Misfits’ Guide to Hangzhou (杭州）

A few bits of information1. Hangzhou is the capital of and largest city in Zhejiang Province but was capital of China during the Wuyue Kingdom (923-997) and again during the Song Dynasty (1138–1276). The city is thought to have been the largest in the world from 1180 to 1315 and from 1348 to 1358. These dates seem fairly precise. The Grand Canal (大运河), begun in the 5th century, was important transport infrastructure linking Beijing in the north with Hangzhou in the south. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world. Marco Polo is said to have visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century, Ibn Battuta in 1345 and, in 1492, Cristoforo Colombo thought he could visit by sailing westward. More recently, Hangzhou’s location on the Yangtze Delta led to economic grown that has now diversified into digital technologies. Companies such as Alibaba Group, Ant Group, DeepSeek and electric car manufacturer Geely are headquartered there. These past six years I’ve been embarrassed more than once…