What does county-level city mean?

County-level city: it is the name of the administrative division of the People's Republic of China, belonging to the county-level administrative region, subordinate to the prefecture-level administrative region, and has the same status as counties and districts (municipal districts). There is no county-level city directly under the central government, and individual county-level cities are under the jurisdiction of provincial administrative regions.

County-level cities refer to provincial cities with the same administrative status as counties and autonomous counties. It belongs to county-level administrative units. Generally, it is managed by prefecture-level cities, or under regional jurisdiction, and some are directly managed by provinces and autonomous regions. Municipalities directly under the central government cannot formally administer county-level cities, that is, they cannot "govern cities". The official name is a city in a province, such as Qian 'an City hosted by Tangshan City, which is called Qian 'an City in Hebei Province.

The "cities without districts and municipal districts" mentioned in the Constitution mainly refer to county-level cities, but some prefecture-level cities are also cities without districts. There are 5 prefecture-level cities without districts: Zhongshan, Dongguan, Sanya, Sansha and Jiayuguan. These cities are commonly known as "directly administered cities", and the towns under their jurisdiction are directly led by prefecture-level cities.