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.
Xide County belongs to Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, with geographical coordinates of 102 °42'E and 28 °32 °N. It is located in the southwest of Sichuan Province, the north-central part of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, bordering on the north and west, Zhaojue in the east and southeast, Mianning County and Xichang City in the west and southwest, 78 km south of Xichang City, and 483 km north of Chengdu. Xide County is 70.8km long from north to south, 59.5km from east to west and covers an area of 2200.4 square kilometers, equivalent to 3300600 mu. There are Yi, Tibetan, Qiang, Miao, Hui, Mongolian, Tujia, Su, Manchu, Yao, Dong, Naxi, Buyi, Bai, Zhuang and Dai nationalities in Xide County. From January to June 2007, the gross domestic product of Xide County reached 3079.