Located on the southern bank at the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, Jiangxi Province is adjacent to Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces in the east, Guangdong Province in the south, Hunan Province in the west, and Hubei and Anhui Province in the north.

Jiangxi is centered on the Gan River valley, which historically provided the main north-south transport route of south China. The corridor along the Gan River is one of the few easily traveled routes through the otherwise mountainous and rugged terrain of the south-eastern mountains. This open corridor was the primary route for trade and communication between the North China Plain and the Yangtze River valley in the north and the territory of modern Guangdong province in the south. As a result Jiangxi has been strategically important throughout much of China's history.

Jiangxi enjoys a convenient transportation. Shanghai-Kunming and Beijing-Kowloon Railways cross the province. Six trans-provincial expressways have been put into operation. There are five civil aviation airports in such cities as Nanchang, Jiujiang, Jingdezhen, Ganzhou, and Ji'an, serving for dozens of domestic and international airlines.With all major arteries being converted to expressway, the mileage of expressways in the province total more than 2,200 kilometers. The five civil aviation airports have opened up dozens of domestic and international air routes. These expressways and air routes, together with crisscrossing railways, water ports in Nanchang and Jiujiang, have formed in the province a convenient water-land-air transportation network.

Jiangxi is a cradle of the new China. The Nanchang Uprising which led to the birth of the Red Amy took place in Jiangxi on August 1, 1927. The Jinggang Mountains are the cradle of the Chinese revolution. The Chinese Soviet Republic's government was established in Ruijin, Jiangxi in 1931, and An'yuan is the birthplace of China's labor movements.

Jiangxi is the main area of concentration of the Gan varieties of Chinese, spoken over most of the northern two-thirds of the province. Examples include the Nanchang dialect, Yichun dialect and Ji'an dialect. The southern one-third of the province speaks Hakka. There are also Mandarin, Huizhou, and Wu dialects spoken along the northern border.

Jiangxi Opera, is one of the four oldest traditional operas of China,also called "Yiyangqiang" or "Ganju", originated in Yiyang county of Jiangxi Province.? It had two schools called "raoheban" and "xinheban", which combined together in 1950. After entering Nanchang, the provincial capital city, and with the establishment of Jiangxi Opera Troupe, "yiyangqiang" was renamed Jiangxi opera.

Near the northern port city of Jiujiang is the well-known (and expensive) resort area of Mount Lushan. Also near the city are Donglin (East Wood) Temple and Tiefo (Iron Buddha) Temple, two important Buddhist temples.

Near the small city of Yingtan is the resort area Longhushan which purports to be the birthplace of Taoism and hence has great symbolic value to Taoists. The region has many interesting temples, cave complexes, mountains and villages. It is considered by many to be the best-kept secret of Jiangxi tourism.The Lushan National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

In 2007, Jiangxi (specifically the Zhelin Reservoir, about 40 km from Nanchang) was the filming location for the fifteenth series of the American TV show Survivor.