The provincial level administrative divisions () are the highest-level
administrative divisions of China. There are 34 such divisions claimed by the
People's Republic of China, classified as 23 provinces (), five
autonomous regions, four
municipalities and two
special administrative regions
The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...
. The
political status of
Taiwan Province along with
a small fraction of Fujian Province remain in dispute; those are under separate rule by the
Republic of China, which is usually referred to as "Taiwan".
Every province on
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...
(including the island province of Hainan) has a
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provincial committee (), headed by a secretary (). The
Committee Secretary is effectively in charge of the province, rather than the governor of the provincial government. The same arrangement exists for the autonomous regions and municipalities.
Types of provincial level divisions
Province
The government of each standard province () is nominally led by a provincial committee, headed by a secretary. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province; second-in-command is the governor of the provincial government. In practice, day-to-day affairs are managed by a
provincial party standing committee, which makes decisions for a province analogous to the Politburo for the central government.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, as "
Taiwan Province", though Taiwan has not been under control of a government that ruled from mainland China since 1949, when the
Republic of China (ROC) lost the mainland to the CCP, which established the PRC. (
Kinmen and the
Matsu Islands are claimed by the PRC as part of its Fujian Province.
Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks and
Itu Aba (Taiping Island) are claimed by the PRC as part of Guangdong and Hainan provinces respectively.) The territory is controlled by the
Republic of China (ROC, commonly called "Taiwan") though the provinces were streamlined in 1998 and the provincial governments were de facto dissolved in 2019.
Municipality
A municipality () or municipality directly under the administration of the central government is a higher level of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their political status is higher than that of common provinces.
Autonomous region
An autonomous region () is a minority subject which has a higher population of a particular minority ethnic group along with its own local government, but an autonomous region theoretically has more legislative rights than in actual practice. The governor of each autonomous region is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group.
Special administrative region (SAR)
A special administrative region (SAR) () is a highly autonomous and self-governing sub national subject of the People's Republic of China that is directly under the Central People's Government. Each SAR has a chief executive as head of the region and head of government. The region's government is not fully independent, as foreign policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government, according to the basic laws.
List of provincial level divisions
History
Han provinces
The names of the provinces that the Eastern (Later) Han created were
Bing,
Ji, Jiao, Jing, Liang (at first Yong, later changed to Liang), Qing,
Si (the Sili Xiaowei Department), Xu, Yan, Yang,
Yi, You and
Yu. The capital,
Luoyang, was in the Si province, as was the former capital,
Chang An
Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Sh ...
.
Sui provinces
By the time unity was finally reestablished by the
Sui dynasty, the provinces had been divided and redivided so many times by different governments that they were almost the same size as commanderies, rendering the two-tier system superfluous. As such, the Sui merged the two together. In English, this merged level is translated as "prefectures". In Chinese, the name changed between ''zhou'' and ''jun'' several times before being finally settled on ''zhou''. Based on the apocryphal
Nine Province system, the Sui restored nine ''zhou''.
Tang provinces
Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) set up 10 "
circuits" () in 627 as inspection areas for imperial commissioners monitoring the operation of prefectures, rather than a new primary level of administration. In 639, there were 10 circuits, 43 commanderies (), and 358 prefectures ( and later ). In 733,
Emperor Xuanzong expanded the number of circuits to 15 by establishing separate circuits for the areas around Chang'an and Luoyang, and by splitting the large Shannan and Jiangnan circuits into 2 and 3 new circuits respectively. He also established a system of permanent inspecting commissioners, though without executive powers.
* Circuits established under Xuanzong, as opposed to Taizong's original ten circuits.
** Circuits established under Xuanzong by dividing Taizong's Jiangnan and Shannan circuits.
Other Tang-era circuits include the
West Lingnan,
Wu'an, and
Qinhua circuits.
Song provinces
The Song government abolished the previous commissioners and renamed their circuits (, literally meaning "roads", but is still usually translated as "circuits"). They also added a number of "army" prefectures (). Similarly,
Liao and
Jurchen Jin dynasties also established circuits as the first-level administrative division.
Yuan provinces
China was reorganised into 11 provinces keeping most of the previous boundaries of provinces created by the previous dynasty unchanged, the
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) had two additional regions: Central region ruled by the
Zhongshu Sheng () and the Tibetan region ruled by the
Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs __NOTOC__
The Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, or Xuanzheng Yuan () was a government agency of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China to handle Buddhist affairs across the empire in addition to managing the territory of Tibet. It was origi ...
().
Ming provinces
The
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644) kept the province system set up by the
Yuan dynasty. However, it divided the original 10 provinces into 16, later two capital metropolitan areas and 13 provinces () within
China proper and five additional military-ruled regions.
Qing provinces
By the latter half of the
Qing dynasty (1644–1912), there were 18 provinces, all of them in
China proper ().
Jiangsu and Anhui were originally one province called Jiangnan, with its capital at Nanjing. There was no discrete time period when the two halves of Jiangnan were split, but rather, this was a gradual process.
