Ancient Capital Culture
Hangzhou, one of the seven ancient capitals in China, used to be the political center for Wuyue Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty. Originally known as Qian Tang, Hangzhou was established as a city in Sui Dynasty (589AD) with the name Hangzhou first appearing in the history. Hangzhou rose to prominence as the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Forced to flee before the invading took place, the Imperial court under the rule of the pusillanimous Emperor Gaozong (1107-1187) moved its capital southwards from Kaifeng to Hangzhou. Hangzhou, known as Lin’an during that period, was designated as the capital in 1138 as well as the following 140 years. Hangzhou officially became a city in 1927. The city was librated on May 3, 1949, which marked a new historical chapter for it development.

Liangzhu Culture
Liang Zhu Culture is an important sect of ancient culture in the area of Tai Hu Lake, residing at the lower reach of Chang Jiang River. This prehistoric civilization roughly 4000-5300 years ago earned its name after the local Liang Zhu Town in Yu Hang city, thanks to the discovery by Mr. Shi Xin Geng from the original West Lake Museum in 1936.

More than half a century’s archaeological investigation and excavation has preliminarily identified three towns—Liang Zhu, An Xi and Ping Yao—with more than 50 relic sites of Liang Zhu Culture, which contain villages, tombs and altars. Since 1980’s, some altars and tombs on Fan Shan Mountain, Yao Shan Mountain and Hui Guan Shan Mountain have been found to closely relate to those relic sites. The discovery of nobles’ tombs with exquisite jade burials and the large-scale Mo Jiao Mountain Structure relic proves the fact that Liang Zhu cultural site is one of the most outstanding regions to display the 5000-year Chinese history and will become an oriental Mecca.

Tai Hu Lake area, where Liang Zhu Culture has developed, is one of the places to originate paddy agriculture. Most stone farming tools among Liang Zhu sites such as triangle plough and V-shaped soil breaker are self-evidently big progress in ancient agriculture, coupled with development of handicraft industry. As a result, ceramics, jade carving and textile were separated from agriculture. The fine jade art at that time particularly show the sophisticated level of handicraft industry. Other objects like lacquer wares, linen products or tusk ornaments demonstrate a certain advancement of social productive force and the cultural connotation conceived.

Based on the development of social productive force, social systems clashed fiercely during Liang Zhu Renaissance, coming up with varying hierarchy, which can especially exemplified by tomb sites. Many man-made tomb platforms have been found in Fan Shan Mountain, Yao Shan Mountain and Hui Guan Shan Mountain in Zhejiang Province. These nobles’ tombs have spacious room inside in company with exquisite burials like a large number of ritual jade objects. On the contrary, the civilians’ graves such as found in Xu Bu Bridge, Qian Jin Jiao, Ping Qiu Mound, Wu’s Wharf and Miao Qian do not have exclusive sites , but are scattered around the habitation. With very little space, these graves are only equipped with pottery or simple jade wares. Obviously, hierarchy differences appeared in intense confrontations in Liang Zhu society.

The wealth accumulation taking place in these differences was achieved by some social power above the clan community. The construction of huge tomb terraces was a stupendous task. Mo Jiao Shan Mountain is particularly an impressive example beyond people’s basic needs at that time, requiring social order to guarantee, otherwise the consequence was unimaginable. Establishing such social order had a lot to do with the social hierarchy. It is believed that highly awesome leadership existed in Liang Zhu period, which mobilized the labor force to carry out this large scale construction.

The existence of such social power is evident in jade objects production. The processing of jade objects is a complicated multi-step course. Therefore, jade is a product as a result of specialized handicraft industry. Except jade pearl, particle, bi (disc), most Lang Zhu jades are carved with beautiful patterns, showing the focus of various types of work. Producers must shake off the purpose of earning living materials, which should be supplied by others, and concentrate on this monotonous job. Meanwhile, as the shape and pattern carving is quite regular, the mental work during the production increased, tending to be independent from physical labor. Thus, the separation of physical and mental work took shape.

