Leshan City is adjacent Zigong City and Neijiang City in the east, lies alongside Yibin City and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the south, links up with Ya’an City in the west, and connects Chengdu City in the north. Its topography and physiognomy is very intricacy, the southwestern part of the city is mountainous region, and the northeast is plenty of hills. Leshan is situated at the transition zone of Sichuan Basin and southwestern mountainous region. The topographic character of it is high in the northeast and low in the southwest with wide gap in height. On the middle and lower branch of the Minjiang River, the Qingyi River and the Dadu River is an alluvial plain. Besides the three main rivers, there are 56 streams in middle and small size.
The largest horizontal distance of Leshan between east and west is 105 km and its biggest vertical distance between north and south is 150 km. The total area of Leshan City is 12,826 km2, among which the constructed city acreage is 29.5 km2. The population of the city is 3,450,000 and that of its urban district is 286,700.
Leshan people created splendid history and culture for the city, which made it as one of the most developed districts in culture of Sichuan Province historically. In Warring States Period (475 – 221 BC), the prefect Li Bing of Qin Shu Prefecture excavated Mahao River, separated river and discharged flood to avoid flood disaster, which formed Wuyou “Lidui” with streams encircling around, and dense forest. Leshan remains more than ten thousand of graves of the Han Dynasties (206 BC – 220 AD) on the cliffs, and keeps intact carved stones, embossments and frescos inside Mahao cliff graves. In Eastern Han (24 – 220 AD), Buddhism was spread into Leshan City. In addition, the Buddhist temples were built on the increase, more and more believers went to temples to worship after Eastern Jin (317 - 420). From the current unearthed things from over ten thousand of cliff graves of the Han Dynasty, we can know the development level of society and culture in Leshan prefecture during the Han Dynasties. Among them, the best representative remain is the relic in Wuyou Mountain where litterateur Guo Sheren annotated《Er’ya》. In Tang (618 - 907) and Song (960 - 1279) period, Leshan became an important place of Buddhist culture in southwestern China, and E’mei Mountain turned into one of the four holy mountains of Buddhism in China. The Giant Stone Buddha in Leshan built over a total of 90 years from (713 – 803 AD) is grand, solemn and famous in China and overseas. Cultural relics of Song, Yuan (1271 - 1368), Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) are also very abundant.
Both E’mei Mountain and the Giant Buddha in Leshan were listed in “World Cultural and Natural Heritage” by the UN World Heritage Committee in 1996. In Leshan City, there are four major historical and cultural sites under state protection: the Giant Buddha in Leshan, Mahao Cliff Graves, the bronze statue of Puxian Buddha in Wannian Temple, and E’mei Feilai Palace. The city also has 96 historical and cultural sites enjoying province protection, over 70 sites at city level. More than 2,000 cultural relics are kept in Leshan museums, over two thousand of which are considered at the Third Level. 
Historically, some celebrities in cultural circles like Li Bai, Du Fu, Cen Sen, Fan Dacheng, Huang Tingjian and Lu You etal. who acted as governmental officials in Leshan or traveled there, have left many poems winning universal praise. In modern times, the great literator named Guo Moruo was endowed with intelligence in lush mountains and exquisite waters of Jiazhou. The painters of Jiazhou develop a traditional Chinese style of their own, and gain very high reputation in Sichuan traditional Chinese painting circle.  Leshan has convenience of transportation; it has formed a transporting net connecting railways, roads and waterways with each other. The railway line between Chengdu and Kunming traverse Jiajiang County, E’mei City, Shawan District, E’bian Autonomous County and Jinkouhe District. Visitors traveling Leshan and E’mei Mountain by trains can get off at the station of E’mei, which is 10 km away from Baoguo Temple — the entrance door of E’mei Mountain Scenery Region, 31 km apart from Leshan urban district.