Timeline of Hangzhou


The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province in eastern China.

Prehistory

Early history

Sui dynasty

Tang dynasty

  • – Establishment of the Phoenix Mosque, one of China's Four Ancient Mosques.
  • 653 The mystic rebel Chen Shuozhen declares herself emperor and overruns Zhejiang for a few months.
  • 781784 Li Bi's term as prefect of Hangzhou, during which he bores six wells to provide the city with water.
  • 822824 – Bai Juyi's term as prefect of Hangzhou, during which he constructed the Baigong Causeway to improve irrigation around West Lake.
  • 881886 Dong Chang's term as prefect of Hangzhou, which he used as a springboard to power in the late Tang.
  • 887907 Qian Liu's term as prefect of Hangzhou, which he used to uphold imperial power & secure approval to serve as king of Wuyue.

Wuyue Kingdom

Song dynasty

Yuan dynasty

Ming dynasty

  • 1442 West Lake completely dries out during a drought.
  • 1456 West Lake again dries completely out during a drought.
  • 1457 Tian Rucheng publishes his West Lake Gazetteer and its supplement.
  • 1459 Yu Qian buried with honor in Hangzhou, having been posthumously rehabilitated after his execution.
  • 15531558 Wokou pirates repeatedly attack Hangzhou Bay, getting as far as Hangzhou on occasion.
  • 1621 – Huanduzhai publishing house in business.
  • 1641 West Lake again dries out during a drought, the lake bed itself described as cracking.

Qing dynasty

  • 1645 Hangzhou falls to the invading Qing in May.
  • 1647 The Hangzhou Weaving Bureau restored as one of the Qing's three centers of silk production, alongside Suzhou and Jiangning.
  • 1648 A huge area of central Hangzhou appropriated and walled off for use by Manchu residents and their banner garrison. Roughly 10,000 Han families formerly residing there evicted without compensation and obliged to continue paying taxes on the seized property for the next two decades.
  • 1660 A major fire destroys much of the city.
  • 1661 – Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception built.
  • 1663 A Hangzhou publisher's account of the Ming dynasty becomes the first literary persecution of the Han under the Manchu Qing.
  • 1666 Another major fire again destroys much of the city.
  • 1689 The Kangxi Emperor visits West Lake for the first time on his second southern tour. A great deal of local rebuilding and public works accompanies this and subsequent imperial visits to the area. The imperial gardens around Beijing are also rebuilt or expanded to imitate the scenery and gardens of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and other parts of Jiangnan.
  • 1699
  • * The Kangxi Emperor revisits West Lake on his third southern tour. He provides calligraphic plaques for each of the Ten Scenes of West Lake.
  • * West Lake overflows amid heavy rains, covering all its causeways.
  • 1703 The Kangxi Emperor's third visit to West Lake.
  • 1705 The Kangxi Emperor's fourth visit to West Lake.
  • 1707 The Kangxi Emperor's fifth and final visit to West Lake.
  • 1722 The Zhejiang governor Li Wei begins dredging West Lake and further improving its surroundings.
  • 1729 The Yongzheng Emperor orders local officials to protect and maintain memorials of the Kangxi Emperor's visits.
  • 1731 Li Wei establishes the Hushan Temple to propitiate and honor the spirit of West Lake.
  • 1751 The Qianlong Emperor visits West Lake on the first of his southern tours. His poetry commemorating the tea fields around Longjing begin the modern popularity of its particular green tea.
  • 1757 The Qianlong Emperor's second visit to West Lake.
  • 1762 The Qianlong Emperor's third visit to West Lake.
  • 1765 The Qianlong Emperor's fourth visit to West Lake.
  • 1780 The Qianlong Emperor's fifth southern tour includes a viewing of the Qiantang tidal bore at Haining and, at West Lake, the establishment of a formal tomb honoring Su Xiaoxiao on the shore northwest of Gushan Island. Shen Fu subsequently complains that the construction work and increased visitors ruins the area for romantic poets.
  • 1782 Upon the completion of the Siku Quanshu encyclopedia, a copy is bestowed on the library at the Wenyuan Pavilion east of the imperial palace on Gushan.
  • 1784 The Qianlong Emperor's sixth and final visit to West Lake.
  • 1797 Ruan Yuan refurbishes West Lake, ultimately producing Ruangong Islet from the material built up during the lake's dredging.
  • 1853 Taiping rebels occupy enough of Jiangnan to block access to the Grand Canal, forcing Hangzhou's northern trade to reroute through British-occupied Shanghai.
  • 1860 Taiping forces continually raid the area, holding the city between March 19 and March 24 and assaulting the guards at Gushan in November.
  • 1861
  • * Refugees fleeing the Taipings at least double the city's population, possibly swelling it from around 600,000 to as much as 2.3 million.
  • * Taiping rebelsmany fleeing north from Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of Jiangxibesiege Hangzhou from October to 28 December, when the city's militia deserted. The Taipings were able to scale the wall, open the Huochao, Fengshan, and Qingbo Gates, and overrun the outer city the next day. Encircling, negotiating with, and storming the Manchu garrison required a further two days. Around 600,000800,000 died during the conquest, chiefly from starvation and suicide. Hangzhou reportedly sold human flesh in the streets, while nearby towns reported peddlers selling cups of blood to the starving.
  • * The Wenlan Pavilion is greatly damaged and its collection scattered.
  • 1864 – Qing forces under Zuo Zongtang retake city on March 31, the population falling from between 800,000 and a million to less than 200,000, possibly as low as 70,000, amid a frenzy of murder and looting.
  • 1867 – Ningpo Boys' Boarding School moves from Ningbo to Hangzhou, changing its name to Hangchow Presbyterian Boys' School.
  • 1871 – Kwang-Chi Hospital established.
  • 1873 The case of Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage decided in Hangzhou's provincial court based on evidence from torture. After much publicity and the involvement of many Zhejiang scholar-officials, the verdict was overturned on appeal to Beijing in 1877.
  • 1874 – Hu Xueyan establishes the Hu Qing Yu Tang TCM clinic and pharmacy.
  • 1875 – Hu Xueyan's mansion completed.
  • 1878 – Hu Qing Yu Tang's TCM pharmacy opened to the public.
  • 18801881 The Wenlan Pavilion is repaired and known parts of its collection restored, chiefly by the local bibliophile Ding Bing.
  • 1883 Hangzhou telegraph established.
  • 1885 – Kwang Chi Medical School established.
  • 1896
  • * City opens to foreign trade under the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the First Sino-Japanese War, but Hangzhou's Japanese Concession becomes a red light district and gambling venue rather than an industrial or commercial center.
  • * Late Qing reforms prompt the construction of a major cotton mill and silk reeling factory in Hangzhou's northern suburbs.
  • 1897
  • * Qiushi Academy founded.
  • * Hangchow Presbyterian Boys' School adds tertiary education courses, changing its name to Hangchow Presbyterian College.
  • * Hangzhou's first modern newspapers established, the Jingshi Ribao and the Hang Bao.
  • 1898 Britain formally authorized to begin construction on a railway from Shanghai to Hangzhou, but construction never occurs owing to vehement local disagreement with the concession.
  • 1899 – Hangzhou High School established.
  • 1900 Hangzhou Library established as a private organization.
  • 1904 – Xiling Seal Art Society founded.
  • 1905 Hangzhou merchants begin a boycott of American products that spreads throughout China.
  • 1906 Construction on the Shanghai–Hangzhou Railroad begins as a joint project between the provincial governments of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
  • 1907 – Qing Tai Men Station opens.
  • 1908
  • * Establishment of the General Administration for Zhejiang Seawalls, introducing foreign designs into the dikes protecting against the Qiantang Bore.
  • * Zhejiang Official Secondary Normal School in operation.
  • * Presbyterian Mission Girls' School opens.
  • 1909 Completion of the Shanghai–Hangzhou Railroad, shortening travel time from a three days' sail to a three-hour ride and strengthening the city's tourism.

