Huzhou

Huzhou (, ; Huzhou dialect: ghou² cieu¹) is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province (Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain, China). Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzhou to the south, and the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu to the west and north respectively. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,367,579 inhabitants, of whom 1,015,937 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of Wuxing District as Nanxun District is not being conurbated yet. Location Huzhou, in its general aspect, is in the center of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Area, with the city center south of the Chinese third largest freshwater lake Lake Tai. There are transportation links to the provincial capital of Hangzhou away in the south, Jiangsu and Anhui province in the west, and the metropolitan municipality of Shanghai to the northeast. Flowing quietly through the city is the Changxing-Huzhou-Shanghai Channel, it is also referred to as the "Eastern Rhine River" for the continuous barge transportation that goes on similarly in the more internationally known Rhine River in Germany. The State Way 318 passes through Huzhou in an east-west direction and the State Way 104 in a north-south direction; the Nanjing-Huzhou-Hangzhou toll expressway and Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui toll expressway offers convenient access to major areas in the region.