These cities are distributed throughout every provinces, autonomous region, and municipality except for Hong Kong and Macao.
Jiangsu is the province with the most National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities, having 14; Shandong and Zhejiang are second, each having 10, Guangdong, Henan, Sichuan, and Yunnan are 4th with 8 cities, and Anhui is 8th, having 7. and Hebei, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Shaanxi are 9th, each with 6 National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities.
According to the Protection Law on Cultural Relics of China, a National Famous Historical and Cultural City is a city with an unusual wealth of cultural relics of high historical value and major revolutionary significance, subject to the approval and announcement of the State Council of PR China.
Measures for the protection of famous city shall be formulated by the State Council.
[1] The first batch was published on February 8, 1982 by State Council, there are 24 Chinese cities.