Jiayuguan is located in the northwest of Gansu province and in the middle of Hexi Corridor. A modern regional central city of industrial tourism that sprung up because of the construction of Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company, it was a key project of China's first Five-Year Plan(1953-1957). With a total area of 1,224 sq km and a population of 315,000 people, it is one of the four prefecture-level cities without municipal districts in China. In 2024, the city's GDP grew by 8.2 percent, ranking second in the province, while its general public budget revenue grew by 8.4 percent and fixed assets investment grew by 6.1 percent. Last year, the per capita disposable income of the city's urban and rural residents was 55,821 yuan ($7,754) and 30,742 yuan, respectively.

Jiayuguan was not only a traffic hub of the ancient "Silk Road", but also the starting point at the western end of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty. The Ancient Silk Road and the military beacon sites of the previous dynasties established 2000 years ago can still be seen. It is the intersection of the Silk Road culture and the Great Wall culture. It is known as "the Impregnable Jiangyuguan Pass", the "Major Town of Hexi" and "the Key to the Border".

Jiayuguan extends southward to the first pier of the Great Wall and goes straight to the foot of the Qilian Mountains. The northward extension of Guancheng is famous for the"Hanging Great Wall". The poetic lines "thousands of miles of the Great Wall are covered with many barriers, cliffs and hanging mountains, are the image of Guancheng and the Great Wall. In 1987, UNESCO listed the Cultural Heritage of the Jiayuguan Great Wall as a World Cultural Heritage. Jiayuguan also boasts the world-class international gliding base, the "July 1 Glacier" (the closest glacier to a city in Asia), the Wei-Jin Mural Tomb in Xincheng which has the largest underground gallery in the world, the First Pier of the Great Wall, the Museum of the Great Wall, the East Lake Eco-tourism Scenic Spot, the Zixuan Wine Cellar which is the largest in Asia, the Fantawild Adventure and other rich and diverse cultural tourism resources.