Zhejiang in the context of "Jiangsu"

East China (Chinese: 华东; pinyin: huá dōng) is a geographical region in the People's Republic of China, mainly consisting of seven province-level administrative divisions, namely the provinces (from north to south) Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, and the direct-administered municipality Shanghai.

The region was defined in 1945 as the jurisdiction area of the Central Committee's East China Bureau (华东局), which was a merger politburo agency of the Shandong Bureau and the Central China Bureau previously established during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the region included all the aforementioned provinces except Jiangxi, which was previously considered part of South Central China before being reassigned in 1961. The East China Bureau was abolished in 1966 due to the Cultural Revolution, but in 1970 the fourth five-year plan redefined the region as the East China Coordinated Region (华东协作区), which supported the logistics of the Jinan and Nanjing Military Regions. This geographical definition was retained after the economic reform of the 1980s.

There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China. The varieties are typically classified into several groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Jin, Hakka and Yue, though some varieties remain unclassified. These groups are neither clades nor individual languages defined by mutual intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from Middle Chinese.

Chinese varieties have the greatest differences in their phonology, and to a lesser extent in vocabulary and syntax. Southern varieties tend to have fewer initial consonants than northern and central varieties, but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. All have phonemic tones, with northern varieties tending to have fewer distinctions than southern ones. Many have tone sandhi, with the most complex patterns in the coastal area from Zhejiang to eastern Guangdong.

Lin'an Prefecture (1129–1277) was, after 1138, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). With over one million people by 1276, it was the most populous city in the world. Lin'an Prefecture was located in modern northern Zhejiang around Hangzhou. Its administrative area is different from that of the modern prefecture-level city of Hangzhou.

Lin'an Prefecture fell to the Mongols in 1276.

Hangzhou is the capital city of the Chinese province of Zhejiang. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counties, and one county-level city in northwestern Zhejiang. It is situated at the head of Hangzhou Bay and the estuary of the Qiantang River.

Established as a county seat in 221 BC, Hangzhou later served as the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom (923–997) and the Southern Song dynasty (1138–1276). The city has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which are the West Lake Cultural Landscape, the Grand Canal, and the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City.

The Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is the busiest port in the world in terms of cargo tonnage. It handled 888.96 million tons of cargo in 2015. The port is located in Ningbo and Zhoushan, on the coast of the East China Sea, in Zhejiang province on the southeast end of Hangzhou Bay, across which it faces the municipality of Shanghai.

The port is at the crossroads of the north–south inland and coastal shipping route, including canals to the important inland waterway to interior China, the Yangtze River, to the north. The port consists of several ports which are Beilun (seaport), Zhenhai (estuary port), and old Ningbo harbor (inland river port).

Jiangxi is an inland province in east China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hillier areas in the south and east, it borders Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to the northwest. Major cities include its capital Nanchang, Ganzhou, and Jiujiang.

After the 1911 Revolution ended the Qing dynasty, Jiangxi became one of the earliest bases for the Chinese Communist Party. The Nanchang uprising took place in Jiangxi on 1 August 1927, beginning the Chinese Civil War. In 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic's government was established in Ruijin, which is sometimes called the "Former Red Capital".

The leather industry in China is a significant sector within the country's manufacturing and export economy, recognized as the world's largest producer of leather by volume. It encompasses the production of leather goods, including garments, footwear, and accessories, with major industrial clusters in regions such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Hebei provinces. The industry grew substantially since the 1980s, driven by economic reforms, low labor costs, and abundant raw materials.

The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD), once known as the Shanghai Economic Zone, is a megalopolis generally comprising most parts of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and southern Anhui. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan region (literally meaning "south of the Yangtze"), where the Yangtze drains into the East China Sea. Historically, the fertile delta fed much of China's population, allowing cities and commerce to flourish. Today, it is one of China's most important metropolitan areas and is home to China's financial center, as well being as a tourist destination and a hub for manufacturing ranging from textile to automaking. In 2024, the Yangtze Delta had a GDP of approximately US$4.7 trillion (about the same size as Germany).

The urban buildup in the area has given rise to what may be the largest concentration of adjacent metropolitan areas in the world. It covers 350,000 km (140,000 sq mi) and is home to over 240 million people, about a sixth of China's population. With a fourth of the country's GDP, the YRD is one of the fastest growing and richest regions in East Asia.