It borders the districts of Shunyi to the northeast, Tongzhou to the east and southeast, Daxing to the south, Fengtai to the southwest, Dongcheng, Xicheng, and Haidian to the west, and Changping to the northwest.

Chaoyang extends west to Chaoyangmen on the eastern 2nd Ring Road, and nearly as far east as the Ximazhuang toll station on the Jingtong Expressway.

Within the urban area of Beijing, it occupies 470.8 km2 (181.8 sq mi),[1] making it the central city's largest district, with Haidian second.

[18][19] Renren Inc. has its headquarters on the 23rd floor of the Jing An Center (静安中心; 靜安中心; Jìng'ān Zhōngxīn) in Chaoyang District.

"[24] Some of these are: ABB Group (China headquarters),[25][26] Air France,[27] All Nippon Airways, (Beijing Office, Beijing Fortune Building)[28] Halliburton,[29] IBM,[30] KBR,[31] Kerr-McGee China Petroleum Ltd. (an Occidental Petroleum subsidiary), Korean Air (Hyundai Motor Tower (现代汽车大厦; Xiàndài qìchē dàshà)),[32] Kroll Inc.,[33] Lummus Technology, a subsidiary of CB&I,[34] Lufthansa (Beijing Lufthansa Center),[35] Asiana Airlines,[36] Standard & Poor's,[37] Swire Group,[38] Etihad Airways,[39] EVA Air,[40] and Qatar Airways.

[45] The municipality as well as the Chinese national government spend almost a half million USD per day on developing this district.