As of September 2016, there were 334 prefecture-level divisions in mainland China: 293 prefecture-level cities, 30 autonomous prefectures, 8 regions and 3 leagues.
I. Prefecture-level administrative regions:
The prefecture-level administrative region is the second-level administrative region, which refers to the administrative region with the same administrative status as the region, between the provincial administrative region and the county-level administrative region, and is the administrative division of provinces and autonomous regions.
In 1970, with the change of &”;special area&”; to &”;region&”;, the official name of &”;special administrative area&”; was changed to &”;prefecture-level administrative area&”;. From 1988 to now, there are only four types of &”;prefecture-level administrative regions&”;, namely, prefecture-level cities, regions, autonomous prefectures and leagues.
As of September 2016, there were 334 prefecture-level divisions in mainland China: 293 prefecture-level cities, 30 autonomous prefectures, 8 regions and 3 leagues.
Second, the county directly under the jurisdiction of the provinc——, a county directly under the province, is a county and county-level city directly under the jurisdiction of provinces and autonomous regions. Since 2002, some places such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Henan, Liaoning, Hubei and so on have already had the pilot of directly administering counties in finance, and Zhejiang has even carried out the pilot of directly administering counties in some social management affairs. With the economic and social management functions directly governing counties, it is bound to eventually realize the comprehensive direct management of counties by provinces, which is a trend, but it is very difficult to become a reality in the short term.
In 1980, especially after 1983, the original intention of the establishment of &”;prefecture-level cities&”; was to break down the administrative barriers and the separation between urban and rural areas, and give play to the role of central cities in promoting rural economic development. Under the circumstances of financial transfer payment and tax sharing, &”;prefecture-level cities&”; often became water pumps, and for the development of central cities, the funds of counties under their jurisdiction were intercepted, thus the gap between urban and rural areas became wider and wider. The role of &”;prefecture-level cities&”; is only to upload and issue orders, and there is an extra link, which is not conducive to the smooth flow of government decrees. And every year, the single salary consumes hundreds of millions of dollars in finance.