1 History

The first municipalities were the 11 cities of NanjingNanjing (, Pinyin: Nanjing, Wade-Giles: Nan-ching Postal System Pinyin: Nanking is the capital city of Jiangsu Province in the People's Republic of China. It is situated in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River at 32°03'N, 118°47'E. Nanjing is the second, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, QingdaoQingdao, Shandong Abbreviation: ( pinyin: Jio) or (Qing) Origin of Name Natural blue Island Seat of Government Shinan District Area 10,654 km² Population Total (2002) Density Ranked 1st 7. 105 Million 666. 88/km² GDP in RMB¥ Total (2003) per capita Ranked, Chongqing, Xi'anXi'an (; Hanyu Pinyin: Xi'n, Wade-Giles: Hsi-An literal meaning: "Western Peace") is the capital of Shaanxi province, in China and a sub-provincial city. It was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital of 12 dynastie, GuangzhouGuangzhou ( TC: ; SC: ; Hanyu Pinyin: Gungzhu; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Tongyong Pinyin: Guangjhou) is the capital of the Guangdong Province in southern China. Its international name was formerly Canton after a French language corruption of "Guangdong"., Hankou (now part of Wuhan), Shenyang, and Harbin. They were established in 1927 soon after they were designated as "cities" during the 1920s. Nominally Dalian was a municipality as well, although it was under Japanese Occupation. These cities were first called special municipalities/cities (特別市), but were later renamed Yuan-controlled municipalities (院轄市), then direct-controlled municipalities (直轄市) by the Central Government. A few decades after the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan, they upgraded Taipei and Kaohsiung to municipalities.

After the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, Anshan, Benxi , and Fushun were made municipalities as well, while Qingdao, Shenyang, and Harbin were reduced to provincial municipalities. Hankou was merged to Wuhan. Hence there remained 12 municipalities in mainland China, until Dalian was elevated in 1950. In June 1952, Harbin was restored to municipality-status, along with Changchun. Except Beijing and Tianjin, which were under central control, all other municipalities were governed by the greater administrative areas.

In June 1954, 11 of the 14 municipalities were reduced to provincial municipalities; many of them became capitals of the provinces they were in. Only Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin were left, until Chongqing was restored in 1997. Tianjin was also temporarily reverted to the province-controlled status around the 1960s.

The first municipalities were created on Taiwan when Taipei was made a Yuan-controlled municipality in 1967. The same was done for Kaohsiung in 1979. They are the only two municipalities currently under the ROC administration. Since 1994, Yuan-controlled municipalities have been officially called direct-control municipalities to emphasize their autonomy. Besides significant political, economic, and cultural development, the ROC law dictates that a municipality must have population of over 1,250,000.

2 Position in hierarchy

Municipalities are the highest-ranked cities in China. Some cities of lower levels may also refer to themselves as municipalities in the English language. Wikipedia's translation, however, refers to them using the following conventional terms:

Three levels of cities in the People's Republic of China on Mainland China:

• Municipalities
• Prefecture-level cities
• County-level cities

Three levels of cities in the Republic of China on Taiwan:

• Municipalities
• Provincial cities
• County-controlled cities

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