Hangzhou Bay, or the Bay of Hangzhou (simplified Chinese: 杭州湾; traditional Chinese: 杭州灣; pinyin: Hángzhōu Wān), is an inlet of the East China Sea, bordered by the province of Zhejiang and the municipality of Shanghai. The Qiantang River flows into the bay.
It lies south of Shanghai, and ends at the city of Hangzhou. Hangzhou Bay contains many small islands collectively called the Zhoushan Islands.
The bay is known for hosting the world's largest tidal bore, up to 9 metres (30 ft) high, and traveling up to 40 km (25 mi) per hour.
The bay is spanned by the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which was linked up on June 14, 2007 and opened on 1 May, 2008. The then second-longest bridge in the world, it cuts the trip between eastern Zhejiang and Shanghai from 400 to 80 kilometres (250 to 50 miles).
The entire bay area is shallow at less than 15 meters depth.
Hangzhou ([xǎŋʈʂóʊ]), formerly romanised as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay, which separates Shanghai and Ningbo. Hangzhou grew to prominence as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium, due in part to its beautiful natural scenery. The city's West Lake is its best-known attraction.
Hangzhou is classified as a sub-provincial city and forms the core of the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in China. During the 2010 Chinese census, the metropolitan area held 21.102 million people over an area of 34,585 km2 (13,353 sq mi). Hangzhou prefecture had a registered population of 8,892,000 and the built-up area (including the 9 urban districts and the Keqiao and Yuecheng districts of Shaoxing) held 8,874,348.
In September 2015, Hangzhou was awarded the 2022 Asian Games. It will be the third Chinese city to play host to the Asian Games after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010. On November 16, 2015, President Xi Jinping announced that Hangzhou would host the eleventh G-20 summit on September 4–5, 2016.