Zhaotong City, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Yunnan Province, is located in the northeast of Yunnan Province, in the hinterland of the Wumeng Mountains at the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, along the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, and in the transitional zone of the uplift of the Sichuan Basin to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It is adjacent to Bijie City of Guizhou Province in the east, Qujing City of Yunnan Province in the south, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province in the west and the Jinsha River in the north, With an area of 23000 square kilometers, the built-up area of the central urban area of Zhaoyang is 62 square kilometers. By 2022, Zhaotong City has jurisdiction over 1 district and 9 counties, and takes charge of 1 county-level city. The municipal government is located in Zhaoyang District, which is a city integrating "mountainous areas, old revolutionary areas and scattered ethnic areas". Zhaotong will have a population of 6.3 million in 2022.

Historically, Zhaotong City is an important gateway of Yunnan Province to Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, an important channel for the Central Plains culture to enter Yunnan, one of the three birthplaces of Yunnan culture, the hub of China's "South Silk Road", known as "the key to South Yunnan, the throat of West Sichuan", an important channel for Yunnan to connect the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone, and a two-way corridor from the mainland to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Yunnan to the mainland.

Zhaotong City is rich in hydropower resources. There are three giant power stations, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba and Baihetan, with coal and sulfur reserves ranking the first in the province. It is the world's high-quality gastrodia elata seed source base, the world's potato plateau seed potato capital, the largest high-quality apple base in southern China, and the hometown of Qiongzhu in China. In 2021, the gross regional product of Zhaotong will reach 146.06 billion yuan.