Huzhou

Huzhou (Chinese: 湖州; pinyin: Húzhōu, listenⓘ; 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. Huzhou, in its general aspect, is in the center of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Area, with the city center 10 km (6.2 mi) south of the Chinese third largest freshwater lake Lake Tai. There are transportation links to the provincial capital of Hangzhou 78 km (48 mi) away in the south, Jiangsu and Anhui province in the west, and the metropolitan municipality of Shanghai 150 km (93 mi) 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.