Anyang is situated at the northern tip or Henan Province, and is at the crossroads of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan. On the west it borders Taihang Moutain, and is on the waters of the Zhang River in the north, and connects with the Eastern China Plain on its south-eastern border. Anyang is a famous historical and cultural city that has 3,000 years of history.

        The eminent scholar of Chinese history and archeology Guo Moruo praised Anyang in a poem he wrote saying "The name of Anyang is not empty, for 3,000 years past it was an imperial city". In 1986 the National Committee declared Anyang a National historic and cultural city, and named it one of the seven ancient capitals of China along with Xi'an, Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing, Kaifeng, and Hangzhou. Anyang, one of the capitals of the ancient Shang Dynasty, was placed as the head of China's ancient capitals.

        Anyang was one of the important areas for the development of ancient Chinese culture. The prehistoric human caves of Xiaonanhai on the western side of Anyang was an site for humanity in the old stone age 25,000 years ago, over 7,000 stone tools and animal bone fossils that were used by mankind have been unearthed here. The area has been named "Xiaonanhai Culture". Over 4,000 years ago, the sage-kings of Zhuanxu and Diku, two of the "three sage kings and five great emperors" of Chinese legend, established their capitals in the borders of Anyang; each reigned for over 70 years, and were the sage-kings that were worshiped by the forbearers of the Chinese peoples. In present day Sanyang Village south of Neihuang County there are two mausoleums in memory of Zhuanxu and Diku. 

        In the 14th century B.C., the king of Shang Pangeng moved the capital to Yin (the present day village of Xiaodun), and established the first stable national capital in Chinese history. Over the past 100 years or so, this area has unearthed over 15,000 oracle bone inscriptions, over 10,000 bronze vessels, and 54 palace sites; palace areas, tomb areas, common folk areas, bronze casting sites, handcraft workshops and large scale ceremonial sites have been discovered. Among artifacts unearthed, the most well known is the 875 kilogram "Simuwu Square Ding", which is the heaviest and largest bronze vessel ever unearthed in the world at present. 

        Anyang's temperature is the classic seasonal weather of a sub tropical belt, the four seasons are clearly distinct. It is warm in spring and autumn, exceedingly hot in summer, and quite cold and dry in winter; the average yearly temperature is 14.9 degrees Celsius.