Prefecture-level cities are an embarrassing first-level existence in China. It is written in black and whit《宪法》 of China that China&;s administrative system is three levels: province-county (including county-level cities)-township (including towns), and there is no prefecture-level city. In the early years, there was no such thing as a prefecture-level city in China, and between provinces and counties was a quasi-administrative region called a region. At that time, most of the current prefecture-level cities were also counties or county-level cities. Take Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province as an example. In the early years, Yangzhou and Taizhou were combined and called Yangzhou area (once called Taizhou area). Yangzhou has jurisdiction over county-level Yangzhou City, county-level Taizhou City, Jiangdu County, gaoyou county County, Taixian County (now Jiangyan District of Taizhou City), Taixing County and so on. County-level Yangzhou City and county-level Taizhou City are actually the embryonic forms of Yangzhou City and Taizhou City. Since there were regions in the early years, why is China&;s administrative system at the provincial-county-township level? This should also start from the nature of the region. In the early years, prefectural party committees and regional administrative offices exercised some functions of administrative party committees, but they were not first-class administrative party committees, but agencies of provincial party committees and provinces. Probably it is somewhat similar to the relationship between street offices and municipal districts and counties/county-level cities, which is why street offices are not called &”;streets&”; and regional administrative offices are not called &”;regions&”;. Theoretically speaking, the areas in the early years can&;t be regarded as a first-class administrative region in a complete sense, but more like &”;districts&”; divided by provincial administrative agencies for the convenience of management. After the reform and opening up, with the advancement of urbanization, the original areas have been changed to prefecture-level cities, and the regional administrative offices have gradually become prefecture-level cities, which are no longer provincial agencies, but first-class real ones. However, it still has a certain &”;transitional&”; nature. With the promotion of expanding power to county-level administrative regions, it is the general trend for provinces to govern counties in the future. Therefore, the &”;province-county-township model&”; has not been adjusted or modified in all previous constitutional amendments in China. Of course, the placement of personnel is also an important reason. If the prefecture-level city is hastily cancelled, how to place the personnel of the four teams and subordinate institutions in the whole prefecture-level city is a big problem that cannot be solved in the short term. Besides prefecture-level cities, there are four provincial-level municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing) and fifteen sub-provincial cities (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Chengdu, Ningbo, etc.) in China, which has caused some differences in filling in the address on China&;s current identity cards. At present, there is no explicit provision for the address column of the ID card, but there is still a set of established methods and some regional regulations. At present, in China, municipalities directly under the central government and sub-provincial cities usually do not indicate the province, but start with the city. Municipalities directly under the central government are originally &”;provinces&”;, so I won&;t say much here. Speaking only of sub-provincial cities, China&;s sub-provincial cities refer to the original 14 cities with separate plans and later added Hangzhou and Jinan, totaling 16, which became 15 after Chongqing was directly under the central government. Except for these fifteen cities, all other cities with deputy provincial party secretaries are still prefecture-level cities. Take Fujian Province as an example, Xiamen is a sub-provincial city, while Fuzhou, the provincial capital, is only a prefecture-level city. Xiamen&;sThe chief positions of the four teams are all deputy provincial levels, while in Fuzhou, only the secretary of the municipal party committee is assigned to the deputy provincial level, and the other four teams are still at the main hall level. In other words, the transfer of the vice mayor of Xiamen to the mayor of Fuzhou is a flat transfer, not a promotion! Get down to business, say the address column of ID card. The address column of Xiamen&;s ID card is usually filled in as follows: &”;A certain district of Xiamen ……&”;, while the address column of Fuzhou&;s ID card is filled in as &”;A certain district of Fuzhou, Fujian Province ……&”;. Because I didn&;t find a picture of Xiamen&;s ID card, let&;s make a comparison between Shenzhen&;s ID card and Fuzhou&;s ID card. Of course, because there is no uniform standard and explicit provision, sometimes the ID cards of some sub-provincial cities will be filled with &”;a certain district in a certain city in a certain province&”;. ▲ Shenzhen ID Card ▲ The address of the ID card in other parts of Fuzhou ID Card is usually filled in by the county-level city directly, without adding the prefecture-level city. In fact, the reason is not difficult to understand. Prefecture-level cities only manage county-level cities. Theoretically, county-level cities are not subordinate administrative regions of prefecture-level cities. The municipal districts of prefecture-level cities fill in &”;a certain district of a certain city in a certain province&”;, such as Jinan District of Fuzhou as shown above. ▲ The ID card of &”;a certain city in a certain province (county-level city)&”; is mainly a county. The current ID card has no clear regulations on the county. In some places, &”;a certain county in a certain city in a certain province&”; will be filled in, while in other places, &”;a certain county in a certain province&”; will be directly filled in. Under the framework of governing the country according to law, the current general trend of filling in the address column of ID cards is &”;a certain province and a certain county&”;. Aft《宪法》 clearly wrote that China&;s administrative system is three levels: province, county and township. Therefore, although the ID card with the address column of &”;province-prefecture-level city-county&”; actually exists, most of them are still in &”;province-county&”; format. ▲ Fill in the ID card of &”;certain county in certain province&”; ▲ Fill in the ID card of &”;certain county in certain city in certain province&”;