Yueyang City, formerly known as "Baling" and also known as "Yuezhou", is a prefecture level city under the jurisdiction of Hunan Province. It is located in the northeast of Hunan Province, with the Yangtze River to the north and the Three Xiangs and Four Rivers to the south, embracing Dongting Lake and intersecting rivers and lakes. The terrain within the city is diverse, with high elevations in the east and low elevations in the west, sloping towards the Dongting Lake Basin in a stepped manner. It belongs to a humid continental monsoon climate with a total area of 14858 square kilometers. As of March 2023, Yueyang City has jurisdiction over 3 districts, 4 counties, and 2 county-level cities. As of the end of 2024, the permanent population of Yueyang City was 4.9875 million.
Yueyang City is one of the first batch of open cities along the Yangtze River by the State Council, an important regional center city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and a provincial sub center city. The construction of the city began in 505 BC, named after the original county seat located south of Mount Mufu in Tianyue. It is a cultural city with a long history of over 2500 years. Yueyang City has extremely convenient transportation, with national transportation arteries such as the Yangtze River, Beijing Guangzhou Railway, Haoji Railway, Beijing Guangzhou High speed Railway, Beijing Hong Kong Macao Expressway, and Hangzhou Ruizhou Expressway interwoven into a network in the urban area. Yueyang is the only international trade port city in Hunan Province and a famous port city in China. Chenglingji Port is connected to the river and the sea, and there is a Chenglingji Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Yueyang Sanhe Airport officially opened on December 26, 2018. Yueyang City is one of the important origins of Chinese culture and a well-known tourist destination both domestically and internationally. It has been awarded as the city with the highest sense of happiness and cultural soft power in China, one of the top ten vibrant leisure cities in China, a national civilized city, one of the first national demonstration areas for the construction of a rule of law government, and a national health city.