Shanwei City, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, is located in the southeast coast of Guangdong Province, at the southern foot of the Lotus Mountain, on the east bank of the Pearl River Delta, separated from Taiwan Province by a river, with a total area of 4865.05 square kilometers. The coastline of the mainland is 455.2 kilometers long, accounting for 11.1% of the coastline of the province. The sea area within the continental shelf (i.e. within 200 meters of water depth) is 23900 square kilometers, equivalent to 4.5 times the land area. The metropolitan area of Shanwei City is part of the scope of "Shenzhen Metropolitan Area" redefined in the "14th Five-Year Plan" of Guangdong Province in 2021. By the end of 2021, Shanwei has a permanent population of 2.6869 million and a registered residence population of 3.5643 million.

In the sixth year of Xianhe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (331), Haifeng County was established. In the 11th year of the Kaihuang reign of the Sui Dynasty (591), it belonged to Xunzhou. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was Huizhou government. In January 1956, it was under the jurisdiction of Huiyang District; On March 22, 1959, it was assigned to Shantou Special Area; On December 22, 1983, it was under the jurisdiction of Huiyang District; In 1988, Shanwei was established. As of October 2022, Shanwei has jurisdiction over 1 municipal district, 2 counties and 1 county-level city. Shanwei City is one of the 13 red revolutionary base areas in China, the birthplace of the first county-level Soviet regime in China, and the four counties (cities, districts) in the city are all the old revolutionary base areas of the first class; It is the intersection of Minnan culture, Chaoshan culture, Hakka culture and Guangfu culture, forming a distinctive "Hailufeng culture". Local traditional dramas include orthographic dramas, Xiqin dramas and white-character dramas. Nurtured famous people such as Peng Pai, Xie Fei, Chen Qiyou, Huang Dingchen, Ma Sicong, Zhong Jingwen, Yang Chengzhi, Ke Lin, Peng Shilu, Huang Xuhua, etc. Shanwei City has Pinqing Lake, the largest coastal lagoon in Chinese Mainland. It is famous for the "Eight Sceneries of Shanwei", such as Red Square Spark, Xuanwu Spirit, Phoenix, Wave Shielding Wonder, Jinxiang Silver Beach, Lianfeng Pincui, Wupo Zhengqi, Nanwan Zhuitao, etc.

In 2021, Shanwei will achieve a gross regional product of 128.804 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7% year on year. At the end of the year, the city's permanent resident population will be 2.6869 million.