This article is about the administrative divisions in the People's Republic of China. For those of the Republic of China commonly known as Taiwan, seeAdministrative divisions of Taiwan.
Theadministrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since 1412, due tomainland China's largepopulation and geographical area. In thePeople's Republic of China, theconstitution provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there are five levels of local government; the provincial (province, autonomous region, municipality, and special administrative region), prefecture, county, township, and village.
Since the 17th century, provincial boundaries in mainland China have remained largely static. Major changes since then have been the reorganization of provinces in the northeast after theestablishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the formation ofautonomous regions, based on Soviet ethnic policies. The provinces serve an important cultural role in China, as people tend to identify with their native province.
TheConstitution of the People's Republic of China provides for three levels: the provincial, the county level, and the township level. However, in practice, there are four levels of government: the provincial, the prefectural level, the county level, and the township level. Rural villages and urban communities are sometimes considered as the fifth level, however they are defined by the constitution as "basic level autonomies" and there is no government on this level. As of 2017[update], China administers 33 provincial-level regions, 334 prefecture-level divisions, 2,862 county-level divisions, 41,034 township-level administrations, and 704,382 basic-level autonomies.[1]
ThePeople's Republic of China (PRC) lays claims to 34province-level divisions, including 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, and 2 special administrative regions and 1 claimed province.
Provinces are theoretically subservient to the PRC central government, but in practice, provincial officials have large discretion with regard to economic policy. Unlike theUnited States, the power of the central government was (with the exception of the military) not exercised through a parallel set of institutions until the early 1990s. The actual practical power of the provinces has created what some economists call "federalism with Chinese characteristics".
Most of theprovinces, with the exception of those in thenortheast, have boundaries which were established long ago in theYuan,Ming, andQing dynasties. Sometimes provincial borders form cultural or geographical boundaries. This was an attempt by the imperial government to discourageseparatism and warlordism through adivide and rule policy. Nevertheless, provinces have come to serve an important cultural role in China. People tend to be identified in terms of their native provinces, and each province has a stereotype that corresponds to their inhabitants.
22 Provinces: A standard provincial government is nominally led by a provincial committee, headed by a secretary. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province, come in second is the governor of the provincial government.
5 Autonomous regions: A minority subject which has a higher population of a particular minority ethnic group along with its own local government, but an autonomous region theoretically has more legislative rights than in actual practice. The governor of the Autonomous Regions is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group.
4 Municipalities: A higher level of city that is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their political status is higher than that of common provinces.
2 Special administrative regions: A highly autonomous and self-governing subnational subject of the People's Republic of China. Each SAR has a chief executive as head of the region and head of government. The SAR's government is not fully independent, as foreign policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government, according to the Basic Laws of the two SARs.[5][6][7]
1 Claimed province: The People's Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, asTaiwan Province. (Kinmen and the Matsu Islands are claimed by the PRC as part of its Fujian Province. Pratas and Itu Aba are claimed by the PRC as part of Guangdong and Hainan provinces respectively.) The territory is controlled by theRepublic of China (ROC, commonly called "Taiwan").
Click any region for more info. For a larger version of this map, seehere.
Map of China's prefectural level divisionsMap of China's population density on prefecture level, based on the official 2022 census
Prefectural level divisions or second-level divisions are the second level of the administrative structure. Most provinces are divided into only prefecture-level cities and contain no other second level administrative units. Of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions, only 3 provinces (Yunnan,Guizhou,Qinghai) and 1 autonomous region (Xinjiang) have more than three second-level or prefectural-level divisions that are not prefecture-level cities. As of June 2020, there were 339 prefectural level divisions:
7 Prefectures: formerly the dominant second level division, thus this administrative level is often called "prefectural level". They were mostly replaced byprefecture-level cities from 1983 to the 1990s. Today, prefectures exist only inHeilongjiang,Tibet andXinjiang.
299 prefecture-level cities: the largest number of prefectural-level divisions, generally composed of an urban center and surrounding rural areas much larger than the urban core and thus not "cities" but municipalities in the strict sense of the term
3 Leagues: effectively the same as prefectures, but found only inInner Mongolia. Like prefectures, leagues have mostly been replaced with prefecture-level cities. The unique name is a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia.
As of 18 August 2015, there were 2,852 county-level divisions:
1,408 Counties: the most common county-level divisions, continuously in existence since theWarring States period, much earlier than any other level of government in China.Xian is often translated as "district" or "prefecture".
