Zhejiang is located in the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta on the southeastern coast of China. It borders Fujian to the south, Jiangxi and Anhui to the west, Jiangsu and Shanghai to the north. Qiangtang River, the largest river within the province, is called Zhijiang, or Zhejiang, for the flections of the flow. The province is named after the river and the capital of the province is Hangzhou. The direct distances from east to west and from north to south of the province are both about 450 kilometers, covering a total continental area of 101,800 square kilometers, which is 1.06% of the country, and makes the province one of the smallest in the country. The province possesses varied topography, hills and mountains account for 70.4 percent of the total area in the province, plains and basins make up 23.2 percent while the rest 6.4 percent is water area composed of rivers and lakes, and the arable land only accounts for 2.0817 million hectares. That is why the province is said to have 70% of its land being hills, 10% being water area and 20% being arable land. The terrain tilts from southwest to northeast, mainly divided in 6 geographic zones namely North Zhejiang Plain, West Zhejiang Hills, East Zhejiang Hills, Jinqu Basin in the middle, South Zhejiang Mountains, Southeastern Coastal Plain and off-shore islands. There are 8 rivers in the province namely Qiantang River, Oujiang River, Lingjiang River, Shaoxi River, Yongjiang River, Feiyunjiang River, Aojiang River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal ( Zhejiang part ) . The famous lakes comprise the West Lake in Hangzhou, the East Lake in Shaoxing, the South Lake in Jiaxing, the Dongqian Lake in Ningbo and the man-made Thousand-Islet Lake.
