Prefecture-level city
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Prefecture-level city Prefectural-level city | |||||
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Mongolian Cyrillic Дугаргийн энтэй хот | | ||||
Mongolian script | ᠲᠣᠭᠣᠷᠢᠭ ᠤᠨ ᠡᠩ ᠲᠡᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ | ||||
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Uyghur name | |||||
Uyghur | ۋىلايەت دەرىجىلىك شەھەر | ||||
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Administrative divisions of China |
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History: before 1912, 1912–49, 1949–present Administrative division codes |
A prefecture-level city (
During the Republican era, many of China's prefectural cities were designated as
A prefectural level city is a "city" (Chinese: 市; pinyin: shì) and "prefecture" (Chinese: 地区; pinyin: dìqū) that have been merged into one consolidated and unified jurisdiction. As such it is simultaneously a city, which is a municipal entry with subordinate districts, and a prefecture with subordinate county-level cities and counties which is an administrative division of a province.
A prefectural level city is often not a "city" in the usual sense of the term (i.e., a large continuous urban settlement), but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, a main central urban area (the core city, city as in the usual sense, usually with the same name as the prefectural level city) surrounded by
Prefectural level cities nearly always contain multiple
The first prefectural level cities were created on 5 November 1983. Over the following two decades, prefectural 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 prefectural level cities. Of the 22 provinces and five autonomous regions of the PRC, only nine provinces (
Criteria that a
- An urban centre with a non-rural population over 250,000
- gross output of value of industry of 200,000,000 RMB (US$32 million)
- the output of the
Fifteen large prefectural level cities have been granted the status of
Shijiazhuang, Suzhou, and Zhengzhou are the largest prefectural level cities with populations approaching or exceeding some sub-provincial cities.
A
Classification
There are a total of three classifications of prefecture-level cities:
- Regular prefectural level city, which consists of districtssubdivisions.
- Consolidated district-governed prefectural level city, which only consists of districtsas subdivisions.
- Prefectural level city with no county-level divisions (direct-piped city), which are cities that do not govern any county-level divisions such as counties, county level cities, or legal administrative districts.
Cartographic expression and statistics
In Europe and North America, cities are generally represented as points, while counties are represented as areas. Thus, Bloomington, Indiana, is indicated on the map by a point, which is distinct from, and enclosed by, the area of Monroe County, Indiana. In China, however, large cities such as Xianning may, in reality, contain both urban and rural elements. Moreover, they may enclose counties or other cities. On a less detailed map, Xianning would be indicated by a point, more or less corresponding to the coordinates of its city government. Other populous areas may also be exhibited as points, such as the county of Tongshan, with no indication that Tongshan is, in fact, enclosed by Xianning. On a more detailed map, Xianning would be drawn as an area, similar to a county of the United States, and Tongshan would be drawn as a smaller area within Xianning.
This convention may lead to difficulty in the identification of places mentioned in older sources. For example, Guo Moruo writes that he was born in the town of Shawan, within the prefecture of Leshan, and attended primary school in the town of Jiading. A modern map is unlikely to show either town: Shawan, because it is too small, and Jiading, because it is the seat of Leshan, and is therefore indicated on the map by a point labelled "Leshan." A more detailed map would show Shawan as a district within Leshan, but Jiading would still be missing.
Statistics of China such as population and industrial activity are generally reported along prefectural city lines. Thus, the relatively unknown city of Huangshi has 2.5 million residents, more than most European capitals, but upon closer inspection, the city covers an area almost 100 kilometers across. Furthermore, Huangshi contains several other cities, such as Daye. If a person wished to calculate the population of the urban area of Huangshi, and had a map of Huangshi, and a table of its population by district, the task might not be easy. The urban area might be split between several districts, and some of those districts may include rural elements as well.
See also
- List of prefecture-level cities
References
- ^ "China's Political System". Archived from the original on 2009-03-27. Retrieved 2009-09-22.