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| | Political divisions of China - MindSharer Article Archive (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-12) |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The abolishment of district public offices is an ongoing reform to remove an extra level of administration from between the county and township levels. |
| articles.mindsharer.com /html/Political_divisions_of_China (2823 words) |
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