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 Town-level city (Chinese: 镇级市) is a proposed pilot designation for a type of administrative division of China.
A town-level city is officially considered to be a town, but it has more power de facto because the cadres assigned to its government are one half-level higher in rank than those of an "ordinary" town—though still lower than those of a county-level city.
In order to be designated as a town-level city a town must have the minimum population of 100 thousand (except for Western China and Northeast China) and cannot be a county-level division administrative seat of government also cannot be within of any national urban planning zones (suburban towns are also excluded).
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