Shandan County, subordinate to Zhangye City, Gansu Province, is located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor, and is the east gate of Jinzhangye, an important town of the Silk Road and a pearl on the frontier. It is adjacent to Yongchang in the east, Qinghai in the south and Alxa Right Banner in Inner Mongolia in the north. It is 148 kilometers long from north to south and 89 kilometers wide from east to west, with a total area of 5402.43 square kilometers. According to the data of the seventh population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the permanent population of Shandan County was 150031. Shandan County is 1550-4441 meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains on three sides, high in the southeast and low in the northwest, belonging to the continental cold and semi-arid climate. The economy of Shandan County is dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, with 857000 mu of cultivated land and 460000 mu of perennial cultivated area. It is a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral county.

Shandan has the largest military horse farm in Asia, Shandan Military Horse Farm, which has become the location of many films. The Ming Great Wall in Shandan is the most complete Ming Great Wall in China. On October 10, 2018, the Gansu Provincial Government approved Shandan County to withdraw from the poverty-stricken county.

In 2020, Shandan County will achieve a GDP of 6173.25 million yuan, an increase of 6.1%. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 151.025 million yuan, an increase of 5.2%, the added value of the secondary industry was 1544.29 million yuan, an increase of 15.4%, of which the industrial added value was 948.27 million yuan, an increase of 29.8%, and the added value of the construction industry was 605.94 million yuan, a decrease of 5.3%. The added value of the tertiary industry was 311.71 million yuan, up 1.9%.