Xians, or "counties" in China

[Randy W]

I'm not sure how accurate this post on Quora is - I'm under the impression that a "xian" within a prefecture is more along the same level as cites or "shi" within the prefecture, but incorporating a larger area than just the city/cities it includes. Within the Yulin prefecture, for example, there are multiple cities - Yulin, Beiliu, Bobei, etc. One of the "cities" is referred to as Rongxian, which simply includes a greater area than the Rong city. Other than Rongxian, the other 'counties' are not referred to as 'xian's.

The Yulin prefecture is divided geographically into seven areas. As far as I can tell, each of the geographic regions are equivalent politically.

Yulin has two districts, one city, four counties, and 119 towns and townships. The Yuzhou District and Yulin City are the same (Yulin is the only city in the Yuzhou district).

Districts:

Yuzhou District (玉州区)
Fumian District (福绵区)

County-level City:

Beiliu City (北流市)

Counties:

Rong County (容县)
Luchuan County (陆川县)
Bobai County (博白县)
Xingye County (兴业县)

The quora post - 

What do you know about the county areas in China?

Click through to see the post.

[newacct]

Within a larger prefecture-level city, usually the urban area of the main city is divided in several small county-level units (called "districts"), and then there are rural areas, called counties, and then also minor outlying cities, called county-level cities. They are all at the same level and under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city. Sometimes counties can be changed into county-level cities by adding "city" to the name. Sometimes county-level cities can be renamed to districts to expand the urban area of the main city. For example, for Guangzhou, the Yuexiu, Tianhe, Haizhu, and Liwan districts are small and are parts of the Guangzhou main urban area, Huangpu, Baiyun, and Panyu are mid-sized and like suburbs of Guangzhou, and the other ones are much bigger and more rural. Conghua and Huadu used to be county-level cities, but now all 11 county-level units are called "districts". In your case, maybe the main urban area is small so that's why it has only one or two urban "districts".

[Randy W]

10 hours ago, newacct said:

Within a larger prefecture-level city, usually the urban area of the main city is divided in several small county-level units (called "districts"), and then there are rural areas, called counties, and then also minor outlying cities, called county-level cities. They are all at the same level and under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city. Sometimes counties can be changed into county-level cities by adding "city" to the name. Sometimes county-level cities can be renamed to districts to expand the urban area of the main city. For example, for Guangzhou, the Yuexiu, Tianhe, Haizhu, and Liwan districts are small and are parts of the Guangzhou main urban area, Huangpu, Baiyun, and Panyu are mid-sized and like suburbs of Guangzhou, and the other ones are much bigger and more rural. Conghua and Huadu used to be county-level cities, but now all 11 county-level units are called "districts". In your case, maybe the main urban area is small so that's why it has only one or two urban "districts".

My confusion has to do with the political heirarchy - who has jurisdiction over what? It seems to be that the prefecture has the primary jurisdiction in all cases, but that that can be subdivided in some cases, like the ones you point out. As the map above shows, the Yulin prefecture has 7 subdivisions which would all seem to be equivalent politically but are separately given different names, whether city, district, or county. In the case of Rongxian, it is KNOWN as Rong Xian (county) - Rong Shi (Rong city) is a much smaller area with the county, but no one refers to that - it is simply called Rongxian.

The name Yulin is used both to refer to Yulin prefecture or Yulin city. Yulin city is equivalent to the Yuzhou district - yoiu rarely to never hear anyone referring to "Yuzhou".

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

There's this from the State Council of the People's Republic of China -

Administrative Division

Updated: Aug 26,2014 4:20 PM     

According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s administrative units are currently based on a three-tier system.

1.The country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government;

2.Provinces and autonomous regions are divided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and cities; and

3. Counties, autonomous counties and cities are divided into townships, ethnic minority townships, and towns.

At the moment, China has 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government and 2 special administrative regions.

but they don't really elaborate on the areas of responsibility of the three tiers. The 2nd and 3rd tiers seem to be especially obscure functionally.