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A prefecture-level city () or '''prefecture-level municipality''' is an administrative division of the People's Republic Of China , ranking below a Province and above a County in China's administrative structure. Prefecture-level cities form the second level of the administrative structure (alongside Prefecture s, League s and Autonomous Prefecture s). Since the 1980s, prefecture-level cities have mostly replaced the Prefecture administrative unit. A prefecture-level city is not a " City " in the strictest sense of the term, but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, both an urban core (a city in the strict sense) and surrounding Rural or less-urbanized areas usually many times the size of the central, built-up core. Prefecture-level cities nearly always contain multiple Counties , County-level Cities , and other such sub-divisions. This results from the fact that the formerly predominant Prefecture s, which prefecture-level cities have mostly replaced, were themselves large administrative units containing cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. To distinguish a prefecture-level city from its actual urban area (city in the strict sense), the term 市区 shìqū ("urban area"), is used. The first prefecture-level cities were created on 5 November , 1983 . Over the following two decades, prefecture-level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese Prefecture s; the process is still ongoing. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefecture-level cities. Of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions of China , only 3 provinces ( Yunnan , Guizhou , Qinghai ) and 2 autonomous regions ( Xinjiang , Tibet ) have more than three Second-level Or Prefecture-level Divisions that are not prefecture-level cities. Criteria that a Prefecture Of China must meet to become a prefecture-level city:
Baoding ( Hebei Province ), Zhoukou ( Henan ), Nanyang (Henan), and Linyi ( Shandong ) are the largest prefecture-level cities, superseding the population of Tianjin , the least populous Municipality . 15 large prefecture-level cities have been granted the status of Sub-provincial City , which gives them much greater autonomy. A Sub-prefecture-level City is a County-level City with powers approaching those of prefecture-level cities. SEE ALSO |
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