Administrative divisions

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Xin jiang Uygur Autonomous Region was founded on October 1, 1955. Under the Region there are prefectures, autonomous prefectures and directly controlled cities Under the prefecture level there are counties, autonomous counties, cities and districts under cities Under the county level there are towns townships and minority townships The prefecture commissioner’s offices are agencies of the People’s Government of the autonomous Region exercising administration on the latter’s behalf; while autonomous prefectures, directly controlled cities, and the two subordinate administrative levels all have their own people’s congresses as well as their respective executive bodies, i, e, people’s governments. The self-rule bodies in the Autonomous Region, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties also exercise their right to autonomy as stipulated in the law of Regional Ethnic autonomy in addition to the powers mandated by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws.

In order to advance political, economic and cultural undertakings for all ethnic groups and achieve complete inter-ethnic group equality, in accordance with the Guideline of the People’s Republic of China for the Implementation of Regional Ethnic Autonomy, and with the approval of the Political Council of the Central Peoples Government, from 1953 to 1954, Xin jiang set up 5 autonomous prefectures and 6 autonomous counties in succession, the former including lli Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture(administering 3 special prefectures), Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture(administering 3 counties), Bortala Mongol autonomous Prefecture(administering 3 counties), Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture(administering 3 counties), Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture(administering 4 counties). Over the past four decades and more, the number of autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties remains unchanged, yet the structure of the county-leve administrative bodies under autonomous prefectures has undergone certain alterations In order to strengthen and reinforce the capacity of autonomous localities and better resolve problems arising in the process of development, in 1958, Urumqi Special Commissioners Office was called off, and Qitai and four other counties previously under its control were incorporated into Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture. In 1960, Korla Special Commissioners Office was cancelled; Korla and four other counties formerly under its administration were put under Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture At present Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has 5 autonomous prefectures, 7regions, 7 autonomous region-controlled cities, 9 region-controlled cities, 8 autonomous prefecture controlled cities, 62 counties, 6 autonomous counties, ll districts under cities and 857 towns and townships compared with days before the autonomous region was founded, the number of autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties remains unchanged, but the number of both prefectures and counties has dropped, the former from 10 to 7 and the latter from 76 to 62 In the meantime. the number of cities and districts under cities has risen from 3 to 19 and from nil to 11 respectively.