County-administered city

A county-controlled city, or county-administered city (Chinese: 縣轄市; pinyin: xiànxiáshì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: koān-hat-chhī)), is a unit of administrative division in Taiwan. Under the administrative structure of Taiwan, it is with the same level of a township or a district. Such cities are administrated by counties. It is also the lowest-level city of Taiwan, below a provincial city and a special municipality. There are 14 county-controlled cities currently.

The first administrative divisions entitled "city" were established in the 1920s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. At this time cities were under the jurisdiction of prefectures. After the World War II, nine (9) out of eleven (11) prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reform into provincial cities. The reform was based on the Laws on the City Formation (市組織法) of the Republic of China.

In this reform, the populations of Hualien (Karenkō) and Yilan (Giran) were too low to became a provincial city, but they are also much more important than other urban townships. Thus the special administrative division type is created in Scheme on the Local Rules in Various Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province (臺灣省各縣市實施地方自治綱要). In this time, a county is divided into county-controlled cities and county-controlled districts. A county-controlled district is divided into urban townships and urban townships. The level of a county-controlled city is higher than a township.

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