Located in the southeast of Fujian and at longitude 117°-118°east and latitude 23.8°-25°north, Zhangzhou is close to Taiwan Straits and facing Xiamen across the sea. It borders Quanzhou City to the east, Longyan City to the northwest and Shantou City of Guangzhou Province to the southwest.

Covering a total area of 12,600 square kilometers, Zhangzhou governs eight counties (Zhangpu, Yuxiao, Dongshan, Zhaoan, Pinghe, Nanjing, Huaan, Changtai and Longhai City) and two district (Xiangcheng and Longwen). The total population amounts to 4,500,000, most of which are of the Han nationality, as well as 21 minority nationalities as She and Gao-Shan. Being a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, there are 700,000 overseas Chinese and Hong Kong & Macao compatriots.

Known as “City of flowers and fruits” and “hometown of fish and rice”, Zhangzhou is a historic and cultural city, famous for its rich produce. It produces a lot of “6 famous fruits” (tangerines, lichis, bananas, longans, pomelos, and pineapples) and “3 famous flowers” (Narcissus, camellia, and orchid), as well as valuable seafood, including prawns, groupers, abalones, lobsters, mud crab, scallops, oysters, mud clams and squids. Narcissus, medicine “Pianzihuang”, and “Inkpad” produced locally are known as “three treasures” of Zhangzhou”, famous both in China and abroad. The tourism handicrafts of puppet carving, seashell pictures and jade carvings of the nine-dragon wall are very popular among Chinese and foreign tourists.

Zhangzhou is a famous hometown for the overseas Chinese and Taiwanese. Over 700,000 people from Zhangzhou are now living in Hong Kong and Macao. About one third of the population in Taiwan is originally from Zhangzhou. It has become a destination of pilgrimage and paying visits to their native hometown for the overseas Chinese and Taiwan patriots.