Yanji, the county-level city and capital of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Jilin Province, is located in the eastern part of Jilin Province, the middle part of Yanbian, the north foot of Changbai Mountains, and the hinterland of Northeast Asia economic circle. It is a pivot of China in the "Golden Triangle" of Tumen River region formulated by the United Nations. It is only 60 kilometers away from the China-Russia border in the east and 80 kilometers away from the Sea of Japan. It is more than 10 kilometers to the south from the China-DPRK border. The total area of Yanji city is 1,748 square kilometers. According to the 7th census data, as of midnight on November 1, 2020, the permanent population of Yanji city was 686,136.

Yanji is a central city in the east of Jilin Province, a national health city and an excellent tourist city in China. In 2017, Yanji was officially approved as a pilot county for power expansion in the province, marking that Yanji was given the administrative authority of prefecture-level city government. On October 8, 2019, Yanji was named the top 100 counties and cities of comprehensive strength in 2019, the Top 100 counties and cities of Science and Technology Innovation, the top 100 counties and cities of new urbanization quality, and the top 100 Counties and cities of Business environment in 2019. In November 2022, The State Council approved the establishment of a comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce in Yanji.
In 2021, Yanji's GDP reached 35.208 billion yuan, an increase of 6.3% over the previous year.