[5] Aiming to influence local Chinese with Christianity and making them assist the mission, the school provided training in religion, geography, history, mathematics, science, language, and arts and crafts and recruited up to 30 students a year.

[6]: 48–62 [7] In 1846, a girls' boarding school was founded by Caroline Hubble Cole, which functioned as a place for missionary wives to serve.

[8] In 1847, when Mary Ann Aldersey left Ningbo, her girls' boarding school was merged into that of the church at her request.

However, as Guangde and neighbouring areas fell to the Japanese, the autumn term was forced to end in December, as defeated Chinese soldiers crowded into the town of Tengchi.

[21]: 45–48 With the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Shanghai International Settlement fell to the Japanese in December 1941.

The Shaowu campus was closed in June 1944 due to further Japanese invasion nearby, with its students transferred to Amoy University in Tingzhou.

With the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the associated university continued its work until the end of spring term in 1946.

[19] However, with continuous Kuomintang defeats in the civil war with the Communists, the American faculty left the university by the end of 1948.

[21]: 48–54 On 3 May 1949, the People's Liberation Army defeated Kuomintang troops on the north bank of the Qiantang River, thus entering the campus of Hangchow University, which was welcomed by many of the students and faculty.

On the following day, Hangchow students came to the campus of Zhejiang University to celebrate the anniversary of the May Fourth Movement and the Communist control of the city.

[22]: 83  In 1867, the school, renamed as Hangchow Presbyterian Boys' School, later known as Hangchow Presbyterian College in 1897, moved to the Hangzhou campus at Leather Market Street (皮市巷) and later was relocated at Pagoda Street (大塔儿巷) next to Pishi Lane in the city centre of Hangzhou.

[24][25] From 1906 to 1911, the college acquired land on Qinwang Hill (秦望山) near Zhakou to build its new campus.