ABSTRACT
Lying just north of the Qian Tang River in what is today the province of Zhejiang, the city of Hangzhou has fascinated both the Chinese and outsiders for centuries. A Chinese phrase from a Yuan Dynasty (1234-1368) poem by Yang Chaoying, "In heaven above there is paradise, on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou," serves to illustrate the place this city occupies in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. The great thirteenth-century traveler Marco Polo held the city in similar regard, declaring Hangzhou to be "without doubt the finest and most splendid city in the world."
