Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People’s Republic of China, with an area of 39,300 sq mi (101,800 sq km). The word Zhejiang (crooked river) was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital. The name of the province is often abbreviated to "Zhe".
Zhejiang borders Jiangsu province and Shanghai municipality to the north, Anhui province to the northwest, Jiangxi province to the west, and Fujian province to the south; to the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lie the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.
History
Zhejiang, part of the kingdom of Wu, passed into the Chinese orbit in the 3d cent. B.C. It flourished in the 12th and 13th cent, as the center of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty which drove out the Mongols in 1368 was the first to establish Zhejiang Province, and the borders of the province have since changed little. It passed to Manchu control in 1645. Zhejiang was devastated in the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1865), was partly occupied by the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and fell to the People’s Republic of China in 1949.


The province is traditionally known as the "Land of Fish and Rice". True to its name, rice is the main crop, followed by wheat; north Zhejiang is also a center of aquaculture in China, and the Zhoushan fishery is the largest fishery in the country. Main cash crops include jute and cotton, and the province also leads the provinces of China in tea production (the renowned Longjing tea is a product of Hangzhou). Zhejiang is also a producer of silk, for which it is ranked second among the provinces.
Zhejiang’s manufacturing is centered upon electromechanical industries, textiles, chemical industries, food, and construction materials. In recent years Zhejiang has followed its own development model, dubbed the "Zhejiang model", which is based on prioritizing and encouraging entrepreneurship, an emphasis on small businesses responsive to the whims of the market, large public investments into infrastructure, and the production of low cost goods in bulk for both domestic consumption and export. As a result, Zhejiang has made itself one of the richest provinces, and the "Zhejiang spirit" has become something of a legend within China. However, some economists are now worrying that this model is not sustainable, in that it is inefficient and places unreasonable demands on raw materials and public utilities, and also a dead end, in that the myriad small businesses of Zhejiang producing cheap goods in bulk are unable to move to more sophisticated or technologically-oriented industries.


Languages
Zhejiang is mountainous and has therefore fostered the development of many individual localized cultures. Linguistically speaking, Zhejiang is extremely diverse. The inhabitants of Zhejiang speak Wu, a subdivision of spoken Chinese, but the Wu dialects are very diverse, especially in the south, where one valley may speak a dialect completely unintelligible to another valley a few kilometers away. Non-Wu dialects are spoken as well, mostly along the borders; Mandarin and Hui dialects are spoken on the border with Anhui, while Min dialects are spoken on the border with Fujian. In addition, Standard Chinese (Putonghua/Mandarin) is also spoken by most people.
Music
Zhejiang is the home of Yueju, one of the most prominent forms of Chinese opera. Yueju originated in Shengzhou and is traditionally performed by actresses only, in both male and female roles. Other important opera traditions include Yongju (of Ningbo), Shaoju (of Shaoxing), Ouju (of Wenzhou), Wuju (of Jinhua), Taizhou Luantan (of Taizhou) and Zhuji Luantan (of Zhuji).
Cuisine
Longjing tea (also called dragon well tea), originating in Hangzhou, is one of the most prestigious, if not the most prestigious Chinese tea. Zhejiang cuisine (itself subdivided into many traditions, including Hangzhou cuisine) is one of the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine.


Tourism
Since ancient times, north Zhejiang and neighbouring south Jiangsu have been famed for their prosperity and opulence, and simply inserting north Zhejiang place names (Hangzhou, Jiaxing, etc.) into poetry gave an effect of dreaminess, as was indeed done by many famous poets. In particular, the fame of Hangzhou (as well as Suzhou in neighboring Jiangsu province) has led to the popular saying: Above there is heaven; Below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou (上有天堂，下有苏杭), a saying that continues to be a source of pride for the people of these two still prosperous cities.
Tourist destinations in Zhejiang include:
•Baoguo Temple, the oldest intact wooden structure in Southern China, 15km north of Ningbo.
•Putuo Shan, one of the most famous Buddhist Mountains of China. Chinese Buddhists associate it with Guan Yin.
• Qita Temple, Ningbo.
• Shaoxing, Wuzhen and other waterway towns.
• The ancient capital of Hangzhou.
• Tiantai Shan, a mountain important to Zen Buddhism.
• West Lake, in Hangzhou
• Yandang Shan, a mountainous scenic area north of Wenzhou.
• Qiandao Lake (also called Thousand-island Lake).
• Guoqing Temple - founded in the Sui Dynasty, the founding place of Tiantai Buddhism