Independent city (China)
Independent cities ( Chinese 縣級 市 / 县级 市 , Pinyin xiànjíshì ) are administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China at district level. There are currently 368 independent cities (December 31, 2013).
This number has been subject to slight fluctuations in the recent past and will continue to be subject to slight fluctuations, since on the one hand, districts are converted into urban districts from time to time due to the degree of their urbanization, and on the other hand, urban districts, especially if they are increasingly integrated with the urban catchment area of the superordinate district-free city to be merged, to be converted into city districts.
District-free cities are usually subordinate to the district-free cities, administrative districts, confederations and autonomous districts, i.e. the district level. In the case of the six independent cities in Hainan and some independent cities in Henan , Hubei and Xinjiang , however, they are directly subordinate to the provincial level. While in the case of Hainan they refrained from installing a district level at all, the independent cities outside of Hainan that are directly subordinate to the provincial level represent an exception, which is also associated with a special status that is half a step higher than the "normal" independent cities. This intermediate level is called the “subdistrict level” because it lies above the district level and below the district level.
Independent cities subordinate directly to the provincial level
Currently, 17 independent cities in China are directly subordinate to the provincial level (省 直辖 县级 市):
literature
- Sebastian Heilmann : Political System, 3rd People's Republic. In: Stefan Friedrich, Hans-Wilm Schütte, Brunhild Staiger (eds.) The great China Lexicon. History, geography, society, politics, economy, education, science, culture. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-14988-2 , pp. 575-578.
- Erling von Mende , Heike Holbig: Local administration. In: Stefan Friedrich, Hans-Wilm Schütte, Brunhild Staiger (eds.) The great China Lexicon. History, geography, society, politics, economy, education, science, culture. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-14988-2 , pp. 456–458.
- Meyer's Atlas China. On the way to world power. Bibliographisches Institut AG, Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-411-08281-0 , pp. 92-93.
- Yin Zhongqing (尹中卿): The political system in China today. China Intercontinental Press, Beijing 2004, ISBN 7-5085-0470-4 .