Lanzhou, also referred to as "Jincheng", is the only provincial capital city that the Yellow River passes through in its downtown area. With three counties and five districts under its jurisdiction, Lanzhou boasts a state-level new area named Lanzhou New Area and two state-level development zones, Lanzhou High-Tech Zone and Lanzhou Economic Development Zone. Lanzhou has a total area of 13,100 sq km, and had a resident population of nearly 4.44 million at the end of 2024. It is known as a "Major Silk Road City", the "Pear of the Yellow River", a "Waterwheel Capital" and "Fruit City".

Human beings thrived in Lanzhou as early as 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic Age, which gives it a profound cultural heritage. Since the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) and the establishment of the Silk Road, Lanzhou has formed a significant intersection of Yellow River culture, Silk Road culture, Central Plains culture and Western culture, which has gradually created distinctive regional characteristics through multi-ethnic integration. The "Three business cards of Lanzhou", beef noodles, "Readers" magazine and the dance drama of "Dunhuang, My Dreamland", are the most unforgettable things for Lanzhou people, no matter how far away they may travel.

With a good industrial foundation, Lanzhou was an old industrial base mainly supported by the central government in the early days of the founding of new China. Lanlian, Lanhua and other chemical companies have laid a solid industrial foundation for Lanzhou and Gansu. Through years of development, Lanzhou has formed an industrial system based on the petrochemical industry, machinery manufacturing, non-ferrous metallurgy, energy and electricity, biomedicine and building materials.

Lanzhou is located at the crossroads of Northwest China and is among China's nine major logistics regions, 10 major logistics channels, and 21 national logistics node cities. It is also a strategic part of China's efforts to open up to Central Asia, West Asia, and South Asia.

Lanzhou, a famous town of "Tea exchange horses" on the ancient Silk Road, has now become an important regional trade center and modern logistics base in western China. It is also one of nine major logistics regions, ten major logistics channels and twenty-one national logistics node cities in China, with markets radiating over all parts of the country. Benefited from the in-depth promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative, Lanzhou, has become more prominent in geographical advantages as a major city of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and is emerging as an important strategic platform for opening of China's western regions.

Lanzhou possesses a distinctive strength of science and education. There are more than 1,200 scientific research institutes represented by the Lanzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Lanzhou Institute of Modern Physics, the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics and the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute of Lanzhou. There are 12 state key laboratories in the city, including the first large-scale heavy ion accelerator in China. Lanzhou's talent density and comprehensive scientific and technological strength ranks at the top among cites across China.