Prefecture-level city
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Political divisions of China
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!style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%; border-bottom:1px solid"|Province level
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|align=center|Provinces
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|align=center|Autonomous regions
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|align=center|Municipalities
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|align=center|Special Administrative Regions
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!style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%; border-bottom:1px solid; border-top:1px solid"|Prefecture level
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|align=center|Prefectures
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|align=center|Autonomous prefectures
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|align=center|Prefecture-level cities
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|align=center|(incl. Sub-provincial cities)
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|align=center|Leagues
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!style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%; border-bottom:1px solid; border-top:1px solid"|County level
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|align=center|Districts
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|align=center|Counties
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|align=center|Autonomous counties
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|align=center|County-level cities
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|align=center|(incl. Sub-prefecture-level cities)
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|align=center|Banners
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|align=center|Autonomous banners
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!style="background:#ffdead; font-size:90%; border-bottom:1px solid; border-top:1px solid"|Township level
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|align=center|District public offices
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|align=center|Townships
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|align=center|Ethnic townships
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|align=center|Towns
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|align=center|Subdistricts
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|align=center|Sumu
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|align=center|Ethnic sumu
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A prefecture-level city (地级市 Pinyin: dìjí shì, literally "region-level city") is an administrative division of China that is governed directly by provinces of the People's Republic of China. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefecture-level cities. Of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions of Mainland China, only 3 provinces (Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai) and 2 autonomous regions (Xinjiang, Tibet) have more than three prefecture-level divisions that are not prefecture-level cities.
The term provincial city is sometimes used to refer to prefecture-level cities, though this term is usually used to refer to another type of city in the Republic of China.
A prefecture-level city ranks lower than municipality, and ranks higher than county-level cities. The first ones were created on November 5, 1983. Over the next 20 years, prefecture-level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese prefectures. This process is still ongoing.
Prefecture-level cities are not "cities" in the strictest sense of the word, since they usually contain rural areas many times the size of their urban, built-up area. This is because the prefectures that prefecture-level cities have replaced are themselves large administrative units containing cities, towns, and farmland. To distinguish a "prefecture-level city" from its actual urban area (the traditional meaning of the word "city"), the term 市区 shìqū, or "urban area", is used.
Criteria that a prefecture of China must meet to become a prefecture-level city:
- An urban centre with a non-farmer population over 250,000
- gross output of value of industry of 200,000,000 RMB
- the output of tertiary industry supersedes that of primary industry
- Over 35% of the GDP
Baoding (Hebei Province), Zhoukou (Henan), Nanyang (Henan), and Linyi (Shandong) are the largest prefecture-level cities, superceding the population of Tianjin, the least populous municipality.
15 large prefecture-level cities have been granted the status of sub-provincial city, which gives them much greater autonomy.
A sub-prefecture-level city (副地級市), or vice-prefecture-level city, are county-level cities with powers approaching those of prefecture-level cities. Examples include Jiyuan (Henan province), Xiantao (Hubei), and Golmud (Qinghai).
See also
