Territorial administration of China

During the Dynasty Qin (221 before J. - C. - 207 before J. - C.), the China adopted a cutting of the territory according to a hierarchical system on several levels to guarantee the unit of the country acquired hard at this period.

This system is still of use currently, but with many changes since its establishment. Moreover, because of separation of China in two Republic S, two systems of administration of the territory coexist.

Just like the France is divided into areas, themselves cut out in department S then in Arrondissement S, cantons and common S, the Popular republic of current China is divided into provinces, prefectures, districts, cantons then villages.

In Republic of China (Taiwan), the municipalities and provinces form the provincial level, above the districts, cantons, villages and districts.

Levels

The Popular republic of China has officially 3 administrative levels: provincial, districtal and cantonal. In practice, there exists also a prefectoral level (which are a notch below the provincial level) and a communal level (under the jurisdiction of the cantons).

In Republic of China, one distinguishes 4 levels: provincial, districtal, cantonal and communal. The districts are sometimes regarded as the 5^e level.

Popular republic of China

Provincial level

The government of the RPC directs directly 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities and 2 special administrative areas, these areas compose the provincial level .

Provinces (省 shěng )

The provinces form the majority division of the 1^er level of the level. Their borders were, for the majority, établient during the dynasties Yuan, Qing and Ming. The modifications made since relate to especially the North-East of China, with the come to power of the president Mao Zedong.

Culturally, the provinces are used as reference mark to the Chinese. With each province are associated stereotyped which qualify the inhabitants, the habits, the local kitchen…

Each province is directed by a governor .

¹La RPC controls the 22 provinces of continental China and considers Taiwan as its 23^e province where she does not exert her authority (see Statut of Taiwan).

Autonomous regions (自治区 zìzhìqū )

The Chinese autonomous regions gather each one an important population of ethnic minority in China. They have a statute equivalent to the provinces and are with the number of five . However, they profit from a greater autonomy like the possibility of founding a local Gouvernement.

The autonomous regions are directed by presidents originating in the ethnos group in question.

Municipalities (直辖市 zhíxiáshì )

The municipalities of the RPC are big cities whose orders come directly from the central government instead of the province where they are, it is besides for that they are provincial level .

There exist currently 4 municipalities which are directed by mayors .

CLOSE-CROPPED (特别行政区 tèbié xíngzhèngqū )

The RPC counts 2 special administrative Régions (RAS) which are HongKong and Macao.

This statute was especially created for the retrocession of these two islands in China in 1997 and 1999 and allows a very vast autonomy of the territories concerned: HongKong and Macao have their clean Monnaie, Passeport, legal Système…, their official languages are the English and the Cantonese for HongKong (old English concession), the Portuguese and the Cantonese for Macao (old Portuguese concession).

The SHORT-NAP CLOTHS are directed by chiefs of the executive .

Prefectoral level

A notch below the provinces , is the prefectoral level which gathers city-prefectures (283) as well as autonomous prefectures (30) and prefectures (17). Into Mongolia-Interior, there exists also a subdivision of the prefectoral level, called league , which has especially a value symbolic system since the near total of the leagues was replaced by city-prefectures .

Since 1983, the city-prefectures gradually replaced the other divisions with the prefectoral level , becoming the component majority one today.

All these subdivisions are directed either by the provinces , or by the autonomous regions in Popular republic of China .

Prefectures (地区 dìqū )

The prefectures were, until in the years 1980, majority division (what explains the name of the level). They almost all were replaced or converted into city-prefectures . There does not remain about it any more but 17, mainly in the areas of Xinjiang and the Tibet.

The prefectures are directed by an office of administration.

autonomous Prefectures (自治州 zìzhìzhōu )

The ethnic diversity of China led, with the Communist party, to create prefectures gathering these nationalities, even districts and cantons. Each one of them benefits from an autonomy higher than the other prefectures.

City-prefectures (地级市 dìjíshì )

It is thus about the prefectoral area most frequent, one counts 283 of them. The city-prefectures are composed, in general, of an urban center having rural suburbs. Many provinces contain only city-prefectures.

Leagues (盟 méng )

The leagues are equivalent to the prefectures but are only in the Mongolia-Interior autonomous region of . Almost all replaced by the city-prefectures, there remains about it only three currently.

Levels districtal, cantonal and communal

All the areas of the prefectoral row are then cut out, generally, by districts , which thus gave the denomination “level districtal”. One counts 1464 dictricts , 117 autonomous districts , 374 city-districts and 852 urban districts through China. In Mongolia-Interior, there are 49 banners and 3 autonomous banners .

Each one of these divisions make up of cantons and boroughs (cantonal level), themselves gathering villages and residential communities (communal level).

Districts (县 xiàn )
autonomous Districts (自治县 zìzhìxiàn )
City-districts (县级市 xiànjíshì )
urban Districts (市辖区 shìxiáqū )
Banners (旗 qí )
autonomous Banners (自治旗 zìzhìqí )

Cantons (乡 xiāng )
ethnic Cantons (民族乡 mínzúxiāng )
Boroughs (镇 zhèn )

Villages (村 cūn )
the residential Communities (社区 shèqū )

Republic of China

Provincial level

Level districtal

Cantonal level

Communal level

Districts

External bonds

Fr flash Application to know the provinces on Yunnan.fr

Simple: List off provinces off Clouded

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