New provinces
*
Xinjiang () 1884–1912
*
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
() 1885–1895
*
Fengtian Fengtian (; postal: Fengtien; Manchu: ''Abkai imiyangga fu'') is:
* Shenyang, largest city and provincial capital of Liaoning province, which was formerly administered under Fengtian Fu, which was abolished in 1910
* Liaoning, the province formerl ...
() 1907–1912
*
Jilin () 1907–1912
*
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...
() 1907–1912
Each province had a ''
xunfu
A ''xunfu'' was an important imperial Chinese provincial office under both the Ming (14th–17th centuries) and Qing (17th–20th centuries) dynasties. However, the purview of the office under the two dynasties differed markedly. Under the Ming ...
'' (; translated as "governor"), a political overseer on behalf of the emperor, and a ''
tidu'' (; translated as "captain general"), a military governor. In addition, there was a ''
zongdu
Zongdu (Tsung-tu; ; Manchu: ''Uheri kadalara amban''), usually translated as Viceroy, Head of State or Governor-General, governed one territory or more provinces of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
One of the most important was the ...
'' (), a general military inspector or
governor general, for every two to three provinces.
Outer regions of China (those beyond
China proper) were not divided into provinces. Military leaders or
generals () oversaw
Manchuria (consisting of Fengtian (now
Liaoning),
Jilin,
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...
),
Xinjiang, and
Mongolia, while vice-''dutong'' () and civilian leaders headed the
leagues (), a subdivision of
Mongolia. The ''
ambans'' () supervised the administration of
Tibet.
In 1884
Xinjiang became a province; in 1907
Fengtian Fengtian (; postal: Fengtien; Manchu: ''Abkai imiyangga fu'') is:
* Shenyang, largest city and provincial capital of Liaoning province, which was formerly administered under Fengtian Fu, which was abolished in 1910
* Liaoning, the province formerl ...
,
Jilin, and
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...
were made provinces as well.
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
became a province in 1885, but China ceded Taiwan to
Japan in 1895. As a result, there were 22 provinces in China (Outer China and
China proper) near the end of the
Qing dynasty.
ROC provinces
The
Republic of China, established in 1912, set up four more provinces in
Inner Mongolia and two provinces in historic
Tibet, bringing the total to 28. In 1931,
Ma Zhongying established
Hexi in the northern parts of Gansu but the ROC never acknowledged the province. However, China lost four provinces with the establishment of the Japanese
puppet state of
Manchukuo in
Manchuria. After the defeat of Japan in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
in 1945, China re-incorporated Manchuria as 10 provinces, and assumed control of Taiwan as a province. As a result, the Republic of China in 1946 had 35 provinces.
Although the Republic of China now only controls one province (
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
), and some islands of a second province (
Fujian), it continues to formally claim all 35 provinces (including those that no longer form part of the area of the People's Republic of China) in official maps by the ROC government and ignores the changes imposed by the PRC. By 1967 and 1979, the ROC set up
Taipei and
Kaohsiung as its special municipalities, with three more added in 2010 and one in 2014. No boundary changes were redrawn as of but the
Chen Shui-bian administration renounced claims to Outer Mongolia in 2002. The remaining provinces became streamlined in 1998 and its governments became non-functional in 2019.
Other provincial level divisions
List of PRC/ROC provincial level divisions
Greater administrative areas
Provinces
Autonomous regions
Municipalities
Special administrative regions
Administrative territories
Regions
Territories
The
People's Republic of China abolished many of the provinces in the 1950s and converted a number of them into
autonomous regions.
Hainan became a separate province in 1988, bringing the total number of provinces under PRC control to 22.
In contrast, the
Republic of China also had a number of provinces under its control such as
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
and
Fujian, which the ROC currently administers, though the ROC abolished the
Xinjiang Provincial Office in 1992. In 1998, after streamlining of the two provinces, some of its powers from the
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
and
Fujian Provincial Governments were gradually transferred to
county governments. This fractured further between 2018 and 2019 when the ROC central government ''de facto'' abolished the provincial governments with most of the remaining powers given to the
Executive Yuan.
Economies
The provinces in southeast coastal area of China such as
Jiangsu,
Zhejiang,
Fujian and (mainly)
Guangdong tend to be more
industrialized
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econ ...
, with regions in the
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associate ...
less
developed.
See also
*
Federalism in China
*
List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP
*
List of Chinese administrative divisions by population
*
List of current Chinese provincial leaders
*
Regional discrimination in China
*
Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China
*
Tiao-kuai
The tiao-kuai () system, also known as tiaotiao-kuaikuai () to emphasize the plurality, describes the quasi- federal arrangement of administration in the People's Republic of China. The term ''tiáo'' refers to the vertical lines of authority over ...
*
Yangtze Delta
The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangna ...
*
Zhou (country subdivision)
Notes
References
External links
Interactive Dbresearch.com: WebMap — ''with economic indicators for all Chinese Provinces''.
{{Authority control
*
Administrative divisions of China
Subdivisions of Taiwan
Provinces, China