As the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, Hangzhou, or Hang in short, is governed as a sub-provincial city. It is also the center of the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area, Zhejiang’s political, economic, cultural, transportation, media, communications and financial center, an important economic, scientific, educational, cultural and financial center and transportation and communications hub in east China, a key tourist destination named by the State Council, the best tourism city in China, the best tourism destination named by the National Tourism Administration, the city of best international image in China Mainland.

Hangzhou is one of China's seven ancient capitals in the first batch of China’s famous historical and cultural city. The excavation of the ruins of Xiaoshan Cross-Lake Bridge confirmed the fact that as early as 8,000 years ago, there were inhabitants living in this place. The Yuhang Liangzhu Culture dating back to 5,000 years ago is hailed as "the dawn of civilization." Since the Qin Dynasty setting up counties in China, there is a recorded history of more than 2,200 years. In ancient times, Wu and Yue in the Five Dynasties period and Southern Song Dynasty chose this place as their capital. It has long been known as Heaven on Earth. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was acclaimed by Marco Polo, an Italian traveler, as "the world's most beautiful and luxurious city”.

Hangzhou is the permanent city to host World Leisure Expo, China International Animation Festival and China International Micro-Movie Exhibition since it is one of China's major convention cities. In 2016 the China University Games will be held here. Hangzhou is now expanding urban areas eastward, promoting traveling westward and developing itself along the Qiantang River, in the hope of leaping forward from the West Lake era to the Qiantang River era.

Resource-rich Hangzhou is known as the “land flowing with milk and honey", " capital of silk" and "an earthly paradise". With numerous agricultural resources, such as crops, forests, and livestock, it produces more than 260 forest fruit, mulberry tea and flowers, in particular the famous Hangzhou sericulture and  West Lake Dragon Well tea. It covers 1,635.27 hectares of forest, accounting for 64.77% of total city areas. There are 10 kinds of first-tier national land wildlife animals, second-tier 64 kinds; 3 kinds of first-tier protected plants by the state, second-tier 18 kinds. There are medium-sized non-metallic mineral resources and metal deposits. Mineral resources include large-and-medium-sized nonmetal and metal mineral deposits. The chicken-blood-coloured stone produced in Changhua of Lin’an, are very precious for collections.

Hangzhou boasts two national scenic areas - West Lake Scenic Area , "Two Rivers and Two Lakes " ( Fuchun River - Xin'an River - Thousand-Islet Lake- Xiang Lake) Scenic Area; two National Nature Reserve-Tianmu Mount and Qingliangfeng Nature Reserve; seven national forest parks------Thousand-Islet Lake, Daqi Mount, Wuchao Mount, Fuchun River, Qingshan Lake, Banshan Mount and Tonglu Yaolin Forest Park; one national tourism resort - Zhijiang National Tourism Resort; the first national wetland---Xixi National Wetland Park. Hangzhou also enjoys 25 key cultural relics protected by the state and 9 national museums. More than 120 places of interest have received over 10,000 tourists annually, including the famous Yaolin Fairyland, Tongjun Mount, Leifeng Pagoda, Yuefei Temple, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, Su Causeway, Six Harmonies Pagoda, Song Dynasty Towns, Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Streets, Lingyin Temple and Cross-Lake Bridge sites.