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| | Political divisions of China (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02) |
 | | Special administrative regions were provided for in the 1982 Constitution in anticipation of the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macau, but were only established in 1997 and 1999 in Hong Kong and Macau respectively when China resumed its exercise of sovereignty in these regions. |
 | | Special administrative regions are nominally designated first-order (provincial-level) administrative divisions like other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, but SARs reserve much bigger autonomy, with their own courts of final appeal, legal systems, passports, currencies, customs control, immigration policies, extradition, etc., except diplomatic relations and national defence. |
 | | For a complete listing of all the county-level divisions of China, follow the links in these tables As of December 15, 2004, there are 2862 county-level (县级 xiànjí) divisions, including 851 districts, 374 cities, 1465 counties, 117 autonomous counties, 49 banners, 3 autonomous banners, 2 special regions and 1 forestry area in mainland China. |
| political-divisions-of-china.kiwiki.homeip.net (2892 words) |
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