located on the coast of the east china sea and the southern bank of hangzhou bay (which connects it to hang prefecture and the grand canal), ming prefecture was one of the most important international ports during the tang (618–907), wuyue (907–978) and song (960–1279) dynasties. cargo ships to and from japan, silla (57 bc – 935 ad), goryeo (918–1392), and liao (907–1125) frequented this prefecture. ming prefecture also administered zhoushan, an island archipelago off the zhejiang coast, including zhoushan island.