Prefectures of China

*formally*
Prefecture-level divisions
formally; Prefecture-level divisions
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	地区级别行政区
Traditional Chinese	地區行政區
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Dìqū Jí Xíngzhèngqū
Southern Min
Bbánlám Pìngyīm	Tē-khu
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC	dê-kṳ̆
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	地区
Traditional Chinese	地區
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Dìqū
Tibetan name
Tibetan	ས་ཁུལ།
Wylie
Transcriptions
Wylie	sa khul
Tibetan Pinyin	sakü
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	Địa khu
Zhuang name
Zhuang	Dagih
Korean name
Hangul	지구
Revised Romanization
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	jigu
McCune–Reischauer	chigu
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	дугарг
Mongolian script	ᠲᠣᠭᠣᠷᠢᠭ
SASM/GNC
Transcriptions
SASM/GNC	toɣoriɣ
Uyghur name
Uyghur	ۋىلايەت‎
Latin Yëziqi
Transcriptions
Latin Yëziqi	wilayét
Siril Yëziqi	вилайәт
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡳ ᠪᠠ
Möllendorff	i'ba
Kazakh name
Kazakh	ايماق; аймақ; aimaq
Kyrgyz name
Kyrgyz	ايماق; аймак; ajmaq

Prefecture
地区
*Dìqū*
Prefecture; 地区; Dìqū
Category	Second level administrative division of a unitary state
Location	China
Number	7 prefectures
Populations	95,465 (Ngari) – 3,979,362 (Kaxgar)
Areas	46,755 km2 (18,052 sq mi) (Daxing'anling) – 304,683 km2 (117,639 sq mi) (Ngari)
Government	Various, Central Government;
Subdivisions	Counties;

Prefectures are one of four types of prefecture-level divisions in China, the second-level administrative division in the country. While at one time^[when?] prefectures were the most common prefecture-level division, they are in the process of being abolished^[when?] and only seven formally-designated prefectures remain.

The term "prefecture" is also used as a translation of three unrelated types of administrative divisions that were historically in use in China: the xian, the zhou, and the fu.