The ritual system was the key to the social reforms in Liang Zhu society. There are more than 20 varieties of jade objects unearthed from Liang Zhu nobles’ tombs, such as cong, bi (disc), dragon-headed jade part, awl-like thing, three-pronged ware, capped object, semicircular pendant, spinning wheel and medal ornament. In those humble graved, only small jade ornaments like pipe, pearl and single awl-like part were found. All those difference were a result of the social hierarchy of Liang Zhu Culture. Meanwhile, some pottery double snuff-bottles, vessels and stemmed bowl with carvings of beautiful creatures and patterns were all excavated from nobles’ tombs, another proof of jade use in pottery.

The core of ritual system lies in the subordinate relationship between the noble and the humble, the high and the low, the superior and the inferior, the close and the distant, which was best expressed by jade usage in Liang Zhu Culture. The use of jades marked the beginning of Liang Zhu cultural ritual, caused by socially essential change. Liang Zhu society was a step from barbarian prehistoric phase towards civilized human kind.

Grand Canal Culture
Just like the Great Wall, the Grand Canal is widely recognized as one of the four ancient greatest construction projects in the world. It is a masterpiece of Chinese people and a group of water conservancy experts in their efforts to utilize and change the nature. China’s Grand Canal is the earliest and longest man-made waterway in the world. Tracing back 2400 years to the Spring and Autumn Period, Fu Chan, King of Wu Kingdom, ordered the canalization from Jiang Do to Mo Kou.The subsequent digging work kept on until the artificial Grand Canal running from Hangzhou to Beijing came into being in 1293 A. D. With a total length of 1782 kilometers, the canal, linking Qian Tang River, Chang Jiang River, Huai He River, Yellow River and Hai He River, flows past Bejing city, Tian Jing city, He Bei Province, Shan Dong Province, Jiang Su Province and Zhejiang Province. It is 21 times longer than the Panama Canal, and surpasses the Suze Canal by 10 times, with 2000 years earlier than the above-said two canals.

The digging and connecting of the Grand Canal gave new significance to the natural, ecological and productive environment, largely promoting the economic development of the canal region. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, completion of the canal directly resulted in widespread exchange of agricultural technology between the north and the south, allowing the transplantation of various species from both sides. In the late Ming Dynasty, some workshops and charters with preliminary capitalism appeared in developed commodity society like Su Zhou and Hangzhou. Some other towns by the canal that had benefited from the commodity economy, ranging from Tian Jin, Cang Zhou, De Zhou, Lin Qing, Liao Cheng, Ji Ning, Xu Zhou, Huai An, Yang Zhou, Zhen Jiang, Chang Zhou, Wu Xi, Jia Xing, Shao Xing to Ning Bo, formed a bunch of glittering pearls of canal commerce. Chang An and Luo Yang in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Kai Feng in the Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, Beijing in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are good examples as the region’s and even the nation’s political, economic and cultural center.

Historically, the Grand Canal played an important role in the stability of feudalist reign. The location of the canal has been of political, military, economic and cultural significance all the time in the country, it always became the key position to be controlled by imperial governments. Each ruler desired to dominate the whole nation, taking advantage of the ideal conditions of the Grand Canal. Therefore, the Grand Canal has become a political belt linking the centralized power with China’s unification, making the political center gradually shift northward from the Sui and Tang Dynasties. From the nation’s unification in the Yuan Dynasty till the Ming and Qing Dynasties, no significant split of the country occurred, and a solid foundation for the unification had been laid down.

IV. The unique canal culture is not only an essential part of China’s multi-national culture integration, it also pushes forward the formation and development of this integration. The tolerance, unification, proliferation, openness, cohesiveness and centripetal force of canal culture has not only strengthened the ties of Chinese traditional thinking among Qi Lu region, Middle region and south of Yangtze River, but also integrate the cultural centers led by Chang An and Luo Yang in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Kai Feng in the Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, Beijing in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, thus minimizing the differences and gap of those regions for the cultural unification of our nation. At the mean time, the canal region has also been a place to cultivate talented people with academic success.

