Information about provinces, cities, counties,towns in China
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China consists of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous ethinic regions, 3 municipalities directly under the central government , 2 special administrative regions and 1 independent province (Taiwan),at the first level,i.e. provicial level, over 300 municipalities and prefectures at the second level, also referred to as prefectural level, and about 3000 counties, cities and districts at the third level,i.e. county-level, as well as over 40,000 towns, townships and sub-districts at the fourth level (township-level). All that can be traced in this website.

The administrative division system of China (Level 5)


Village level
The village level serves as an organizational division (census, mail system) and does not have much importance in political representative power. Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal like in the West, but have defined boundaries and designated heads (one per area):
In urban areas, every subdistrict of a district of a city administers many communities or neighborhoods. Each of them have a neighborhood committee to administer the dwellers of that neighborhood or community. Rural areas are organized into village committees or villager groups. A "village" in this case can either be a natural village, one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village, which is a bureaucratic entity.
Village level subdivisions
  • 80,717 Neighborhood Committees (社区居民委员会; jūmínwěiyuánhùi)
    Neighborhoods / Communities (社区; shèqū)
  • 623,669 Village Committees / Village groups ((村民委员会 / 村民小组; cūnmínwěiyuánhùi / cūnmínxiǎozǔ)
    Administrative Villages (行政村; xíngzhèngcūn)
    Natural Villages (自然村; zìráncūn)
  • Informal
    City-Type Neighborhood (居民区; jūmínqū)
    City-Type Communities (社区; shèqū)


This table summarizes the divisions of the area administered by the People's Republic of China as of December 31, 2005.

Level Name Types
1 Province level
省级行政区
  • Provinces (省 shěng) (22)
  • Autonomous regions (自治区 zìzhìqū) (5)
  • Municipalities directly under central government (直辖市 zhíxiáshì) (4)
  • Special administrative regions (特别行政区 tèbié xíngzhèngqū) (2)
2 Prefecture level
地级行政区
  • Prefectures (地区 dìqū) (17)
  • Autonomous prefectures(自治州 zìzhìzhōu) (30)
  • Prefecture-level municipalities/cities (地级市 dìjíshì) (283)
  • Leagues (盟 méng) (3)
3 County level
县级行政区
  • Counties (县 xiàn) (1,464)
  • Autonomous counties (自治县 zìzhìxiàn) (117)
  • County-level cities(县级市 xiànjíshì) (374)
  • Districts (市辖区 shìxiáqū) (852)
  • Banners (旗 qí) (49)
  • Autonomous banners (自治旗 zìzhìqí) (3)
  • Forestry areas (林区 línqū) (1)
  • Special districts (特区 tèqū) (2)
4 Township level
乡级行政区
  • Townships (乡 xiāng) (14,677)
  • Ethnic townships (民族乡 mínzúxiāng) (1,092)
  • Towns(镇 zhèn) (19,522)
  • Subdistricts(街道办事处 jiēdàobànshìchù) (6,152)
  • District public offices(区公所 qūgōngsuǒ) (11)
  • Sumu (苏木 sūmù) (181)
  • Ethnic sumu (民族苏木 mínzúsūmù) (1)
5 Village level (informal)
村级自治组织
  • Neighborhood committees (社区居民委员会 jūmínwěiyuánhùi) (80,717)
    • Communities (社区)
  • Village committees (村民委员会 cūnmínwěiyuánhùi) (623,669)
    • Administrative villages (行政村 xíngzhèngcūn)
    • Natural villages (自然村 zìráncūn)
    • Village groups (村民小组 cūnmínxiǎozǔ)

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