Our final day in Zhoushan.

We explored both a recently developed and ancient part of the city.

In the ancient part of the city there was a building that commemorate the advances made in renewable energy and reducing emissions.

In China, there’s a ranking system for each city based primarily on GDP and population. For example, Shanghai and Bejing are tier one cities.

Zhoushan is unique in that it’s one of 333 prefecture-level cities, Shanghai and Bejing are both in this category as well. Think of it as a city that has been granted the same level of authority and autonomy as a province, even though it is a city within a province.

What determines if a city should be granted this special status? Typically economic impact. Zhoushan is a coastal city with shipping ports that process some of the highest trade volume in the world.

Zhoushan, a tier two prefecture city, is within the province of Zhejiang, which had a GDP of $1.09 trillion in 2022, a little larger than the fourth highest GDP producing state Florida $1.07 in 2022.