Lishui, whose name means “beautiful water” in Chinese, lies in the southwestern part of Zhejiang Province. Situated on the intersection point of Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province, the city is adjacent to Wenzhou to the southeast, Ningde and Nanping to the southwest, Quzhou to the northwest, Jinhua to the north and Taizhou to the northeast.

It is 126 km from Wenzhou, 122 km from Jinhua, 292 km from Hangzhou and 512 km from Shanghai. It is a transport hub in Zhejiang Province. The Jinhua-Wenzhou Railway, the Jinhua-Wenzhou Highway, the Longli Highway and the Lihua Highway run across the city. It takes merely 1 hour to travel from the city center to the Wenzhou Airport or Yiwu Airport, 2.5 hours to the Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport, and 4.5 hours to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the second largest port in China by cargo turnover in 2007, is within 2.5 hours’ drive.

There are over 3,800 species of plants and 57 kinds of mineral resources in Lishui. The phrophyllite reserve in Lishui accounts for one third of China’s total. The Suicang gold mine is the largest gold mine in Zhejiang.