Sanming, city, west-central Fujian sheng (province), southeastern China. 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 Fujian. Westward and southwestward routes fan out into the mountainous interior of the province, and to the south there is a good route via the valley of the Jiulong River to Xiamen (Amoy).
Sanming, situated in a sparsely populated inland district with vast stretches of virgin forest, remained a small local market centre until 1957, when the opening of the railway linking it to Jiangxi province in the north and 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 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. Since 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.