During the 2020 census, Zhoushan Prefecture's population was 1,157,817, out of whom 882,932 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of two urban districts of Dinghai and Putuo.

During the Spring and Autumn period, Zhoushan was called Yongdong, referring to its location east of the Yong River.

Sun En, an adherent of the Taoist sect the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, launched his rebellion around the year 400 and was defeated by Jin forces in 402.

In 863, the Japanese Buddhist monk Egaku (慧锷)[5] and a Putuoshan local Zhang-shi (张氏) placed a statue of Guanyin at Chaoyin Cave (潮音洞) that would later become a popular tourist and pilgrim destination.

Under the early Qing dynasty, it played a similar role to Xiamen and Guangzhou as a frequent port of call for Western traders.

One of the requests of Lord Macartney's embassy to the Qianlong Emperor in 1793 was an acquisition of "a small unfortified island near Zhoushan for the residence of English traders, storage of goods, and outfitting of ships."

[citation needed] The British Foreign Secretary Palmerston was furious when he learned that Elliot agreed to the cede Zhoushan for Hong Kong, described as "a barren island with hardly a house on it".

[11] The First Opium War ended with conclusion of the Treaty of Nanjing in which China opened up the cities of Guangzhou ("Canton"), Fuzhou ("Foochow"), Xiamen ("Amoy"), Ningbo ("Ningpo"), and Shanghai to residence by British subjects for the purpose of trade.

[citation needed] Wang Yijun, a leader of the Taiping rebels, attempted to retake Zhoushan from its Qing garrison on 13 February 1862 but was defeated and killed.

On 1 October 1942, the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru was transporting 1,800 POWs to Tokyo when she was attacked by the USS Grouper off Qingbing (青浜) or Dongfu; one torpedo hit and she sank the next day.

In particular, Qiandao and Lincheng sub-districts of Dinghai District are governed by a special new town administration committee of Zhoushan.

In 2016, the entire municipality achieved a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 122.85 billion yuan (approximately 16,013 US dollars per capita), with an increase of 11.3% from the previous year.

However, since Zhoushan has a significantly smaller population compared with other municipalities, the absolute figure of total GDP still ranked the last place in the province.

Zhoushan, which proudly boasts two national level key scenic areas (Mount Putuo and Shengsi Islands) and two provincial level key scenic areas (Taohua Island and Daishan), is always praised to be the "backyard garden" of Yangtze River Delta.

Beside these scenic areas, Zhoushan has an abundance of points of interest, landscape forms and tourism resources, many of which are still under development, due to its rich historic and natural endowment.

Conveniently connected to the continental part of the delta, Zhoushan attracted 27.71 million visitors (which is approximately 25 times its population), 310.5 thousand of whom were from abroad, in 2012 alone.

Those large inscriptions hewn in solid granite, the many temples which appear in every direction, the highly picturesque scenery itself, with its many-peaked, riven, and detached rocks, and above all a stately mausoleum, the largest which I have ever seen, containing the bones and ashes of thousands of priests, quite bewilder the imagination.

Zhujiajian (朱家尖) is the fifth largest island of the archipelago and a newly developed seaside resort with intriguing seascapes, unmarred beaches, dense woods, sheer rock cliffs, hills for hiking, extraordinary seafood and displays of fishermen folk culture.

[24] Daqing Mountain is the best location to get the incomparable view of southern Zhoushan Islands and the continental China (Chuanshan Peninsula) on clear days.

It is also an ideal place for extreme sports, such as car racing, mountain cycling, gliding, rock climbing and bungee jumping.

Baishan Mountain features huge natural rocks of different shapes, Guanyin carving on the cliff, and the Putuo Impression show, directed by Zhang Yimou.

The scenic area, consisting of hundreds of islands outlying the Hangzhou Bay, boasts multiple quality beaches, rocks, and cliffs.

The eastern coast of Shengshan Island features steep cliffs, an ideal place to view sunrise above the sea.

Gouqi Island has well-preserved fishing villages and cultures, the largest aquatic farm in China and the Mountain and Sea Wonders (山海奇观) rock that was believed to be left by General Hou Jigao of the Ming dynasty, who defended the southeastern coast against the raids from wokou.

[25] Daishan (岱山), originally known as Penglai, is believed to have been reached by Xu Fu of the Qin dynasty during his eastward journey to Japan.

Dongsha Ancient Town was once the county seat of Daishan, with hundreds years of commercial and exchange activities associated to traditional fishing industry.

Shuanghe features wonderful large-scale man-made cliffs and precipices which are the result of hundreds years of carving for granite materials for architectural purposes.

Its collection of museums include themes such as fishing culture, Zhoushan dialect, typhoon, lighthouse, salt production, etc.