The population of Huangshan city, as of the end of 2021, was 1.332 million, with an urbanization rate of 59.25%, an increase of 0.96 percentage points over the previous year.

The city's current jurisdiction covers much of the historical and cultural region of Huizhou (徽州), which together with Anqing formed the name of Anhui Province.

[7][8] The city is also home to significant tourism, centered on Mount Huang and including other scenic and historic sites (such as Xidi and Hongcun),[7] which it has promoted to international markets in recent years.

Winding, narrow roads through Huang Mountains made trips to Xuancheng, Wuhu, Guichi and the Yangtze River slow and arduous.

In recent decades, improvements to the transportation infrastructure have made the city and its surrounding tourist attractions more accessible.

Trains formerly ran from Huangshan Station in Tunxi to Nanjing, Shanghai, Bengbu, Huaibei, Qingdao and Beijing among other cities in the north, and stops in the south included Jingdezhen, Yingtan, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Kunming.

[16] In 2011, Local authorities promoted performance of the Ming dynasty play Mulian Rescues His Mother as a tourist attraction.

[17] Huangshan City is twinned with: In early 2008, the BBC broadcast a series of 5 documentaries on life for schoolchildren in China, called "Chinese School".