Direct-administered municipalities of China

Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city, as well as China's second-largest city by urban area, after Shanghai. It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban districts. Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province and neighbors Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jing-Jin-Ji cluster.

Shanghai is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. It has a population of 29,558,908 in the urban area as of 2025. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River bisecting the city. Shanghai is a global center for finance, business and economics, research, science and technology, manufacturing, transportation, tourism, and culture. The Port of Shanghai is the world's busiest container port. As of 2022, the Greater Shanghai metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan pro

Tianjin is a major international port city in China. It is a direct-administered municipality on the shore of the Bohai Sea making it separate from the surrounding Hebei province. It is one of the five national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the 2020 Chinese census. Its metropolitan area, which is made up of 12 central districts (other than Baodi, Jizhou, Jinghai and Ninghe), was home to 11,165,706 inhabitants in 2015 and is also the world's 29th-largest agglomeration (between Chengdu and Rio de Janeiro) and 11th-most populous city proper.

Chongqing is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the Central People's Government, along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. It is the only direct-administered municipality located deep inland. The municipality covers a large geographical area roughly the size of Austria, which includes several disjunct urban areas in addition to Chongqing proper. Due to its classification, the municipality of Chongqing is the largest city proper in the world by population, though it is not the most populous urban area.

province-level subdivision in the People's Republic of China