Zhejiang is one of China's smallest but wealthiest provinces, stretching along the eastern coast south of Shanghai. The provincial capital, Hangzhou, has been famous for centuries — Marco Polo called it the finest city in the world — and its West Lake remains one of China's most celebrated landscapes.
Beyond Hangzhou, Zhejiang is a province of green hills, tea plantations, and a long, deeply indented coastline. Qiandao Lake (Thousand Islands Lake), created by a dam in the 1950s, drowned two ancient cities and scattered over a thousand forested islands across an emerald reservoir. The coastal cities of Wenzhou and Ningbo are major commercial centres. The province is also home to some of China's best-preserved water towns, including Wuzhen and Nanxun.
