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 counti es; 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 2000