Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang, bordering Lishui to the west, Taizhou to the north, and the province of Fujian to the south. The area consists of mostly mountainous terrain, as well as hundreds of islands off the East China Sea coast, which is nearly 355 kilometres (221 miles) in length. At the time of the 2010 Chinese census, 3,039,500 people lived in Wenzhou's urban area. The greater Wenzhou prefecture, which also includes three satellite cities and six counties, had a population totalling 9,122,100, of which 31.16% are residents originally from outside of Wenzhou.
During the 19th century, the progenitor city of modern Wenzhou was known as Yungkia (Chinese: 永嘉, Yǒngjiā), a prosperous foreign treaty port that remains well-preserved today. Being situated in the mountains, it has been isolated for most of its history from the rest of the country, making its local culture and language, known as Wenzhounese, particularly distinct, even from its direct neighbours. Many counties under its jurisdiction are also the renowned qiaoxiangs (侨乡: Hometown of overseas Chinese) of many emigrants to Europe and the United States, with many Wenzhounese immigrants abroad becoming entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and retail and wholesale businesspeople in their adopted countries. Wenzhou people make up a large proportion of the Chinese residents in Italy, constituting approximately 90% of Tuscany's Chinese population. Significant concentrations of Wenzhounese also live in New York City, as well as across France and Spain.