Editor's note: Located in the Yangtze River Basin on the southeastern coast of China, the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu (dating to about 3,300–2,300 BCE) reveal an early regional state with a unified belief system based on rice cultivation in late Neolithic China. These ruins are an outstanding example of early urban civilization which finds cultural expression in monuments made of compressed earth, evidence of urban planning, a water conservation system, and a social hierarchy clearly manifested in a differentiated system of burials in cemeteries on the site.

The Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, were added to the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on July 9, 2019, during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku in Azerbaijan.