Ningde (Mindong), a National Garden City and Hometown of China’s Large Yellow Croaker, is on Fujian’s northeastern coast. Facing Taiwan across the East China Sea, it borders Nanping, Fuzhou and Zhejiang. It is Fujian’s closest city to the Yangtze River Delta, Japan and South Korea. With a land area of 13,400 km² and adjacent sea area of 44,600 km², it has Sandu Bay, a world-class deep-water harbor. Dominated by hills and mountains, it has a mid-subtropical marine monsoon climate.

Fuzhou, also known as Rongcheng, is Fujian’s provincial capital and core of politics, culture and transportation, a key city on the West Coast Economic Zone. Founded in 202 BC, it long served as Fujian’s political hub. A major southeast coastal metropolis and a new first-tier city, it hosts the Eastern Theater Command Army headquarters. Fuzhou lies in a typical estuarine basin ringed by mountains (600–1000m elevation).

Quanzhou, a prefecture-level city under Fujian Province, is abbreviated as “Li”, also known as Licheng or Citong City. It lies on the southeast coast of Fujian, bordering Fuzhou to the north and Xiamen to the south, facing Taiwan across the sea to the east. It administers four districts, three county-level cities, five counties, as well as Quanzhou Economic & Technological Development Zone and Quanzhou Taiwanese Investment Zone. As one of the three major central cities prioritized for development in Fujian, Quanzhou is China’s first East Asian Cultural Capital, the only recognized starting point of the Maritime Silk Road by UNESCO, and a pioneer zone for the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road under the national Belt and Road Initiative.

Zhangzhou, a prefecture-level administrative region under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province, is one of the cities on the West Coast of the Taiwan Strait. Known as China’s "Pastoral City & Ecological City", it boasts top-tier ecological competitiveness in Fujian and hosts the National Minnan Cultural and Ecological Protection Zone. Located in the Minnan Golden Triangle, Zhangzhou has its core urban areas in Xiangcheng District and Longwen District. It serves as a vital transportation hub where the Xiamen-Shenzhen, Longyan-Xiamen, Yingtan-Xiamen and Fuzhou-Xiamen railways converge, and is a national regional circulation node city.

Longyan City, also known as Minxi, lies in western Fujian at the junction of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces. It borders Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou to the east, Meizhou of Guangdong to the south, Ganzhou of Jiangxi to the west and Sanming to the north. It was upgraded from a prefecture to a city in May 1997. As an inland city close to the sea, Longyan serves as a vital transportation hub and corridor for the West Coast Economic Zone of the Taiwan Strait to extend its wings, connect two continents and expand its hinterland. At the foot of Cuiping Hill, 2 kilometers east of downtown Longyan, there is a karst cave named Longyan Cave for its dragon-like rock veins, from which the city derives its name. It is the only prefecture-level city in China named after the Chinese character "Long (Dragon)".

Sanming, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province, is located in central Fujian connecting the northwestern corner of the province, covering a total area of 22,965 square kilometers. It borders Fuzhou to the east, Jiangxi Province to the west, Quanzhou to the south, Nanping to the north and Longyan to the southwest. In 2014, in accordance with Fujian’s implementation of the *Revitalization Plan for the Former Central Soviet Area of Jiangxi-Fujian-Guangdong* approved by the State Council, Sanming rolled out targeted arrangements to build itself into a regional central city in Fujian, a regional comprehensive transportation hub and logistics node, an advanced manufacturing base, as well as a destination for eco-cultural tourism and leisure & wellness.