Jindazhen is a land west of the Yamani Islands. The Yamanis fought off attacks from them with some regularity.[1] It was only briefly mentioned in the novels Page and Tempests and Slaughter so far.
Tamora Pierce based Jindazhen on China. The literal translation of the Chinese syllables would be "gold big needle" or also "gold big town", which wasn't intended by the author. Tammy just chose the name because it sounded right. Its counterpart in the Emelan Universe is Yanjing.[2]