��The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government;
    A province or an autonomous region is subdivided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and /or cities;

    A county or an autonomous county is subdivided into townships, ethnic townships and/or towns.

��Municipalities directly under the Central Government and large cities are subdivided into districts and counties; autonomous prefectures are subdivided into counties, autonomous counties and cities. Autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties are all ethnic autonomous areas.

��The Constitution specifically empowers the state to establish special administrative regions when necessary. A special administrative region is a local administrative area directly under the Central Government.

��At the moment, China is divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government and 2 special administrative regions (see the following table).

��China's Provinces, Autonomous Regions, Centrally Administered Municipalities and Special Administrative Regions.

��������������������
Name Seat of Government  Area
(10,000 sq km)
 Population*
(10,000 persons)
Beijing Municipality  Beijing 1.68 1,383
Tianjin Municipality  Tianjin 1.13 1,004
Hebei Province  Shijiazhuang 19.00 6,699
Shanxi Province  Taiyuan 15.60 3,272
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
 Hohhot 118.30 2,377
Liaoning Province  Shenyang 14.57 4,194
Jilin Province  Changchun 18.70 2,691
Heilongjiang Province  Harbin 46.90 3,811
Shanghai Municipality  Shanghai 0.62 1,614
Jiangsu Province  Nanjing 10.26 7,355
Zhejiang Province  Hangzhou 10.18 4,613
Anhui Province  Hefei 13.90 6,328
Fujian Province  Fuzhou 12.00 3,440
Jiangxi Province  Nanchang 16.66 4,186
Shandong Province  Jinan 15.30 9,041
Henan Province  Zhengzhou 16.70 9,555
Hubei Province  Wuhan 18.74 5,975
Hunan Province  Changsha 21.00 6,596
Guangdong Province  Guangzhou 18.60 7,783
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
 Nanning 23.63 4,788
Hainan Province  Haikou 3.40 796
Chongqing Municipality  Chongqing 8.20 3,097
Sichuan Province  Chengdu 48.80 8,640
Guizhou Province  Guiyang 17.00 3,799
Yunnan Province  Kunming 39.40 4,287
Tibet Autonomous Region  Lhasa 122.00 263
Shaanxi Province  Xi'an 20.50 3,659
Gansu Province  Lanzhou 45.00 2,575
Qinghai Province  Xining 72.00 523
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region  Yinchuan 6.64 563
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region  Urumqi 160.00 1,876
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong 0.1092 667(mid 2000)
Macao Special Administrative Region Macao 0.0024 44(mid 2000) 
Taiwan Province    3.60 2,228(at the end of 2000) 

��*At the end of year 2001