Village level
The village level serves as an organizational division (census, mail system) and does not have much importance in political representative power. Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal like in the West, but have defined boundaries and designated heads (one per area):
In urban areas, every subdistrict of a district of a city administers many communities or neighborhoods. Each of them have a neighborhood committee to administer the dwellers of that neighborhood or community. Rural areas are organized into village committees or villager groups. A "village" in this case can either be a natural village, one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village, which is a bureaucratic entity.
Village level subdivisions
- 80,717 Neighborhood Committees (社区居民委员会; jūmínwěiyuánhùi)
Neighborhoods / Communities (社区; shèqū) -
623,669 Village Committees / Village groups ((村民委员会 / 村民小组; cūnmínwěiyuánhùi / cūnmínxiǎozǔ)
Administrative Villages (行政村; xíngzhèngcūn)
Natural Villages (自然村; zìráncūn) -
Informal
City-Type Neighborhood (居民区; jūmínqū)
City-Type Communities (社区; shèqū)
This table summarizes the divisions of the area administered by the People's Republic of China as of December 31, 2005.
| Level | Name | Types |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Province level 省级行政区 |
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| 2 | Prefecture level 地级行政区 |
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| 3 | County level 县级行政区 |
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| 4 | Township level 乡级行政区 |
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| 5 | Village level (informal) 村级自治组织 |
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