Tai'an is located in the eastern coastal economy belt and the Economic Zone around the Bohai Sea, lying at the intersection of Shandong Peninsula and the hinterland. The name is derived from Mountain Taishan and implies that “The country is prosperous and the people live in peace”. Inhabited 50,000 years ago, it is the cradle of “Dawenkou Antique Culture”.

It extends from 116o02′ to 117o59′ longitudes east and from 35o38′ to 36o28′ latitudes north with 176.6 kilometers in length from east to west and 93.5 kilometers in width from south to north. Tai'an consists of two districts (Tai District and Daiyue District), two county-level cities (Xintai City and Feicheng City) and two counties (Ningyang County and Dongping County), covering an area of 7,762 square kilometers with a population of 5.5 million people.

Seated in the continental half-moist monsoon climate district of the Temperate Zone, Tai'an enjoys a pleasant climate with an annual average total solar radiation amount of 117.9 kilocalories/square centimeter, an annual average sunshine time of 2627.1 hours, an annual average temperature of 12.9℃ and an annual average precipitation of 697mm. The usable total amount of annual average water resource is 1.92 billion cubic meters, among them the amount usable of surface water is 1.39 billion cubic meters.

During the Qin Dynasty, the ancient land of Tai'an was governed by counties like Boyang and Fenggao, etc. Later, it was changed into Ganfeng County in the Tang Dynasty and Fengfu County in the Song Dynasty. The Jin government established Tai'an Armed Forces here and later upgraded it as a prefecture. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called Tai'an Zhou and the Prefecture of Tai'an in the Qing Dynasty which was changed into Tai'an County later. In 1958, Tai'an was designated as a municipality but changed into a county in 1963. Finally, in 1985, Tai'an Municipality was established.

Tai'an, along with Mountain Taishan and its beautiful natural scenery, has been honored with “An Excellent Tourist City of China” and “A National Sanitary City”.