Shaowu City (formerly Shaowu County, Shaowu Prefecture), known as the "Iron City", is located at the south foot of Wuyi Mountain and the bank of Futun River, and is known as South Wuyi in history. In October 1983, it was withdrawn from the county and established as a city. It now governs 12 towns, 3 townships and 4 streets, with a total area of 2860 square kilometers and a built-up area of 25.12 square kilometers. According to the data of the seventh population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the permanent resident population of Shaowu was 273721.

Shaowu has a long history. It has a history of more than 1700 years. It was one of the eight prefectures in Fujian. In history, it produced two prime ministers, seven ministers of the Ministry of War, and 271 Jinshi. Heping Ancient Town of Shaowu City is also the place where the world's Huang Clan relatives seek their roots and pay homage to their ancestors. The descendants of Huang Qi, the minister of the Ministry of Industry of the Later Tang Dynasty, are spread across the coastal provinces, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Southeast Asian countries. Li Gang, the famous prime minister of the Song Dynasty, and Yan Yu, the literary commentator, were all from Shao Wu. During the revolutionary war, the CPC Fujian and Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, the Central Fujian Special Committee, and the Fujian Provincial Party Committee were established successively.

Shaowu is the "forest sea granary" in northern Fujian. It is one of the commodity grain base counties (cities) in China and Fujian Province. Shaowu has a forest coverage rate of 70%, a forest area of 3.19 million mu, and a forest stock volume of 14.02 million cubic meters. It is one of the key forest areas and one of the four major forest products processing centers in Fujian. At the same time, the total theoretical reserves of water resources in the territory are 304000 kilowatts, and there are more than 20 kinds of underground minerals. The reserves of jadeite ranks first in Fujian Province. In 2015, it was listed as the second batch of national comprehensive pilot areas for new urbanization.

In 2020, Shaowu will achieve a GDP of 24.166 billion yuan.

In March 2020, it won the title of National Advanced County for Village Cleaning Action, and was praised by the Central Agriculture Office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. On October 9, 2020, it was awarded the title of the fourth batch of national ecological civilization construction demonstration cities and counties by the Ministry of Ecological Environment.