Town-level city

Simplified Chinese

镇级市

Traditional Chinese

鎮級市

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Zhènjíshì

Administrative divisions of China
Province-level (1st) Municipalities Provinces Autonomous regions Special administrative regions
Sub-provincial level Sub-provincial cities Sub-provincial autonomous prefectures Sub-provincial city districts
Prefecture-level (2nd) Prefectural cities Autonomous prefectures Leagues (Aimag) (abolishing) Prefectures (abolishing)
Sub-prefectural-level Sub-prefectural cities Provincial-controlled cities Provincial-controlled counties Provincial-controlled districts
County level (3rd) Counties Autonomous counties County-level cities Districts Ethnic districts Banners (Hoxu) Autonomous banners Shennongjia Forestry District Liuzhi Special District Wolong Special Administrative Region Workers and peasants districts (obsolete)
Analogous county level units Management areas Management committee
Township level (4th) Townships Ethnic townships Towns Subdistricts Subdistrict bureaux Sum Ethnic sum County-controlled districts County-controlled district bureaux (obsolete) Management committees Town-level city (pilot)
Analogous township level units Management areas Management committee Areas Farms area (Overseas Chinese Farm Region [zh]), Prison area, University towns, etc.
Village level (5th) (Grassroots Autonomous Organizations) Villages · Gaqa · Ranches Village Committees Communities Residential Committees
Others Regions Capital cities New areas Autonomous administrative divisions National Central Cities Special Economic Zones
History: before 1912, 1912–49, 1949–present Administrative division codes
v t e

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).^[1]