The connection of the south part and north part of the Grand Canal has achieved a more direct and closer relationship between the coastal line and other parts of China. Particularly, the economic thriving over the canal region has been pioneering the foreign communication and expansion of Sino-Foreign economic and cultural exchanges. China’s neighboring countries and other nations from West Asia, Europe and East Africa sent delegates and commercial fleets to China’s coastal ports, who then followed the canal route to the capital and elsewhere for frequent economic and cultural exchanges. Some of them even moved to the canal area as their habitation, making it a melting pot for ethnic minorities, foreign ambassadors, dealers, monks, abroad students and others. They brought China’s advanced cultures to all over the world, expanding China’s influence to the world. Meanwhile, the excellent foreign cultures were introduced to China as well, enriching the canal culture and promoting China’s cultural development.

After the founding of PRC, the Grand Canal was classified as one of the key river transportation routes. The reform policy has quickened the pace of canal reconstruction. In addition to the heavy task of transportation, the Grand Canal plays a simultaneously significant part in flood prevention, irrigation, water supply and travel. Having experienced twists and turns, the Grand Canal is bound to exhibit its vitality as a result of river harnessing, continuing to give impetus to economic development along the canal.

Religious Culture
“All land under heaven belongs to the emperor; all people on the land are subjects of the emperor”. This used to be the conception of the imperial power in traditional Chinese culture. As everything depends on and serves the imperial power in traditional Chinese culture, so does every religion. Religion as an ideological system must gain the recognition of the monarch. This has been the first criterion of religions. The more an ideological system was recognize, supported and praised by the monarch, the more this ideological system became a religion.

For humans, whether as communities or individuals, religion is a ghost that can never be dismissed. It is a partner of humans. It is greeted in awe and never leaves. In China, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism are the three main religious beliefs. Confucianism is the main belief. Buddhism and Daoism are secondary beliefs. Other beliefs are supplementary. Every religious belief involves a religion and a philosophy. Confucianism is a patriarchal religion that reveres heaven and ancestors. Its philosophy is Confucianism. But, whereas a traditional patriarchal religion has usually a religious belief but no philosophy, Confucianism has no actual religious belief but a philosophy. Buddhism is both a religion and a philosophy. Daoism is both a religion and a school of thought. To classify the traditional Chinese religions, Confucianism is a philosophy with a patriarchal religious style. Daoism is akin to the patriarchal, clericalist power, with disciples pursuing individual religious goals. Buddhism gives support to the masses to live quietly under the combined rule of the patriarchal, state power and religious power. Either of them provides but the external form of the patriarchal religion.

The religious culture in Hangzhou also reflects that of China in the long history. The central government of the empire moved south from Kaifeng to Hangzhou after the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty, resulting in some of the Daoist temples that were originally in Kaifeng to be re-established in Hangzhou. These reestablished temples were, for the most part, intimately related to the imperial politics. They were a manifestation of the continuation and legitimacy of the imperial regime and were a psychological confirmation of the safety of the regime and the imperial household. From this we can see, in the midst of religious cultural changes, how the basic cultural factors were interrelated with particular believers.

Tea Culture
Hangzhou is one of China's leading tea-producing areas. Longjing Tea, named after the local village whose name means "Dragon Well," is considered China's finest green tea. 

Longjing came into prominence three centuries ago, during the Qing Dynasty. On his three visits to Zhejiang province, the illustrious emperor Qianlong always made a point of visiting the village to have a cup of the delicious local tea. He enjoyed it so much that he designated eighteen of Longjing's trees as producers of "imperial tea." This royal mark of approval ensured Longjing tea's special reputation, and the imperial tea-trees have turned the Dragon Well village into a major tourist attraction.

The local people have a special bond with their famous tea. The pleasant climate and fertile land of the area are ideal for growing the healthiest tea trees, and for generations, Longjing has prospered.

