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Provinces of China

Redirected from Municipalities of China

Most of the provinces of China have boundaries which were established in the late Ming Dynasty. Major changes since then have been the reorganization of provinces in the Northeast after the Communist takeover in 1949 and the establishment of Autonomous Regions which are based on Soviet nationality theory. The most recent administrative changes have included the elevation of Chongqing and Hainan to provincial level status and the organization of Hong Kong and Macao as special administrative regions. All of the newly created PRC administrative levels equal those of the provinces.

Provinces theoretically are subservient to the People's Republic of China central government, but in practice provincial officials have a large amount of discretion with regard to economic policy. Unlike the United States, the power of the central government is (with the exception of the military) not exercised through a parallel set of institutions.

The actual practical power of the provinces has created what some economists call federalism with Chinese characteristics.

For the capitals, please refer to the list of capitals of subnational entities.

China provinces.png

Mainland China has 22 provinces (省 pinyin sheng3):

Table of contents
1 Disputed Province
2 Autonomous Regions
3 Municipalities
4 Special administratives regions
5 External Links

Defunct Provinces

Disputed Province

The People's Republic of China considers Taiwan, to be its 23rd province. The Republic of China currently controls Taiwan province and Kinmen and Lienchiang counties of Fujian province. The ROC also officially claims all of mainland China (including Tibet) and outer Mongolia. See Political status of Taiwan for more information. Maps of China published in Taiwan will often show provincial boundaries as they were in 1949 which do not match the current administrative structure as decided by the Communist Party of China post-1949.

See also Political divisions of Taiwan.

Autonomous Regions

Apart from provinces there are 5 autonomous regions (自治区 pinyin zi4 zhi4 qu1) being concentrations of some Chinese minorities:

Municipalities

4 municipalities (直辖市 pinyin zhi2 xia2 shi4, literal meaning: "directly administrated city (by the central government)"):

Special administratives regions

2 special administrative regions (SAR) (特别行政区 pinyin te4 bie2 xing2 zheng4 qu1):

See also:

External Links

Uniform template for articles of the provinces are upon discussion at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chinese provinces.

wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump