The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With 8,472 square miles (21,940 km2) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area centered in Missouri (after Greater St. Louis) and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, though Wichita is the largest metropolitan area centered in Kansas. Alongside Kansas City, Missouri, these are the suburbs with populations above 100,000: Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and Lee's Summit, Missouri.
Qiubei County is located in the southeast of Yunnan Province, with geographical coordinates of 103 °34 °E, 104 °45'E and 23 °45 °N, 24 °28'N. It is adjacent to Guangnan County in the east, Yanshan County and Kaiyuan City in the south, Maitreya and Luxi counties across the Nanpanjiang River to the west, and Shizong County and Xilin County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region to the north. The county is 100km wide from east to west and 70.5km from north to south, with a total area of 4997 square kilometers. At the end of 2007, the total population of Qiubei County was 459000. Eight ethnic groups, including Han, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, Yao, Bai, Hui and Ye, live in the territory. The total population of ethnic minorities is 287000, accounting for 62.52% of the total population. The county people's government is located in Jinping Town, 1452 meters above sea level, 280km away from the provincial capital Kunming and 280km away from Wenshan.