The Hemudu culture (5500 to 3300 BCE) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay area in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao; Zhejiang Province. The culture may be divided into early and late phases; before and after 4000 BCE respectively.

The Hemudu people lived in long; stilt houses. Communal longhouses were also common in Hemudu settlements. The Hemudu were one of the earliest cultures to cultivate rice. Scholars view the Hemudu culture as a source of many proto-Austronesian cultures.