Records of tea production in Hangzhou date back as early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, 1500 years ago. In the 8th century, during the Tang Dynasty, the renowned scholar Lu Yu wrote the first book about Longjing tea culture, thus gaining the title of the "Sage of Tea." The story goes that Lu Yu was traveling to Guzhu Hill in Zhejiang, when he came across a tea named Gu-zhu-zi-sun. He took some leaves back to the imperial court, where the quality of the tea was much appreciated, and thus the area became famous for its tea. Today, on the site where the imperial tea was once produced, a monument still stands as testimony to the historical importance of the tea and its close association with Chinese culture.

Spring is the time when the tea trees sprout their new growth, and also the busiest time of year for the tea farmers. On average, more than sixty thousand leaves are needed to make up a single kilogramme of Longjing tea. Though much of the picking these days is done by machine, some farmers still maintain the tradition of picking by hand. They claim this ensures a superior product as the pickers can identify leaves of the proper colour and size. Machines, though they speed up the harvest, are not capable of grading the leaves for quality.

So each April, at the height of the picking season, farmers throughout Longjing can be seen stooping over their tea trees, selecting the finest leaves. It's an ideal time for visitors to take a deep breath of the spring-scented air, sip the imperial infusion, and buy some famous Dragon Well tea leaves to take to family and friends back home.

The fine green tea of Longjing is one of the "twin wonders" of Hangzhou. The other is the reputed magic water of Hupao Spring ,or Tiger Running Spring. When two natural wonders come together something very special happens. This can be seen each day as Hupao Spring is lined with people waiting to fetch water to make their tea. Longjing tea made with Hupao Spring water is known as Hu-Long-Yin, which means Tiger and Dragon Drink.

Locals enjoy their tea at the village tea-house, which has been a traditional part of Hangzhou life ever since the Song Dynasty a thousand years ago, when the city was the imperial capital. Today, the tea-house is Hangzhou people's favorite place to wile away their time.

For a charge of just 15 yuan a month, people can bring their own tea and cup here, and spend the whole morning in the tea house. Among the most regular customers are the elderly bird-keepers, who form a circle in a corner, swapping stories. It's not so much the thirst for tea that brings them here, but the companionship.

Drinking tea is part of the lifestyle and tradition in Zhejiang, and is deeply rooted in people's life. In Hangzhou, the tea-houses are nearly part of the natural landscape. Qu-Yuan-Feng-He is a well-known scenic spot at the famous West, and the tea-house there is built in the shape of a boat. The style of the building and its location give visitors the sense that they are floating on water.

The experience of sipping your tea at Yan-Xian is equally wonderful. Here, up in the green hills of Longjing, you can sit amid the birdsong and chattering brooks. Rainy days have a special charm, when the rhythm of the falling rain accompanies Nature's melody and adds to the sense of relaxation.

It is said that the literary artists of Ancient China were inspired either by tea or by wine. Those who were fond of wine were said to write in a passionate and heroic style; those who preferred tea tended to be sentimental and romantic. In Zhejiang, one can discover that romantic spirit for oneself, enjoying a cup of imperial tea in a peaceful setting with good company.

Silk Culture
Hangzhou has long established itself as the home of silk production. It has approximately 200 large scale silk production enterprises at present. In 2005, Hangzhou’s silk industry has an annual gross output of 5,859 tons, an increase of 19% over the previous year.

Boosted by its textile and silk industries, Hangzhou has developed a strong garment industry and is named the “city of women’s wear”. Hangzhou government has been putting a lot of effort to establish Hangzhou as a national design, manufacturing and trading center for women’s wear. In 2005, there were 382 large scale women’s wear manufacturing enterprises in Hangzhou, with an annual output of about RMB 17 billion. Apart from the massive scale of production, some factories have already established themselves as celebrated national brands, etc. In general, Hangzhou’s women’s wear has succeeded in distinguishing itself by its simple and college-look style.

Zhejiang University of Science and Technology and Zhejiang Institute of Science and Technologyin Hangzhou are first-class training institutes for fashion designers, contributing to the large pool of  young professional fashion designers in Hangzhou. The majority of Hangzhou’s women’s wear manufacturers are private enterprise, some of which are operated by these young designers producing clothes of their own designs. This allows flexible management and operation to follow the fashion trends closely.

