Editing Hangzhou (section)

=== Song dynasty ===
In 1089, another renowned poet governor [[Su Shi]] (Su Dongpo) used 200,000 workers to construct a {{convert|2.8|km|1|abbr=on}} long [[causeway]] across West Lake made of mud dredged from the lake bottom. The lake is surrounded by hills on the northern and western sides. The [[Baochu Pagoda]] sits on the Baoshi Hill to the north of the lake.

Hangzhou was chosen as the new capital of the [[Southern Song dynasty]] in 1132,<ref>{{cite journal|first=Weldon South|last=Coblin|title=Migration History and Dialect Development in the Lower Yangtze Watershed|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|year=2002|volume=65|issue=3|page=533|doi=10.1017/s0041977x02000320|doi-broken-date=December 16, 2024 }}</ref> when most of [[northern China]] had been conquered by the Jurchens in the [[Jin–Song wars]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Holcombe|title=A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-51595-5|page=129}}</ref> The surviving [[House of Zhao|imperial family]] had retreated south from its original capital in [[Kaifeng]] after it was captured by the [[Jurchen people|Jurchens]] in the [[Jingkang Incident]] of 1127.<ref name="moteb">{{cite book|first=Frederick W.|last=Mote|title=Imperial China: 900–1800|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|pages=292–3|isbn=978-0-674-01212-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Herbert|last=Franke|editor1=Denis C. Twitchett|editor2=Herbert Franke|editor3=John King Fairbank|title=The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States, 710–1368|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=229|isbn=978-0-521-24331-5}}</ref> [[Emperor Gaozong of Song|Emperor Gaozong]] moved to Nanjing, then to modern [[Shangqiu]], then to [[Yangzhou]] in 1128, and finally to Hangzhou in 1129.<ref name="moteb" /><ref name="mote" />

Once the prospect of retaking northern China had diminished, buildings in Hangzhou were extended and renovated to become a permanent imperial capital. The imperial palace in Hangzhou, modest in size, was expanded in 1133 with new roofed alleyways, and in 1148 with an extension of the palace walls.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jacques|last=Gernet|title=Daily Life in China, on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276|year=1962|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-0720-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinchina00gern/page/25 25]|url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinchina00gern/page/25}}</ref> The city walls were built with [[tamped earth]] and stone and was 30 feet high and 10 feet thick at its base. There were 13 gates and several towers on the walls. The walls covered the city by four miles north to south and only one mile east to west.<ref name=":0" /> According to the Italian explorer [[Odoric of Pordenone]], Hangzhou was the greatest city in the world. It was heavily populated and filled with large family estates. It had 12,000 bridges. Bread, pork, rice, and wine were abundant despite the large population.{{sfn|Yule|2002|p=128}} Arab merchants lived in Hangzhou during the [[Song dynasty]], due to the fact that the oceangoing trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drGGEsi1fFEC&q=mosque+ningbo&pg=PA210|title=Beyond the Great Wall: urban form and transformation on the Chinese frontiers|year=1996|author=Piper Rae Gaubatz|publisher=Stanford University Press|edition=illustrated|isbn=0-8047-2399-0|page=210|access-date=17 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527074939/http://books.google.com/books?id=drGGEsi1fFEC&pg=PA210&dq=mosque+ningbo&hl=en&ei=dAbcTebnL8bx0gH3w-zqDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=mosque%20ningbo&f=false|archive-date=May 27, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Phoenix Mosque]] was constructed by a Persian settler in Hangzhou at this time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lane |first=George |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo25077174.html |title=The Phoenix Mosque and the Persians of Medieval Hangzhou |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2018 |language=en}}</ref>

From 1132 until the [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]] invasion of 1276, Hangzhou remained the capital of the Southern Song dynasty and was known as '''Lin'an''' ({{lang|zh|{{linktext|臨安}}}}). It served as the seat of the imperial government, a center of trade and entertainment, and the nexus of the main branches of the [[civil service]]. During that time the city was a gravitational center of Chinese civilization as what used to be considered "central China" in the north was taken by the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin]], an ethnic minority dynasty ruled by [[Jurchen people|Jurchens]].

Numerous philosophers, politicians, and men of literature, including some of the most celebrated poets in Chinese history such as [[Su Shi]], [[Lu You]], and [[Xin Qiji]] came here to live and die. Hangzhou is also the birthplace and final resting place of the scientist [[Shen Kuo]] (1031–1095 AD), his tomb being located in the [[Yuhang]] district.<ref name="Yuhang">Yuhang Cultural Network (October 2003). [http://www.yhwt.com/newsshow.aspx?artid=3169 Shen Kuo's Tomb] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502074744/http://www.yhwt.com/newsshow.aspx?artid=3169 |date=May 2, 2014 }} The Yuhang District of Hangzhou Cultural Broadcasting Press and Publications Bureau. Retrieved on 2007-05-06.</ref>

During the Southern Song dynasty, commercial expansion, an influx of refugees from the conquered north, and the growth of the official and military establishments, led to a corresponding population increase and the city developed well outside its 9th-century ramparts. According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', Hangzhou had a population of over 2 million at that time, while historian [[Jacques Gernet]] has estimated that the population of Hangzhou numbered well over one million by 1276. (Official Chinese census figures from the year 1270 listed some 186,330 families in residence and probably failed to count non-residents and soldiers.) It is believed that Hangzhou was the largest city in the world from 1180 to 1315 and from 1348 to 1358.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm|title=Largest Cities Through History|website=Geography.about.com|date=2011-03-02|access-date=2011-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010218202126/http://geography.about.com/science/geography/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm|archive-date=February 18, 2001|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>Janet L. Abu-Lughod, ''Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350'', "All the Silks of China" (Oxford University Press US) 1991, p. 337</ref>

Because of the large population and densely crowded (often multi-story) wooden buildings, Hangzhou was particularly vulnerable to fires. Major conflagrations destroyed large sections of the city in 1208, 1229, 1237, and 1275. The 1237 fire alone destroyed 30,000 dwellings. However, the worst was the 1208 fire which burned for 4 days in a 3-mile diameter and burnt 58,097 houses as well as killing 59 people. To combat this threat, the city constructed storage buildings that were rented out to merchants where watchmen patrolled by night and was enclosed by water on all sides.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Gernet |first=Jacques |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5xpXOYxxEEC |title=Daily life in China, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, 1250-1276 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1959 |isbn=9780804707206 |location=Stanford, California |pages=26, 37}}</ref> Besides this, the government established an elaborate system for fighting fires, erected watchtowers, devised a system of lantern and flag signals to identify the source of the flames and direct the response, and charged more than 3,000 soldiers with the task of putting out fire.