List of Chinese provinces and regions
From Wikitravel
Contents
China has a fairly complex system of political geoography. Most of it is broken up into provinces, but there are several other geographic units of the same hierarchical rank as provinces:
- Various ethnic groups have autonomous regions (自治区), although their autonomy is far from complete. For the traveler, these can generally be thought of as provinces, but in political discussions (best avoided!) the distinction may be important.
- Some of the larger municipalities are not part of provinces, but independent entities whose leaders report direct to Beijing
- Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions (SARs). Capitalist economies are allowed to flourish there under the slogan "One country, two systems". The SARs have their own currencies and issue their own visas.
[edit] Province-level divisions
A full list of province-level divisions is:
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Province — capital
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Autonomous region — capital
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- In pairs Guangxi/Guangdong and Shanxi/Shandong, xi is West and dong is East
- In pairs Henan/Hebei and Hunan/Hubei Henan/Hebei, nan is South and bei is North. "He" means river, referring to the Yellow River. "Hu" is lake, referring to the big lake near Changde.
[edit] Lower-level divisions
Some of this structure repeats at a lower level. Provinces and regions are generally broken up into prefectures but there are also a number of Autonomous Prefectures for various ethnic groups. Counties within prefectures and prefectural level cities can also be autonomous units depending on their ethnic composition.
Within a province or autonomous region political geography can be broken down into:
- Prefectures - these function similar to counties in the American political geographic system.
- Cities - these are technically "prefectural level cities" and are usually the same size as prefectures
- Counties - these are subdivisions within prefectures or cities. For major urban areas like Beijing, the counties are rural and remote from the city proper.
- Districts - these are sections within the urban area of a city and comparable in political stature to rural counties
- Townships - these are urban areas within rural counties
- Villages - the smallest units of political organization and the level for China's experiments with grass-roots democracy as some, under the supervision of the Carter Center, hold free and contested elections for their leaders.
Note that there is some ambiguity; for example "Chengdu" can mean either the city itself or the entire prefecture. Moreover, when a Chinese says "Chengdu is my home town" it might mean his family and his identity papers are from there, rather than that he grew up there.
[edit] Development zones
There are also Special Economic Zones (SEZs) set up to encourage development and foreign investment with tax concessions and other government measures. Starting these was one of the first moves in opening up China after Deng Xiao Ping came to power in the late 70s. These areas tend to be prosperous, to have large expat communities, and to have more Western restaurants and facilities. They are:
- Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong
- Xiamen in Fujian
- the entire island province of Hainan
- Pudong in Shanghai
Development in these areas has been phenomenal. In 1978, Shenzhen (next to Hong Kong) and Zhuhai (next to Macau) were basically groups of fishing villages, with a population of a few hundred thousand each. By 2008, only 30 years later, Shenzhen is near 10 million and Zhuhai getting close to 2 million. The other SEZs have also undergone huge changes. Pudong, for example, now has more skyscrapers than New York, almost all built in the last 30 years.
There are also many other areas where investment is encouraged. The national government started a program in 1984 that opened up 14 coastal cities, and all the capitals of inland provinces or autonomous regions, for investment. There are also many provincial programs. However, the SEZs remain the major hotbeds of activity.
[edit] Treaty ports and concessions
When Europeans came to China by sea, from the late 1500s on, the Emperor strictly controlled their trade and movements. For several centuries, the only Western base was the Portuguese colony Macau, trade was permitted only at Canton (Guangzhou), and there were a variety of other restrictions.
After the Chinese defeat in the first Opium War, in 1842, much of that changed. Many of the restrictions were removed and five cities were opened to Western trade — Guangzhou in Guangdong, Xiamen and Fuzhou in Fujian, and Ningbo and Shanghai in Zhejiang. These were known as "treaty ports" because it was a treaty that opened them up. By the same treaty, Britain acquired a Far Eastern base of its own, Hong Kong.
After the Second Opium War, other cities were opened to trade, including several inland cities such as Nanjing and Wuhan.
Various Western powers also took pieces of China, called concessions, and administered them. Some of the treaties specifically provided that Chinese law did not apply in these areas, or to foreigners in China. To Western powers, this was an obvious precaution against a barbaric system; to many Chinese, it was a deeply felt insult. Several nations had concessions in Shanghai; today the old French Concession is one of the more elegant tourist attractions. Other towns such as Hankou (part of Wuhan) and Tianjin also had concessions for several nations.
In some areas, only one nation had a concession. These included:
- Germans in Qingdao, which now makes a famous beer
- French in Zhanjiang, near their IndoChinese colonies
- Russians with a large naval base in Dalian, then called Port Arthur
This is not a complete list.
