Districts of China

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District
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	区
Traditional Chinese	區
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Qū
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	市辖区
Traditional Chinese	市轄區
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shìxiáqū
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ཆུས།
Transcriptions Wylie chus Tibetan Pinyin Qü
Zhuang name
Zhuang	Gih
Korean name
Hangul	구
Transcriptions Revised Romanization gu McCune–Reischauer gu
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	ᠲᠣᠭᠣᠷᠢᠭ
Transcriptions SASM/GNC torig
Uyghur name
Uyghur	رايون‎
Transcriptions Latin Yëziqi Rayon Siril Yëziqi район
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᠴᡳᠣᡳ
Möllendorff	cioi
Kazakh name
Kazakh	رايون район raion
Kyrghyz name
Kyrghyz	رايون район rajon

The term district, in the context of China, is used to refer to several unrelated political divisions in both ancient and modern China.

In the modern context, district (区), formally city-governed district, city-controlled district, or municipal district (市辖区), are subdivisions of a municipality or a prefecture-level city. The rank of a district derives from the rank of its city. Districts of a municipality are prefecture-level; districts of a sub-provincial city are sub-prefecture-level; and districts of a prefecture-level city are county-level.

The term was also formerly used to refer to obsolete county-controlled districts (also known as district public office).

However, if the word district is encountered in the context of ancient Chinese history, then it is a translation for xian, another type of administrative division in China.

Before the 1980s, cities in China were administrative divisions containing mostly urban, built-up areas, with very little farmland, except for the immediate suburbs in order to ensure a large supply of food or raw materials. As a result, districts were also mostly urban or suburban in nature.

After the 1980s, prefectures began to be replaced with prefecture-level cities. From then on, "cities" in mainland China became just like any other administrative division, containing urban areas, towns, villages, and farmland. These cities are subdivided into districts, counties, autonomous counties, and county-level cities. At the same time, counties and county-level cities began to be replaced with districts, especially after 1990. From then onwards, districts were no longer strictly urban entities—some districts today are just like counties, with large towns and townships under them governing rural areas.