 The province's name derives from the Zhe River (), the former name of the Qiantang River which flows past Hangzhou and whose mouth forms Hangzhou Bay.It is usually understood as meaning "Crooked" or "Bent River," from the meaning of Chinese , but is more likely a phono-semantic compound formed from adding (the "water" radical used for river names) to phonetic (pinyin "zhé" but reconstructed Old Chinese *"tet"), preserving a proto-Wu name of the local Yue, similar to Yuhang, Kuaiji, and Jiang.Kuahuqiao culture was an early Neolithic culture that flourished in the Hangzhou area in 6,000-5,000 BC.