Shaoxing Travel

Shaoxing is situated on the south flank of Yangtze River delta and in north central Zhejiang between Hangzhou and Ningbo. Currently, Shaoxing City has Shaoxing County, Zhuji City, Shangyu City, Shengzhou City, Xinchang County and Yuecheng District under its administration. Among them, Zhuji City, Shangyu City and Shengzhou City are county-level cities. The total area of Shaoxing amounts to 8,256 square km and its population reaches 4,340,000. The urban area occupies 339 square km and the population is 640,000. 

Shaoxing is a well-known city famous for its numerous rivers weaving through the city, age-old bridges over the rivers, renowned rice wine named after the city, and calligraphy. It is also famous for its gorgeous landscape, rich and colorful culture, and its characteristic local conditions & customs. Shaoxing is, meanwhile, rich in resources. It has been considered as a land of cultural relics as well as a land of fish & rice and attracted abundant visitors since ancient time. Besides, it is among the first group of the outstanding tour cities of China. As an international textile city, Shaoxing has gradually become the trade center of international textile. 



Shaoxing boasts a long history. It is one of the famous historic and cultural cities in China. It is said that in Xia Dynasty, more than 4,000 years ago, Dayu, the hero who led people to fight against the flood and finally controlled the water, came to Shaoxing for water-control for twice. And he was buried in Shaoxing after his death. His mausoleum, namely Dayu Mausoleum, has become an attraction of Shaoxing. In the period of Spring & Autumn and Warring States, Goujian, the king of Yue, established Shaoxing as his capital. He slept on a pile of firewood, which was uneven and pricked when he lay down, and regularly licked an animal gall bladder, which was terribly bitter, so as to remind himself of the shame of being defeated and enslaved by Fuchai, the king of Wu. He underwent self-imposed hardships to take revenge, and after years of great efforts, he finally defeated Fuchai.

Shaoxing is the hometown of many great figures including Wang Xizhi, a great calligraphist in East Jin Dynasty, Qiu Jin, a great national heroine in Qing Dynasty who sacrificed her life to overthrow Qing government and save the nation, Lu Xun, a great patriotic writer in modern history, Cai Yuanpei, a great democratic revolutionist and progressive educator, and Zhou Enlai, namely Premier Zhou, one of the greatest leaders of China. As a literary heavyweight of China, Lu Xun depicted vividly the local color of Shaoxing of his day in his works, something deeply rooted in Shaoxing. Black awning boats, boatmen with Shaoxing black felt hats, and the shining silver neck rings worn by children all tell you such is Shaoxing.