Map Source

The online historical map of "Distribution of Counties Administered by Municipalities Directly under the Central Government and Prefecture-level Cities in China (as of the end of 1999)" is sourced from the Atlas of the Evolution of the Administrative Divisions of the People's Republic of China. This is a thematic atlas detailing the changes and status of administrative divisions over the 50 years of New China. It was authored by Chen Chao and Chen Hongling and published by SinoMaps Press. The scale of this map is 1:21,700,000.

Evolution of the City-Administering-County System (1949–1999)

In the early post-liberation period of 1949, only 3 cities nationwide administered 3 counties. By 1958, the number of cities administering counties had increased, with the number of such cities multiplying by 8.6 times and the counties administered by them increasing by 3.9 times compared to the initial period. This number decreased during the 1960s. By the late 1970s, the practice began to gradually increase again. By 1982, the number of cities administering counties had doubled, and the number of counties under their administration had increased by 0.4 times compared to 1958. Starting in 1983, there was a substantial nationwide increase in the number of cities administering counties. Compared to 1982, the number of such cities increased by 1.2 times, and the number of administered counties increased by 2.1 times. As of the end of 1999, there were 213 cities administering 990 counties nationwide, representing a 0.7-fold increase in cities and a 0.8-fold increase in counties compared to 1983.

The provincial-level units that had fully implemented the city-administering-county system by 1999 were: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, and Chongqing.

Related Maps

• Online Historical Map of County-level Cities Administered by Prefecture-level Cities in China (as of the end of 1999)
• Online Historical Map of Prefecture-City Mergers in China (as of the end of 1999)