Jining is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Shandong province. It borders Heze to the southwest, Zaozhuang to the southeast, Tai'an to the northeast, and the provinces of Henan and Jiangsu to the northwest and south respectively. Jining, which is located directly to the north of Lake Nanyang, is today the northernmost city reachable by navigation on the Grand Canal of China making it an important inland port.
Its population was 8,081,905 at the 2010 census, of whom 1,241,012 lived in the built-up area made up of Rencheng urban district on 884 km², Yanzhou district not being totally conurbated yet.