A county-level city is a "city" (市;shì) and "county" (县;xiàn) that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. As such,it is simultaneously a city,which is a municipal entity,and a county,which is an administrative division of a prefecture. Most county-level cities were created in the 1980s and 1990s by replacing denser populated counties.
County-level cities are not "cities" in the strictest sense of the word,since they usually contain rural areas many times the size of their urban,built-up area. This is because the counties that county-level cities have replaced are themselves large administrative units containing towns,villages and farmland. To distinguish a "county-level city" from its actual urban area (the traditional meaning of the word "city"),the term "市区" (shìqū) or "urban area",is used.
Comparable territorial divisions in other countries
While the idea of a "city" being a unit consisting of several "towns" is not a common one in English-speaking world,a somewhat similar naming convention is used for local government areas in some parts of Australia. For example,in New South Wales such a unit may often be called a "city" (rather than a traditional "shire"),and consist of "towns". E.g. City of Blue Mountains is made of a number of towns (Katoomba,Springwood,etc.).
In the main urban area of Daye, a county-level city within the prefecture-level city of Huangshi, Hubei. Daye also includes some separate towns, such as Dajipu (大箕铺)
As of 3 April 2023, there are 408 county-level cities in total:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
