China's administrative units are currently based on a three-tier system, dividing the nation into provinces, counties and townships:

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

A province or an autonomous region is subdivided into autonomous prefectures, counties, autonomous counties and cities; 

A county or an autonomous county is subdivided into townships, ethnic townships and towns.

Municipalities directly under the Central Government and large cities are subdivided into districts and counties; autonomous prefectures are subdivided into counties, autonomous counties and cities. Autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties are all ethnic autonomous areas. The Constitution specifically empowers the state to establish special administrative regions when necessary. A special administrative region is a local administrative area directly under the Central Government.

The People's Republic of China has 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 centrally administered municipalities and 2 special administrative regions (see the following table).

China's Provinces, Autonomous Regions, Centrally Administered  Municipalities and Special Administrative Regions

Name	Seat of Government	Area(10,000 sq km)	Population* (10,000 persons)
BeijingMunicipality	Beijing	1.68	1,538
TianjinMunicipality	Tianjin	1.13	1,043
HebeiProvince	Shijiazhuang	19.00	6,851
ShanxiProvince	Taiyuan	15.60	3,355
Inner Mongolia  Autonomous Region	Hohhot	119.75	2,386
LiaoningProvince	Shenyang	14.57	4,221
JilinProvince	Changchun	18.70	2,716
HeilongjiangProvince	Harbin	46.90	3,820
ShanghaiMunicipality	Shanghai	0.62	1,778
JiangsuProvince	Nanjing	10.26	7,475
ZhejiangProvince	Hangzhou	10.18	4,898
AnhuiProvince	Hefei	13.90	6,120
FujianProvince	Fuzhou	12.00	3,535
JiangxiProvince	Nanchang	16.66	4,311
ShandongProvince	Jinan	15.30	9,248
HenanProvince	Zhengzhou	16.70	9,380
HubeiProvince	Wuhan	18.74	5,710
HunanProvince	Changsha	21.00	6,326
GuangdongProvince	Guangzhou	18.60	9,194
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region	Nanning	23.77	4,660
HainanProvince	Haikou	3.40	828
ChongqingMunicipality	Chongqing	8.20	2,798
SichuanProvince	Chengdu	48.80	8,212
GuizhouProvince	Guiyang	17.00	3,730
YunnanProvince	Kunming	39.40	4,450
TibetAutonomous  Region	Lhasa	127.49	277
ShaanxiProvince	Xi'an	20.50	3,720
GansuProvince	Lanzhou	45.00	2,594
QinghaiProvince	Xining	72.00	543
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region	Yinchuan	6.28	596
Xinjiang UygurAutonomous Region	Urumqi	165.58	2,010
Hong KongSpecial  Administrative Region	Hong Kong	0.1103	694 (in mid-2005)
MacaoSpecial Administrative Region	Macao	0.0027	48 (in mid-2005)
TaiwanProvince		3.60	2,277 (at the end of 2005)