SanmingWade-Giles romanization San-mingcity, Pinyin Sanming, city in west-central Fukien Fujian sheng (province), southeastern China. San-ming It lies along the Sha River, a southern tributary of the Min River, the valley of which provides the chief southwest-to-northeast route through central FukienFujian. Westward and southwestward routes fan out into the mountainous interior of Fukienthe province, and to the south there is a good route via the valley of the Chiu-lung Jiulong River to Xiamen (Amoy).

Situated Sanming, situated in a sparsely populated inland district with vast stretches of virgin forest, San-ming remained a small local market centre until 19561957, when the opening of the railway linking it to Kiangsi Jiangxi province in the north and Amoy Xiamen in the south brought about considerable growth there. Sanming was established as a county in 1956 through the merger of the two former counties of Sanyuan and Mingxi; it was made a city in 1960. The presence of excellent iron ore and coal at Lung-yen and Chang-p’ing on the railway to the south in the surrounding area, as well as abundant water and forest resources, led to the establishment of an iron and steel plant there in the late 1950s. Pop. (1990) 160,691Since then, Sanming has become a major industrial base for basic and processed materials in the province. Its output of iron, coke, calcium, carbide, chemical fertilizers, cement, and plastic products takes up a large proportion of the province’s total. The county town of Youxi, east of Sanming and administratively under the city, is the birthplace of Zhu Xi, the famous 12th-century Chinese philosopher of the Nan (Southern) Song dynasty. Pop. (2002 est.) 279,538.