General Survey of Zhejiang Province

　　Zhejiang is a coastal province on the southern wing of the Yangtz River Delta in Southeast China, bordering on Shanghai, the largest city in China,
to the northeast.

　　Zhejiang has a landmass of 101,800 square kilometers, 70.4 percent of which are hilly areas, 23.2 percent are plains and basins, while rivers and lakes make up the rest 6.4 percent. Zhejiang's 6,486-kilometer-long coastli-ne is the longest for a single province in China. It is also the province with the most islands in China, with 3,061 islands each having an area of more than 500 square meters.

　　Lying in the subtropical zone with a monsoon climate, Zhejiang enjoys abundant sunshine and four distinct seasons. The average annual tempera-ture ranges from 15℃ to 18℃ and the annual average precipitation ranges from 1,000mm to 2,000mm. January is the coldest month, while July is the hottest. May and June are the months receiving most rainfall. Zhejiang wat-er resources total 93.7 billion cubic meters, ranking the forth in terms of wa-ter resources in each unit area in the country. Known as the "reasure house of plants in Southeast China" , the province has a forestry coverage rate of 60 percent and is home to 3,800-odd species of plants. Among them, more that 50 species, including gingko tree which is often referred to as a "living fossil" , are listed in the country's directory of precious and rare plants under state protection. Up to now, 1,900 species of animals living in the wild have been found in Zhejiang and more than 120 of them are under first-class or second-class state protection, making up one-third of the total animal spec-ies under state protection in the country. Mineral resources in Zhejiang are mainly non-metallic minerals, and the reserves of 12 kinds of minerals occ-upy the first three places in China. The reserves of stone coal, alum, pyrop-hyllite, and tuff (used in building) lead the rest of the country, and the reserve of fluorite takes the second place in China. The reserve of the province's fi-shery resources totals 2.05 million tons. And the rich deposits of oil and nat-ural gas in the continental shelf are awaiting further exploration. Zhejiang is also one of China's provinces with the richest tourism resources.

　　Zhejiang is one of the cradles of the Chinese civilization. As early as 50,000 years ago, the primitive horde, Jiande Man, already lived in West Zhejiang. And over 100 Neolithic sites belonging to the Hemudu (6,000 to 7,000 years ago), Majiabang (5,000 to 6,000 years ago), and Liangzhu (4,000 to 5,000 years ago) cultures have so far been discovered. Objects unearthed at the Hemudu Site include tools of production and household ut-ensils made of animal bones, stone, pottery, and wood, a large amount of man-grown rice, wooden parts with a clear structure of mortises, tenons an-d pin holes, lacquer bowls with bright colors, and bone whistles. All these d-emonstrate that 7,000 years ago, the forefathers of the Chinese nation cre-ated an amazing prehistoric civilization in Zhejiang. From the 12th century to the 13th century, the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.C.) made Hangzhou its capital city for more than 150 years. In the 14th century, the region to be known as Zhejiang Province with clear boundaries took shape as the name of Zhejiang Province officially appeared. Historically, Zhejiang was a region advanced in grain production and handicraft, and it led the co-untry in such industries as silk, porcelain, papermaking, printing, and ship-building.

　　Throughout its long history, Zhejiang has produced generations of tal-ents in the fields of psychology, education, literature, arts and science. Thi-nkers Wang Chong (27-97), Wang Yangming (1472-1528), and Huang Zo-ngxi (1610-1695), poets Luo Binwang (640-?), Meng Jiao (751-814), and Lu You (1125-1210), painters Xu Wei (1521-1593), Huang Gongwang (12-96-1354), Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), and Zhu Shuiliang (596-658 or 659), dramatist Li Yu (1611-1679), and Hong Sheng (1645-1704), and scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095), were some of the representatives of outstanding fi-gures of Zhejiang origin. The 20th century saw the emergence in Zhejiang of literary giants Lu Xun (1881-1936), Mao Dun (1896-1981), educator Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), scientists Zhu Kezhen (1890-1974 ), Qian Xuesen (1911- ), and Chen Xingsheng (1911- ), as well as Wang Guowei ( 1877-1927), Xia Yan (1900-1995), Ai Qing (1910-1996), Xu Zhimo (1896-1931), Chen Wangdao (1890-1977), Ma Yinchu (1882-1982), Mao Yisheng (1896-1989) and Louis Cha (1924- ). Currently, nearly one-fifth of the academicia-ns of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Eng-ineering are natives of Zhejiang.