China's administrative units are currently based on a three-level 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/or cities;

—A county or an autonomous county is subdivided into townships, national minority townships, and/or 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 autonomous national minority 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.

At present,China has 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Government, and two special administrative regions.The Capital of the People's Republic of China is Beijing.

The 23 provinces are Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Hainan.

The five autonomous regions are Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Guangxi and Tibet. The four municipalities are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing. Hong Kong and Macao are special administrative regions.

The area constituting Hong Kong is located on the southeast coast of China, east of the mouth of the Pearl River and bordering Shenzhen City in Guangdong Province.It consists of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, with a total area of 1,092 sq km.

Macao,located west of the Pearl River estuary in Guangdong Province, 40 nautical miles west of Hong Kong, Macao's 23.5 sq km of territory comprises the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island and is inhabited by about 450,000 people.

China now has 668 cities, of which 13 have populations of more than two million each; 24, between one and two million; 48, between 500,000 and one million; 205, between 200,000 and 500,000;and 378, less than 200,000.