[Online Tool] China Administrative Division Code Lookup — Find Province, City, and County Codes Instantly

Building a system that needs administrative division codes. Filling out a government form that requires area codes. Running data analysis that maps to province, city, and county — and every time, you end up digging through the Ministry of Civil Affairs website or hunting for an Excel file of unknown vintage.

Toolshu's China Administrative Division Lookup supports three-level cascading queries, fuzzy name search, and covers both current and historical administrative codes — along with national division statistics. Much faster than hunting through documents.

🔗 Tool URL: https://toolshu.com/en/data_location

What Are Administrative Division Codes and What Are They Used For?

Administrative division codes (also called area codes) are unique numeric identifiers assigned by the state to each administrative region, following national standard GB/T 2260.

Each code is 6 digits with a clear structure:

• Digits 1–2: Province level (provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, special administrative regions). For example: Beijing = 11, Shanghai = 31, Guangdong = 44
• Digits 3–4: Prefecture level (prefecture-level cities, prefectures, autonomous prefectures, leagues). For municipalities directly under central government, this is the district aggregate code.
• Digits 5–6: County level (urban districts, county-level cities, counties, banners, etc.)

A complete 6-digit code pinpoints a county-level administrative unit precisely. For example, 440305 represents Guangdong Province (44) → Shantou City (03) → Chaoyang District (05).

This coding system is the standard reference for building province-city-county cascading dropdowns, processing geographic data, and integrating with government systems. It's also the origin of the first 6 digits of Chinese national ID numbers — those 6 digits are the administrative division code of the holder's registered household location.

How Many Administrative Divisions Does China Have?

The tool provides a clear statistical breakdown. Here's the basic structure:

Province level: 34 units total — 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing), and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong, Macao).

Prefecture level: Includes prefecture-level cities, prefectures, autonomous prefectures, and leagues, covering all mainland provinces.

County level: Includes urban districts, county-level cities, counties, autonomous counties, banners, autonomous banners, special districts, and forestry districts. This is the most granular level and the one that 6-digit codes resolve to.

Administrative divisions are not static — county-to-district conversions, new prefecture-level city designations, and boundary mergers and splits happen every year. The tool includes historical codes alongside current ones, making it easier to cross-reference older datasets.

Supported Query Methods

Three-level cascading: Select province → select city → select county, drilling down step by step. Useful when you know the general location and need to narrow down to a specific division.

Fuzzy name search: Type a place name keyword — for example, searching "Haidian" will list all administrative divisions whose names contain "Haidian" along with their codes. Ideal when you know the name but need to find the corresponding code quickly.

Historical code lookup: Many older datasets reference codes for divisions that no longer exist — counties that have been dissolved or merged. The tool supports querying historical versions to identify what location an old code referred to.

Most Common Developer Use Cases

Province-city-county cascading dropdowns: Frontend address selection components need a dataset of province, city, and county relationships with their codes. The tool lets you verify data accuracy, and the historical query feature helps reconcile old system data.

National ID number parsing: The first 6 digits of a Chinese national ID are the administrative division code of the holder's registered household county. Toolshu also has a dedicated China ID Number Parser: https://toolshu.com/en/idcard — enter an ID number and instantly extract registered hometown, date of birth, and gender.

Geographic data processing: When working with datasets that contain administrative division codes, the tool makes it easy to look up the place name behind a code — or to standardize place names into their corresponding codes.

Government system integration: When interfacing with government APIs or filing systems that require standard administrative codes rather than plain text place names, the tool quickly surfaces the correct code format.

Administrative Divisions Change — How Reliable Is the Data?

This is worth paying attention to. China's administrative divisions are adjusted every year — counties converted to districts, new prefecture-level cities established, renames — all of which can change the code or name for affected areas.

The tool's current data is a reliable starting point. For high-stakes government or legal contexts, always verify against the latest official release of GB/T 2260 published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

👉 Look up China administrative division codes: https://toolshu.com/en/data_location

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