Traditional Chinese Medical Culture
This culture can be reflected through Hu Qing Yu Tang Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicines, located at the foot of Wushan hill in Hangzhou. It is the only State-level professional one in China. Built on the foundation of a group of old buildings of Hu Qing Yu Tang Traditional Chinese Pharmaceutical Factory. The museum presents to visitors a style of antique architecture besides a treasury of traditional Chinese medical science and technology. 

The museum, covering more than 4000 square meters of building area, consists of five parts: an exhibition hall, a hall of medicine preparation by manual labour, a health care clinic, a sales department and a restaurant of medicinal diets.

In the exhibition hall, the history of Chinese traditional medicine is demonstrated through a great number of items and descriptions, including anecdotes of famous Chinese doctors in history such as Bian Que,Hua Tuo,Lishizhen.

In the medicine preparation hall,veteran masters demonstrate for visitors such operations as pill shaping and slicing of crude drugs. Visitors if interested in the ancient operations of medicine preparations,can do themselvs with hand tools,which will be an experience of fun.

In the traditional Chinese health clinic in the museum ,famous doctors with unique achievements will provide health care services to visitors.

Wu Yue Culture
Kingdom of Wuyue, 907-978, was a small independent coastal kingdom founded during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960) of Chinese history. It was ruled by the Qian family, which remains widespread in the kingdom's former territory. The Qian family had been providing military leaders to the Tang Dynasty beginning in 887. Qian Liu was named Prince of Yue in 902, with the title of Prince of Wu added two years later. In 907, then the Tang Dynasty fell and was replaced in the north by the Later Liang Dynasty, military leaders in the south formed their own kingdoms. Qian Liu used his position to proclaim himself the King of Wuyue. This signaled the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period which would last until the founding of the Song Dynasty in 960. The name Wuyue comes from the combination of Wu Kingdom and Yue Kingdom, two ancient kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn Period from 770 to 476 BC.

With its capital in Xifu, now known as Hangzhou, the kingdom included present-day Zhejiang, Shanghai, along with the southern portion of Jiangsu Province. It would also later absorb some of the northern part of Fujian in the Min Kingdom fell in 945. The territorial extant of Wuyue roughly corresponded to the territories of the ancient Yue, but not the ancient Wu -- which led to charges by the neighboring Wu (also known as Southern Wu) that Wuyue had designs on its territory, and the name was a source of tension for years between the two states.

In the early decades of its existence, Wuyue bordered the Min Kingdom on its south and the Southern Tang Kingdom on its west and north. With the rebellion of Yin from the Min from 943 to 945, it briefly gave Wuyue a third border. However, before long, Wuyue would be completely encircled (except for the East China Sea) as both Yin and Min were absorbed by the Southern Tang. The Wuyue Kingdom cemented the cultural and economic dominance of the Wuyue region in China for centuries to come, as well as creating a lasting regional cultural tradition distinctive from the rest of China. The leaders of the kingdom were noted patrons of Buddhism, and architecture, temple decoration, and religious sculptures related to Buddhism. The cultural distinctiveness that began developing over this period persists to this day as the Wuyue region speaks a dialect called Wu (the most famous variant of which is Shanghainese), has distinctive cuisine and other cultural traits.

Calligraphy and Seal Engraving
Visitors to China may be amazed at the number of souvenir shops where the service of 'Seal-Engraving' is readily available. Very often, the engraver claims that a seal would be finished in 15 minutes - less than the time the visitors usually stay in a souvenir shop. Many foreign businessmen who are so used to signing their names in a contract find with astonishment that their Chinese counterparts prefer to use seals. To the Chinese, a seal was for many centuries a symbol of power. The emperor's seal was called Xi, and it gave authority to all his inferiors, and governments at different levels all issued orders endorsed with official seals. In other words, the seals stood for different levels of government and their corresponding powers.

The art of seal-engraving can be traced back to more than 3,000 years to the Yin Dynasty when the cutting of inscriptions on tortoise shells was the only way that the ideas of human being could be recorded. It developed rapidly in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) when people engraved their names on utensils and documents to claim ownership or for verification in social contacts.

