Dictionary

prefecture-level city en · NOUN

Etymology

Calque from Chinese 地級市／地级市 (dìjíshì, literally “prefecture (地區／地区)-level city”)

Meanings

1. An administrative division of China immediately below the province level and above the county level, often comprising a central urban area, a large surrounding rural area, and smaller towns and cities. (Most of China proper today is part of a prefecture-level city.)
   • The majority of migrants in Zhejiangcun came from two areas under the jurisdiction of a prefecture-level city, Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province: Yueqing, a county-level city, and Yongjia, a rural county. 2001, Li Zhang, “Commercial Culture, Social Networks, and Migration Passages”, in Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks Within China's Floating Population, Stanford: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 48:
   • (3) Prefecture-level Cities A prefecture-level city is a large or medium-sized city, smaller than an MDUCG and sub-provincial city. It generally has an urban, non-agricultural population of over 250,000, which includes over 200,000 in the seat of the city government; a total industrial output value of over 2 billion yuan; developed tertiary industry with an output value exceeding that of primary industry and accounting for over 35 percent of the GDP; over 200 million yuan of budgetary revenue at the local level; and has become a central city among several cities and counties. By the end of 1997, there were 222 prefecture-level cities around China. [...]In fact, a prefecture-level city has become a local administrative unit with the characteristics of both ordinary local administrative divisions and local city divisions. 2004, Fengchun (杨凤春) Yang, “Local Governments”, in 中国政府 [Chinese Government], Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 260–261:
   • The government of Shanwei, the prefecture-level city that includes Wukan, later blamed news media outlets from outside the Chinese mainland, including Apple Daily and Initium Media from Hong Kong, of “instigation, planning and direction” in Wukan. 2016 June 21, Austin Ramzy, “Chinese Official Whose Arrest Stirred Protests Confesses to Taking Bribes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2016, Asia Pacific:
   • Presently, Yueyang is a prefecture-level city in the northeast corner of Hunan province on the southern shores of Dongting Lake 2012, Healing, Romance & Revolution, Book Publishers Network, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 43:
   • But Beijing has also made clear efforts to create a livable city for residents on these islands. In 2012, China set up a prefecture-level city named Sansha on Woody Island, soon unveiling structures such as a school and a hospital and even setting up a 4G mobile signal network. Xinhua reports that the city “also has a stadium and has organized various cultural activities to enrich the lives of residents.” 2017 July 24, Adam Taylor, “On a disputed South China Sea island, Beijing unveils a high-tech cinema”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2017, WorldViews:
   • The source said that as early as last month, authorities had been hiring unemployed Tibetans in settlements on the outskirts of Lhasa to enter the city to “monitor the situation” for any signs of unrest, particularly in areas around the revered Sera, Drepung, and Ganden monasteries. “Chinese authorities started hiring local Tibetans from [area] villages in February. From one of the villages alone, around 30 unemployed Tibetans were hired, and most were sent to Lhasa and Shigatse,” he said, referring to another prefecture-level city in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). 2022 March 10, Sangyal Kunchok, Lobe Socktsang, “Security tight in Tibet’s Lhasa on anniversary of uprising”, in Radio Free Asia, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2022:

Forms

Relateds

county-level city

Synonyms

prefecture-level municipality

Translations (6)

ko 지급시 (administrative division) · cmn 地級市 /地级市 (administrative division) · vi địa cấp thị (administrative division) · ja 地級市 (administrative division) · bg гра́дска префекту́ра (administrative division) · pl miasto prefekturalne (administrative division)