Prefecture-level city
A
prefecture-level city () or
prefecture-level municipality is an administrative division of the
People's Republic of China, ranking below a
province and above a
county in China's administrative structure. Prefecture-level cities form the second level of the administrative structure (alongside
prefectures,
leagues and
autonomous prefectures). Since the 1980s, prefecture-level cities have mostly replaced the
prefecture administrative unit.
A prefecture-level city is not a "
city" in the strictest sense of the term, but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, both an urban core (a city in the strict sense) and surrounding
rural or less-urbanized areas usually many times the size of the central, built-up core. Prefecture-level cities nearly always contain multiple
counties,
county-level cities, and other such sub-divisions. This results from the fact that the formerly predominant
prefectures, which prefecture-level cities have mostly replaced, were themselves large administrative units containing cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. To distinguish a prefecture-level city from its actual urban area (city in the strict sense), the term 市区 shìqū ("urban area"), is used.
The first prefecture-level cities were created on
5 November,
1983. Over the following two decades, prefecture-level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese
prefectures; the process is still ongoing.
Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefecture-level cities. Of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions of
China, only 3 provinces (
Yunnan,
Guizhou,
Qinghai) and 2 autonomous regions (
Xinjiang,
Tibet) have more than three
second-level or prefecture-level divisions that are not prefecture-level cities.
Criteria that a
prefecture of China must meet to become a prefecture-level city:
* An urban centre with a non-rural 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
GDPBaoding (
Hebei Province),
Zhoukou (
Henan),
Nanyang (Henan), and
Linyi (
Shandong) are the largest prefecture-level cities, superseding 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 is a
county-level city with powers approaching those of prefecture-level cities.
*
Provincial city (
Republic of China)
*
Political divisions of China