Wen Peng (1489-1573), the son of Wen Zhengming, a famous Ming Dynasty calligrapher and painter, is known as the 'father of seal engraving art'. But seal engraving only really came to age in the 19th century when a group of famous engravers came to the fore.

Some present engravers in China are professionals, but most are amateurs. The Xiling Seal Engravers' Club in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province was founded in 1986 by Wu Changshuo, a renowned painter and engraver. Today it is China's biggest national engraver's organization.

As we all know, traditional Chinese painting is a harmonious combination in the same picture of the arts of painting, calligraphy with engraving skills and the art of the arranging Chinese characters into imaginative patterns in a very limited space. A master seal engraver must be able to write different styles of the Chinese scripts and arrange all the characters in a perfect balance. Like a master calligrapher, sometimes, he needs to exaggerate the thickness or thinness of a stroke, elaborately straighten or curve it, or even deliberately deform an ideogram to create an artistic effect.

A perfect seal is very much determined by the engraver's speed and strength of his wrist and finger movements, as well as the particular tool he uses. Also he should be very familiar with the various materials - jade, gold, brass, stone, and wood - so that he can apply his tool with the right strength and rhythm.

Today, stone is the most widely used material in seal engraving. Among all the stones, Shoushan stones, which come from the northern outskirts of Shoushan County, Fuzhou City, are the most famous. The most valuable for engravers is Tianhuang Stone, a kind of Shoushan stone. It is said that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty used to put a piece of Tianhuang on the table for health and good luck when they held a ceremony to worship heaven.

Another less precious stone is called Chicken Blood stone, which comes from Changhua County in Zhejiang Province. The 'Chicken's blood' stone contains cinnabar which makes it look like blood splashed on the stone in a free pattern.

Nowadays, seals are still widely used, and the art of seal engraving has become more, not less, popular than ever before. More importantly is that many foreigners are now able to appreciate this art form, which for a long time has been considered uniquely Chinese.

Historical Figures
The West Lake owes the fame not only to its scenic beauty but also to its honor to be closely related to noted historical figures. The lake and the figures have made each other well known and brought out the best in each other. Some of the figures are those who made great contributions to the beautification of the lake. The famous poet-governor Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty was the first one to organize a large-scale dredging during his term. In the Northern Song, another famous poet-governor Su Dongpo dredged the lake thoroughly and used the silt to form the charming Su Causeway. In the 10th century during the Kingdom of Wuyue, King Qian Liu formed a 1,000-strong dredging team to look after the lake. Although much of the lake got silted up during the Yuan Dynasty, dredging revived again in 1508 under the Ming when the newly appointed prefect Yang Mengying came. He launched a dredging project that lasted more than 5 months. The great Qing Dynasty emperors Kangxi and Qianlong expanded the lake to its present proportions, while making frequent sightseeing tours here and inscribing tablets of most of popular scenes. Others are remembered as national heroes and revolutionary martyrs buried around the lake. Without them the lake would not give such a deep impression. Among them, there are General Yue Fei, who resisted Jin invaders, and Qiu Jin, an outstanding heroine, who fought against the decadent Qing court. Also we have Yu Zisan, an ex-student of Zhejiang University, who died as a revolutionary martyr for the birth of New China. They all laid down their lives for the justice in China’s various historical periods.

For centuries, the West Lake has inspired a great number of noted artists, poets and men of letters. Coming from different parts of the country, some of them resided here all their lives, while others lived here some time to work or study. Famous poets Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty and Su Dongpo of the Northern Song Dynasty served the city governors in their respective times. The Northern Song hermit-poet Lin Hejin secluded himself till death at the foot of Solitary Hill. Modern master painters Wu Changshuo, Huang Binhong and Pan Tianshou, distinguished writers Yu Quyuan, Su Manshu, Li Shutong and Ma Yifu had their homes by the lake and were buried here after death. As it is their poetry, prose and paintings that make the lake so particular, it is the lake that makes their work so popular.