Ningde is an emerging harbor city in eastern Fujian province with an area of 13,500 square kilometers. As of 2017, its population stands at  2.9 million. It borders the cities of Wenzhou to the north, Fuzhou to the south and Nanping to the west. It has a 1,026-kilometer coastline and numerous berths. There are different types of seafood in Ningde, including large yellow croakers, shrimp, cockles, oysters and seaweed. The city is well-known for its numerous tourist attractions, such as Taimu Mountain, Baishuiyang, the Yangjia River and Yushan Island, and various folk arts, of which lion dance and papercutting are the most popular.

In 2017, Ningde's GDP grew by 5.3 percent year-on-year to 179.3 billion yuan, official data shows.