Counties of China

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County

Xiàn

Category| Third level administrative division of a unitary state
Location| People's Republic of China
Found in| Prefectures, Provinces
Number| 1,319 (1,307 controlled, 11 claimed) (as of 2023)
Government|

* Various, Central Government

Subdivisions|

* Town, Township

County

Chinese name
Simplified Chinese| 县
Traditional Chinese| 縣
| Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin| Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetan| རྫོང་།
(formerly 宗 in Chinese)
| Transcriptions

Wylie| rdzong
Tibetan Pinyin| Zong
Zhuang name
Zhuang| Yen
Korean name
Hangul| 현
| Transcriptions

Revised Romanization| hyeon
McCune–Reischauer| hyŏn
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic| Шянь
Mongolian script| ᠰᠢᠶᠠᠨ
| Transcriptions

SASM/GNC| siyan
Uyghur name
Uyghur| ناھىيە
| Transcriptions

Latin Yëziqi| Nahiye
Yengi Yeziⱪ| Nah̡iyə
SASM/GNC| Naĥiyə
Manchu name
Manchu script| ᡥᡳᠶᠠᠨ
Möllendorff| hiyan
Kazakh name
Kazakh| اۋدان
аудан
audan
Kyrgyz name
Kyrgyz| وودان
оодан
oodan
Administrative divisions
of China

Province-level (1st)

Municipalities

* * *

Provinces

* * *

Autonomous regions

* * *

Special administrative regions

Sub-provincial level

Sub-provincial cities

* * *

Sub-provincial autonomous prefectures

* * *

Sub-provincial city districts

Prefecture-level (2nd)

Prefectural cities

* * *

Autonomous prefectures

* * *

Leagues (Aimag)
(abolishing)

* * *

Prefectures

(abolishing)

Sub-prefectural-level

Sub-prefectural cities

* * *

Provincial-controlled cities

* * *

Provincial-controlled counties

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Provincial-controlled districts

County level (3rd)

Counties

* * *

Autonomous counties

* * *

County-level cities

* * *

Districts
Ethnic districts

* * *

Banners (Hoxu)
Autonomous banners

* * *

Shennongjia Forestry District

* * *

Liuzhi Special District

* * *

Wolong Special Administrative Region

* * *

Workers and peasants districts

(obsolete)

Analogous county level units

Management areas
Management committee

Township level (4th)

Townships

* * *

Ethnic townships

* * *

Towns

* * *

Subdistricts
Subdistrict bureaux

* * *

Sum

* * *

Ethnic sum

* * *

County-controlled districts
County-controlled district bureaux
(obsolete)

* * *

Management committees

* * *

Town-level city

(pilot)

Analogous township level units

Management areas
Management committee

* * *

Areas

* * *

Farms area (Overseas Chinese Farm Region [zh]), Prison area, University towns, etc.

Village level (5th)

(Grassroots Autonomous Organizations)

* * *

Villages · Gaqa · Ranches
Village Committees

* * *

Communities

Residential Committees

Others

Regions

* * *

Capital cities

* * *

New areas

* * *

Autonomous administrative divisions

* * *

National Central Cities

* * *

Special Economic Zones

History: before 1912, 1912–49, 1949–present

* * *

Administrative division codes

* v
* t
* e

Counties (simplified Chinese: 县; traditional Chinese: 縣; pinyin: Xiàn) are found in the third level of the administrative hierarchy in provinces and autonomous regions and the second level in municipalities and Hainan, a level that is known as "county level" and also contains autonomous counties, county-level cities, banners, autonomous banners and city districts. There are 1,355 counties in mainland China out of a total of 2,851 county-level divisions.

The term xian is sometimes translated as "district" or "prefecture" when put in the context of Chinese history.

## History

[edit]

See also: Counties of the Republic of China

Xian have existed since the Warring States period and were set up nationwide by the Qin dynasty.[1][2] The number of counties in China proper gradually increased from dynasty to dynasty. As Qin Shi Huang reorganized the counties after his unification, there were about 1,000. Under the Eastern Han dynasty, the number of counties increased to above 1,000. About 1400 existed when the Sui dynasty abolished the commandery level (郡 jùn), which was the level just above counties, and demoted some commanderies to counties. The current number of counties mostly resembled that of the later years of Qing dynasty. Changes of location and names of counties in Chinese history have been a major field of research in Chinese historical geography, especially from the 1960s to the 1980s.[citation needed]

In Imperial China, the county was a significant administrative unit because it marked the lowest level of the imperial bureaucratic structure;[citation needed] in other words, it was the lowest level that the government reached. Government below the county level was often undertaken through informal non-bureaucratic means, varying between dynasties. The head of a county was the magistrate, who oversaw both the day-to-day operations of the county as well as civil and criminal cases.

During the Republican period, counties were the second level administrative divisions of its provinces. After the Chinese Civil War, counties became subordinate to prefectural level cities while the previous structure is retained. The counties became directly governed by the Executive Yuan after the provinces became streamlined in 1998, but they were fully abolished in 2018.

## Autonomous counties

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Main article: Autonomous counties of the People's Republic of China

Autonomous counties (自治县; zìzhìxiàn) are a special class of counties in mainland China reserved for non-Han Chinese ethnic minorities. Autonomous counties are found all over China, and are given, by law, more legislative power than regular counties.

There are 117 autonomous counties in mainland China.

## Government

[edit]

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is central to directing government policy in mainland China, every level of administrative division has a local CCP committee. A county's[clarification needed] is called the secretary (中共县委书记), the de facto highest office of the county. Policies are carried out via the people's government of the county, and its head is called the county governor (县长). The governor is often also one of the deputy secretaries in the CCP Committee.

## See also

[edit]

* Counties of China — historical
* List of counties in the People's Republic of China
* List of county-level divisions of China
* History of the administrative divisions of China
* Attached county, a former sort of xian in late Imperial China
* County (Taiwan)

## References

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### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Hsu, Cho-yun (2012) [2006]. China: A New Cultural History. Translated by Baker, Timothy D. Jr.; Duke, Michael S. Columbia University Press. p. 102\. ISBN 9780231159203.
2. ^ Goodman, David S.G., ed. (2015). Handbook of the Politics of China. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. p. 159\. ISBN 9781782544364.

### Sources

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* Ch'u, T'ung-tsu (1962), Local Government in China under the Ch'ing, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

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