360 County-level cities: similar to prefecture-level cities, covering both urban and rural areas. It was popular for counties to become county-level cities in the 1990s, though this has since been halted.
913 Districts: formerly the subdivisions of urban areas, consisting of built-up areas only. Recently many counties have become districts, so that districts are now often just like counties, with towns, villages, and farmland.
49 Banners: the same as counties except in the name, a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia
3 Autonomous banners: the same as autonomous counties except in the name, a holdover from earlier forms of administration in Mongolia
1 Forestry area (Chinese:林区;pinyin:línqū): a special county-level forestry district located inHubei province
1 Special district (Chinese:特区;pinyin:tèqū): a special county-level division located inGuizhou province
19,322Towns: in larger rural areas division they are divided into this subject
6,686Subdistricts: in a small urban areas division they are divided into this subject
2County-controlled districts are a vestigial level of government. These once represented an extra level of government between the county- and township levels. Today there are very few of these remaining and they are gradually being phased out.
Thebasic level autonomy serves as an organizational division (census, mail system) and does not have much importance in political representative power. Basic local divisions such asneighborhoods andcommunities are not informal, but have defined boundaries and elected heads (one per area):
In urban areas, every subdistrict of a district of a city administers manycommunities orresidential committees. Each of them has a residential committee to administer the dwellers of that neighborhood or community. Rural areas are organized intovillage committees or villager groups. A "village" in this case can either be a natural village, one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or a virtual village, which is a bureaucratic entity.
Five cities formally on prefectural level have a special status in regard to planning and budget. They are separately listed in the five-year and annual state plans on the same level as provinces and national ministries, making them economically independent of their provincial government. Thesecities specifically designated in the state plan (Chinese:计划单列市) are
In terms of budget authority, their governments have thede facto status of a province, but their legislative organs (National People's Congress andChinese People's Political Consultative Conference) and other authorities not related to the economy are on the level of a prefecture and under the leadership of the province.[8]
Some other large prefecture-level cities, known assub-provincial cities, arehalf a level below a province. Themayors of these cities have the samerank as a vicegovernor of a province, and their district governments are half a rank higher than those of normal districts. The capitals of some provinces (seat of provincial government) are sub-provincial cities. In addition to the five cities specifically designated in the state plan, sub-provincial cities are:[citation needed]
A similar case exists with some county-level cities. Some county-level cities are given more autonomy. These cities are known assub-prefecture-level cities, meaning that they are given a level of power higher than a county, but still lower than a prefecture. Such cities are alsohalf a level higher than what they would normally be. Sub-prefecture-level cities are often not put into any prefecture (i.e. they are directly administered by their province). Examples of sub-prefecture-level cities includeJiyuan (Henan province),Xiantao,Qianjiang andTianmen (Hubei),Golmud (Qinghai),Manzhouli (Inner Mongolia),Shihanza,Tumushuk,Aral, andWujiaqu (Xinjiang).
Some districts are also placed athalf a level higher that what it should be. Examples arePudong,Shanghai andBinhai,Tianjin. Although its status as adistrict of amunicipality would define it as prefecture-level, the district head of Pudong is given sub-provincial powers. In other words, it ishalf a level higher than what it would normally be.
The Chinese word "市" (shì) is usually loosely translated into English as "city". However, it has several different meanings due to the complexity of the administrative divisions used in China. Despite being urban or having urban centers, theSARs are almost never referred to as "Hong Kong City"/"Macau City" in contemporary Chinese and thus are not covered by the description below.
By its political level, when a "city" is referred to, it can be a:
Province-like, which is the municipality ofChongqing, a merger of 4 former prefectures and similar to the former Eastern-Sichuan province.
Prefecture-like, which are the other three municipalities and almost all prefectural-level cities, usually 10–1,000 times larger than the urban center and a conglomeration of several counties and county-level cities. Some of them in sparsely populated areas likeHulunbuir are even larger than Chongqing but have a population comparable to that of prefectures.
County-like, which is all sub-prefecture-level and some county-level cities, and several extremely simple prefecture-level cities (Jiayuguan,Xiamen,Haikou, etc).
Not substantially larger than urban establishment: some county-level cities, plus some members of the previous category. However, country-level cities converted from counties are unlikely to belong here. Shanghai, despite being prefecture-like in size, belongs here due to its subway alreadyextending beyond municipality limits. Some other economically prosperous prefecture-level cities are also provoking inter-prefecture urban integration, although they still possess (and never intend to eliminate) large swaths of rural area.
