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China has a fairly complex system of political geography. Most of it is broken up into provinces (省), 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 (市) are not part of provinces, but independent entities whose leaders report directly to Beijing
• Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions (SARs， 特别行政区). Their economies and distinct political systems are allowed to flourish under separate regulatory regimes from the Mainland under the slogan "One country, two systems". The SARs have their own currencies, issue their own visas, and elect their own representative assemblies through a combination of direct and indirect representation.

[edit] Province-level divisions

A full list of province-level divisions is:

• 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.

Taiwan is a special case. At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the Communists held most of China and the defeated Nationalists held only Taiwan. That situation continues to this day; Taiwan has had a separate government for 60 years. From the practical traveller's point of view, it is a separate country with its own visas, currency and so on. However, both governments agree that Taiwan is part of China and both, at least in principle, support reunion,

[edit] Lower-level divisions

Some of this structure repeats at a lower level. Provinces and regions are generally broken up into prefectures and prefecture-level cities. Where a given minority or minorities predominate, the prefecture can be an Autonomous Prefecture (自治州) for the various ethnic groups. Within prefectures and cities, autonomous or otherwise, there are also Autonomous Counties (自治县) depending on their ethnic composition.

Within a province or autonomous region political geography can be broken down into:

• Prefectures (州) and Prefecture-level Cities (市) - These function similarly to counties in the American political geographic system. Prefectures are predominantly rural while prefecture-level cities are distinguished by their major anchoring urban area, which usually lends its name to the entire area.
• Counties (县) and County-level Cities (市) - these are subdivisions within prefectures or prefecture-level cities. For major urban areas like Beijing, counties are rural and remote from the city proper. A county-level city will be larger than a township but not major enough to anchor the entire region.
• Districts (区) and Townships (镇) - Within the urban or suburban area of a prefecture-level city or province-level municipality, the land is further divided into districts. In the countryside, the county is divided into townships which are generally small towns that form the economic center for surrounding villages. In Maoist times, each township formed a commune (人民公社).
• Villages (村) or Neighborhoods - These are the smallest units of political organization. Neighborhoods are the most local level of Communist Party organization in an urban area while rural villages are the level for China's experiments with grass-roots democracy since some, under the supervision of the Carter Center, hold free and contested elections for their leaders. Many villages have long-since been absorbed by fast-growing cities and townships.

For example, from village to province: Xie Kang Village - Qingxi Town - Dongguan City/Prefecture - Guangdong Province

There is some ambiguity when one uses place names in China. 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 (SEZ, 经济特区) 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 Xiaoping came to power in 1978. These areas tend to be prosperous, to have large expatriate 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
• The Pudong district of 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 has a population of nearly 10 million and Zhuhai is approaching 2 million. The other SEZs have also undergone enormous changes. Pudong was mostly farmland a few decades ago, but now has more skyscrapers than New York.

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, city, county and township-level programs. However, the SEZs remain the most developed areas with the most advanced administrative systems for investment and spurring economic development.

[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 of 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.
• A British naval base in Weihai, just across from Dalian.

This is not a complete list.