). One of the most fertile and wealthiest provinces in China, Zhejiang lies on China's southeastern coast just south of the Chang (Yangtze) river delta and China's largest city, Shanghai. It is bordered on the north by Jiangsu province, on the west by Anhui and Jiangxi, and on the south by Fujian. It covers 101,800 square kilometers, including 3,061 offshore islands. About one-third of the province consists of plains, rivers, and lakes, while the other two-thirds is mountainous.

The province's capital is Hangzhou, China's capital during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279 CE) and a city described by Marco Polo in his travels as "beyond dispute the finest and noblest city" in the world. The province has 41 counties, 23 cities, and 23 county-level towns. The total population in 2001 was about 47 million, of which 300,000 are categorized as ethnic minorities. The largest of these minorities are the She and Hui nationalities.

Historically, Zhejiang has been in the forefront of China's economic and cultural development since the early Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Its emergence as a major producer of grain resulted in the extension of the Grand Canal to Hangzhou in the seventh century. Since the tenth century, the province has been a leading producer of grain, silk, tea, porcelain, and paper, and a center of trade and commerce. When the Southern Song dynasty established its capital in Hangzhou in 1127, Zhejiang also became China's political and cultural center. The province continues to be home to many of China's intellectual and political elite. Two of China's greatest modern writers, Lu Xun and Mao Dun, were from Zhejiang, as are nearly a fifth of the current members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The province also produced two of China's best-known contemporary leaders: Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1976, and Chiang Kai-shek, president of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1949 to 1975.

Zhejiang has been a prime beneficiary of China's present economic reforms. Since 1978 the province's economy has grown faster than the national average,thanks in part to the rapid growth of collective and private firms. Currently the province is the fourth wealthiest in China behind such economic powerhouses as Guangdong and Shanghai. In addition to its traditional industries, the province has concentrated on the development of its machinery, electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceutical industries. Foreign trade, investment, and tourism have also flourished, especially in the coastal cities of Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Wenzhou.

Rankin, Mary Backus. (1986) Elite Activism and Political Transformation in China: Zhejiang Province, 1865–1911. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Schoppa, Keith R. (1982) Chinese Elites and Political Change: Zhejiang Province in the Early Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.