Ganzhou, situated on the upper reaches of the Ganjiang River and in the south of Jiangxi Province, is also called Gannan. It borders Sanming City and Longyan City of Fujian Province to the east, neighbors Meizhou City, Heyuan City and Shaoguan City of Guangdong Province to the south, and adjoins Chenzhou City of Hunan Province to the west. Ganzhou is a main routeway from the inland to the southeast coastal area. Under its jurisdiction there are counties and county-level cities like Ruijin, Ganxian and so on.

Related authorities of Ganzhou successively named its Xinfeng County as the Town of Navel Orange, Nankang City the Town of Sweet Shaddock, Anyuan County the Town of Jiulong Honey Shaddock, Xunwu County the Town of Tangerine Orange, Dayu County the Town of Daphne, Chicheng County the Town of White Lotus, Chongyi County the Town of Bamboos for Brush Making, Ganxian County the Town of Salted Duck, and Huichang County the Town of Rabbit Meat.

Famous scenic spots in Ganzhou mainly include Sanbai Mountain in Anyuan County, Jiulian Mountain in Longnan County and the Post Road at the Meiguan Pass in Dayu County. Sanbai Mountain is the origin of the Eastern River; Jiulian Mountain is the most complete section of sub-tropical natural ecosystem with numerous living fossils of wildlife are preserve, and has been listed as a key nature reserve under the protection of Jiangxi Province.

Zhanggong District is where the city government of Ganzhou is located, and visitors can find many cultural sites here. Ganzhou boasts 7 cultural relics sites under the national protection, 48 under the provincial protection, and a lot of historic sites, mainly including the well preserved city wall of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the magnificent Dajing Terrace, the Yugu Terrace, the Temple of Literature and the Tongtian Rock, etc.

Ganzhou is one of the famous old revolutionary areas in China, and used to the locus of the Central Revolutionary Base and the Chinese Soviet Republic temporary government. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Chenyi and other proletarian revolutionists one took part in revolutionary activities in Ganzhou. The world-famous Long March started from Ganzhou. Numerous revolutionary historical sites are preserved in the city, among which Ruijin, the Red Old Capital, is the most famous.

Ganzhou was proclaimed as the national level historical and cultural city by the People's Republic of China on January 4, 1994.