# Choosing your Region
<a name="select-region"></a>

For many services, you can choose an Amazon Web Services Region that specifies where your resources are managed. Regions are sets of Amazon resources located in the same geographical area. You don't need to choose a Region for the [Amazon Web Services Management Console](https://console.amazonaws.cn/) or for some services, such as Amazon Identity and Access Management. To learn more about Amazon Web Services Regions, see [Managing Amazon Web Services Regions](https://docs.amazonaws.cn//general/latest/gr/rande-manage.html) in the *Amazon Web Services General Reference*.

**Note**  
If you have created Amazon resources but you don't see those resources in the console, the console might be displaying resources from a different Region. Some resources (such as Amazon EC2 instances) are specific to the Region where they were created.

**Topics**
+ [Choosing a Region from the navigation bar in the Amazon Web Services Management Console](select-region-procedure.md)
+ [Setting the default Region in the Amazon Web Services Management Console](change-default-region.md)