Ningjin County is located in the northwestern part of Shandong Province, at the junction of Hebei and Shandong provinces. It is part of Dezhou City, known as the “Crossroads of Nine Provinces,” and covers an area of 833 square kilometers. The county administers 9 towns, 1 township, 2 subdistricts, and 1 provincial-level economic development zone, with a population of 470,000.It is 300 kilometers north of Beijing, 200 kilometers north of Tianjin, and 160 kilometers north of the Xiong’an New Area; 240 kilometers west of Shijiazhuang; and 120 kilometers south of Jinan. It serves as a vital hub connecting the eight major economic zones of Northern China: the Tianjin Binhai New Area, the Yellow River Delta, the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economy Zone, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Zone, the Liaoning Coastal Economic Belt, the Central Region, and the Shandong Provincial Capital City Cluster.It serves as a regional central city within Shandong Province’s strategy for the economic rise of its western region and is a key node connecting the Yellow River Delta, the Blue Peninsula Economic Zone, the Bohai Rim, and the energy bases of the northwestern hinterland.