Jinchang is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Gansu Province, an important node city on the ancient Silk Road, and one of the main cities of Hexi Corridor. For the edge of mining enterprises, enterprises set up the city, because of nickel rich known as the "motherland's nickel capital". As of September 2022, it has jurisdiction over 12 townships and 6 subdistricts, covering an area of 9,600 square kilometers. According to the seventh census data, as of midnight on November 1, 2020, Jinchang's permanent population was 438,026.

Jinchang is located in northwest China, the middle part of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, and the northern foot of Qilian Mountains. It borders Minqin County of Wuwei City on the north and east, Liangzhou District of Wuwei City on the southeast, Sunan Yugu Autonomous County on the south, Menyuan Hui Autonomous County of Qinghai Province on the southwest, Shandan County and Minle County of Zhangye City on the west, and Alxa Right Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on the northwest.

Established in 1981, Jinchuan District, Yongchang County because of the territory of Jinchang and the city name. In 2011, it was named the National Sanitary City, and in January 2014, the National Ministry of Urban-Rural Development named it the National Garden City. In 2015, it was rated as a national civilized city. The first batch of national comprehensive pilot areas for new urbanization. In October 2020, it was rated as the national model city (county) of double support. In 2020, Jinchang achieved a gross regional product of 35.862 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 8.7%.