Provinces Autonomous regions Sub-provincial autonomous prefectures Autonomous prefectures Leagues (Aimag) (abolishing) Prefectures Provincial-controlled cities Provincial-controlled counties Autonomous counties County-level cities DistrictsEthnic districts Banners (Hoxu)Autonomous banners Shennongjia Forestry District Liuzhi Special District Wolong Special Administrative Region Workers and peasants districts Ethnic townships Towns Subdistricts Subdistrict bureaux Sum Ethnic sum County-controlled districts County-controlled district bureaux (obsolete) Management committees Town-level city Areas Villages · Gaqa · Ranches Village Committees Communities Capital cities New areas Autonomous administrative divisions National central cities History: before 1912, 1912–49, 1949–present The People's Republic of China (PRC) is divided into 2,854 county-level divisions which rank below prefectures/provinces and above townships as the third-level administrative division in the country.

[a] There are six types of county-level divisions: Xian have existed since the Warring States period and were set up nationwide by the Qin dynasty.

[citation needed] In Imperial China, the county was a significant administrative unit because it marked the lowest level of the imperial bureaucratic structure;[citation needed] in other words, it was the lowest level that the government reached.

Government below the county level was often undertaken through informal non-bureaucratic means, varying between dynasties.

One of the most common types of county-level divisions, counties have been continuously in existence since the Warring States period, much earlier than any other level of government in China.

This is because the counties that county-level cities have replaced are themselves large administrative units containing towns, villages and farmland.

From then on, "cities" in mainland China became just like any other administrative division, containing urban areas, towns, villages, and farmland.

In the rest, including Outer Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, and Qinghai, Aimag (Аймаг) was the largest administrative division.

While it restricted the Mongols from crossing banner borders, the dynasty protected Mongolia from population pressure from China proper.