Shaoguan City, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, is located in the north of Guangdong Province, with a total area of 18400 square kilometers, ranking second in Guangdong Province, and an urban area of 2870.66 square kilometers. By the end of 2021, Shaoguan's registered residence population will be 3.3675 million, including 1.5369 million urban population. Shaoguan City is the gathering place of Hakka culture, the hometown of Maba people, the birthplace of Shixia culture, the ancestral court of Zen culture, and the hometown of Zhang Jiuling, the famous prime minister of a generation.

During the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, prefectures were set up in northern Guangdong. In 1949, Shaoguan Municipal People's Government was established to govern the urban area of Shaoguan. In January 1977, Shaoguan City was upgraded to a province directly under the Central Government, and it was separated from the regional system. Shaoguan Prefecture has 13 counties and Shaoguan City has 1 county. In June 1983, Shaoguan District and Shaoguan City were merged and collectively called Shaoguan City (prefecture-level city). As of October 2022, Shaoguan City has jurisdiction over 3 districts, 4 counties and 1 autonomous county, and takes charge of 2 county-level cities. The municipal government is located at No. 75, Fengdu North Road, Zhenjiang District.

In September 2019, Shaoguan was selected as the second batch of national industrial transformation and upgrading demonstration zones. In 2021, Shaoguan's GDP (preliminary calculation) will reach 155.393 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6% over the previous year.