Zhou (administrative division)

However, zhou have left a huge mark on Chinese place names, including the province of Guizhou and the major cities of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Lanzhou, and Suzhou, among many others.

Likewise, although modern Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese provinces are no longer designated by zhou cognates, the older terms survive in various place names, notably the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu, the Korean province Jeju-do, and Lai Châu in Vietnam.

[citation needed] Thereafter, zhou continued to survive as second- or third-level political divisions until the Qing dynasty.

The Republic of China abolished zhou altogether, leaving the word only in the names of cities such as Guangzhou and Hangzhou.

[citation needed] The People's Republic of China recycled the name, using it to refer to the autonomous prefectures granted to various ethnicities.

Han dynasty zhou in 189 CE.
A mid-Qing map of Zhejiang Provinces, with all prefecture capitals indicated ( 杭州府 Hangzhou -fu, 温州府 Wenzhou -fu, 金华府 Jinhua -fu, etc.). South is on top.