Jinzhou lies on the main Beijing–Shenyang rail corridor and is among the better-connected cities in western Liaoning. High-speed trains reach Shenyang in about ninety minutes and Beijing in around three hours; Jinzhou station is also the junction for the coastal line to Dalian. The city is about two and a half hours from Beijing by car on the expressway.
The outlying sites — Fengguo Temple in Yixian County and Bijia Mountain on the coast — require a taxi or hired car; neither is on public transport routes that make a comfortable day trip from the city without private transport.