When used in the statistical data, the word "city" may have three different meanings:
The area administrated by the city. For the municipality, the sub-provincial city, or the prefecture-level city, a "city" in this sense includes all of the counties, county-level cities, andcity districts that the city governs. For theSub-prefecture-level city or theCounty-level city, it includes all of thesubdistricts,towns andtownships that it has.
The area comprising its urbancity districts and suburbcity districts. The difference between the urban district and the suburb districts is that an urban district comprises only thesubdistricts, while a suburb district also hastowns andtownships to govern rural areas. In some sense, this definition is approximately themetropolitan area. This definition is not applied to the sub-prefecture-level city and the county-level city since they do not have city districts under them.
Somewhat bizarrely, some districts such asHaidian District also possess towns. They have been treated clearly as urban districts for decades, but not from the inception, some areas are rural but other areas form an inseparable part of the central city.
The urban area. Sometimes the urban area is referred as (Chinese:市区; pinyin:shìqū). For the municipality, the sub-provincial city, and the prefecture-level city, it comprises the urban city district and the adjacentsubdistricts of the suburb city districts. For the sub-prefecture-level city and the county-level city, only centralsubdistricts are included. This definition is close to the strict meaning of "city" in western countries.
The choice of definition of "city" used for statistical data of Chinese cities can lead to different results. For example,Shanghai is the largest city in China by population in the urban area but is smaller thanChongqing by the population within the administration area.[9]
Qing China in 1820, with provinces in yellow, military governorates and protectorates in light yellow, tributary states in orange
Before the establishment of theQin dynasty, China was ruled by a network of kings, nobles, and tribes. The rivalry of these groups culminated in theWarring States period, and thestate of Qin eventually emerged dominant.
TheQin dynasty was determined not to allow China to fall back into disunity, and therefore designed the first hierarchical administrative divisions in China, based on two levels:jùncommanderies andxiàncounties. TheHan dynasty that came immediately after addedzhōu (usually translated as "provinces") as the third level on top, forming a three-tier structure.
TheSui andTang dynasties abolished commanderies, and addedcircuits (dào, laterlù under theSong andJin) on top, maintaining a three-tier system that lasted through the 13th century. (As a second-level division,zhou are translated as "prefectures".) The Mongol-establishedYuan dynasty introduced the modern precursors toprovinces, bringing the number of levels to four. This system was then kept more or less intact until theQing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty to rule China.
TheRepublic of China streamlined the levels to just provinces and counties in 1928 and made the first attempt to extend political administration beyond the county level by establishingtownships below counties. This was also the system officially adopted by thePeople's Republic of China in 1949, which defined the administrative divisions of China as three levels: provinces,counties, andtownships.
In practice, however, more levels were inserted. The ROC government soon learned that it was not feasible for a province to directly govern tens and sometimes hundreds of counties. Started from Jiangxi province in 1935,prefectures were later inserted between provinces and counties. They continued to be ubiquitously applied by the PRC government to nearly all areas of China until the 1980s. Since then, most of the prefectures were converted into prefecture-level cities.Greater administrative areas were inserted on top of provinces by the PRC government, but they were soon abolished, in 1954.District public offices were inserted between counties and townships; once ubiquitous as well, they are currently being abolished and very few remain.
In recent years there have been calls to reform the administrative divisions and levels of China. Rumours of an impending major reform have also spread through various online bulletin boards.[10]
Thedistrict public offices is an ongoing reform to remove an extra level of administration from between the county and township levels. There have also been calls to abolish the prefecture-level, and some provinces have transferred some of the power prefectures currently hold to the counties they govern. There are also calls to reduce the size of the provinces. The ultimate goal is to reduce the different administration levels from five to three (Provincial level, County level, Village level), reducing the amount ofcorruption as well as the number of government workers, in order to lower the budget.
^精选汉英词典(第四版) [Concise Chinese-English Dictionary (Fourth Edition).].Oxford University Press andThe Commercial Press. 2011. p. 248.街道jiēdào (名)1 street 2 what concerns the neighborhood: ~办事处 subdistrict office. {...}
^中国的行政区划——省级行政单位. Government of the People's Republic of China. 17 April 2009.Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved7 September 2015.
^中华人民共和国行政区划 [Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China], 15 June 2005,archived from the original on 23 July 2010, retrieved5 June 2010
^民政部官员：“中国将要设50个省区市”报道失实 (in Simplified Chinese). Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in New York. 10 May 2004. Archived fromthe original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved1 October 2009.
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