Republican era

  • 1911
  • * November: Xinhai Revolution reaches Hangzhou, with the city's Qing New Army units taking over in two days with minimal opposition from the Manchu garrison, who negotiated surrender and free passage in exchange for handing over their arsenal.
  • * Zhejiang Medical School founded.
  • * Population: 141,859.
  • 1912 The walls of the city's Manchu district dismantled, including the section doubling as the city wall dividing West Lake from Hangzhou.
  • 1913 The former Manchu district begins being sold by the provincial government to commercial interests to become the city's New Business District. The space formerly occupied by its walls is repurposed for use as new roads including Lakeshore Road and additional areas are set aside for parks, especially along West Lake.
  • 1918 The Zhejiang Products Exhibition Hall constructed in the center of the New Business District to expand regional business.
  • 1922
  • * The Communist Party holds its Hangzhou Meeting, leading to its first collaboration with the Kuomintang. Hangzhou's own first Party cell begins operation in September.
  • * Sisters of Charity Hospital founded.
  • 1924 Leifeng Pagoda collapses at 1 pm on September 25, prompting influential articles opposing traditional Chinese thought by Lu Xun.
  • 1928
  • * Kuomintang in power.
  • * Population: 817,267.
  • 1929
  • * Zhejiang Provincial Museum established.
  • * 1929 Westlake exposition held.
  • 1937
  • * The Qiantang Bridge is completed on September 26, connecting Hangzhou to Shaoxing by direct road and rail.
  • * The National Revolutionary Army withdraws from Hangzhou and its Japanese occupation begins on 2324 December.
  • 1943 Many sections of Hangzhou's seawall are destroyed during the autumn tidal bores.
  • 1945 The Japanese occupation of Hangzhou ends, with the Imperial Japanese Army withdrawing from the city in October. People considered traitors for their aid to Japan during the war are arrested.
  • 1947 Hangzhou Buddhist Academy founded.
  • 1948 West Lake freezes over on January 26.

Communist era