County (China)

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County 县 Xiàn
Category	Third level administrative division of a unitary state
Location	People's Republic of China
Found in	Prefectures, Provinces
Number	1,319 (1,307 controlled, 11 claimed) (as of 2023)
Government	Various, Central Government
Subdivisions	Town, Township

Counties (县) are found in the third level of the administrative hierarchy in provinces and autonomous regions and the second level in municipalities and Hainan, a level that is known as "county level" and also contains autonomous counties, county-level cities, banners, autonomous banners and city districts. There are 1,355 counties in mainland China out of a total of 2,851 county-level divisions.

The term xian is sometimes translated as "district" or "prefecture" when put in the context of Chinese history.