There are thirteen districts, counties and cities around West Lake, including Shangcheng District, Xiacheng District, Xihu District, Jianggan District, Binjiang District, Gongshu District, Xiaoshan District, Yuhang District, Lin'an District, Fuyang District, Chun'an County, Tonglu County and Jiande City.

Hangzhou, referred to as "Hangzhou", was formerly known as Lin'an and Qiantang. It is a prefecture-level city, provincial capital, sub-provincial city, megacity and core city of Hangzhou Metropolitan Area under the jurisdiction of Zhejiang Province. It is the economic, cultural, scientific and educational center of Zhejiang Province approved by the State Council and one of the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta.

Hangzhou is located in East China, the lower reaches of Qiantang River, the southeast coast, northern Zhejiang and the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It is the core city of the Hangzhou Bay Greater Bay Area, the central city of the Shanghai-Jiaxing-Hangzhou G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor and an important international e-commerce center. Hangzhou has many cultural relics. There are a large number of natural and cultural landscape relics in and around West Lake. The most representative ones are West Lake culture, Liangzhu culture, silk culture and tea culture.