Located in the northwest of Fujian Province and at latitude 25°29'- 27°07' north and longitude 116°22'- 118°39' east, the region of Sanming is 230 kilometers wide from east to west and 180 kilometers long from south to north, and borders Fuzhou to the east, Quanzhou to the south, Longyan to the west, Nanping to the north and Jiangxi to the northwest.  Covering an area of 22,928.8 square kilometers, in which mountainous regions account for 82%, farmlands account for 8.3% and water areas/others account for 9.7%, Sanming is therefore described as "80% mountain, 10% water and 10% farmland". The forest cover rate reaches 73.8%, while the mean annual temperature is 19.4℃.

Featuring central Asia tropical climate, Sanming is long in summer and short in winter, and is a ideal tourist resort all the year round. Sanming now governs two districts (Meilie and Sanyuan) and nine counties (Yongan City, Mingxi, Qingliu, Ninghua, Datian, Youxi, Shaxian, Jiangle, Taining and Jianning), and has a total population of 2,667,200. The Min-Zhong (Central Fujian)dialect is the native language of Sanming (municipality), Yongan ans Shaxian, while Min-Nan (South Fujian) dialect is spoken in Youxi and Datian, Min-Xi (West Fujian) dialect is spoken in Ninghua and Qingliu, and Min-Gan (Fujian and Jiangxi) dialect is spoken in Jianning, Taining, Jiangle and Mingxi.