List of capitals in China

The scope of this list is limited to capital cities of first-level administrative divisions such as provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, and special administrative regions also including sub-provincial cities which are governed by province but administered independently in many ways from a province.

Sub-provincial cities have status that is below that of municipalities, which are independent and equivalent to provinces, but above other, regular prefecture-level divisions, which are completely ruled by their provinces. However, they are marked as same as other provincial capitals (or prefecture-level city if not provincial capital) in almost all maps.

Also, the provincial capitals of these provinces listed below(Guangzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Hangzhou) are themselves sub-provincial cities (even before 1997 when Chongqing is a sub-provincial city of Sichuan province, since Chengdu is sub-provincial) except Fuzhou, Fujian.

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