Village (China)

*formally*
Village-level divisions
formally; Village-level divisions
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	村级行政区
Traditional Chinese	村級行政區
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Cūn Jí Xíngzhèngqū
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	村
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Cūn
Second alternative Chinese name
Chinese	嘎查
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Gāchá
Tibetan name
Tibetan	གྲོང་ཚོ
Wylie
Transcriptions
Wylie	grong tsho
Tibetan Pinyin	Chongco
Zhuang name
Zhuang	Cunh
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	тосгон (typical villages, 村); гацаа (gatsaa) translate as Gaqa (嘎查)
Mongolian script	ᠲᠣᠰᠬᠣᠨ; ᠭᠠᠴᠠᠭ᠎ᠠ
SASM/GNC
Transcriptions
SASM/GNC	tosgon; gaqaa
Uyghur name
Uyghur	كەنت‎
Latin Yëziqi
Transcriptions
Latin Yëziqi	kent
Kazakh name
Kazakh	قىستاق; қыстақ; qıstaq
Kyrgyz name
Kyrgyz	قىشتاق; кыштак; kıştak

‹See RfD›

Villages (Chinese: 村; pinyin: Cūn), formally village-level divisions (村级行政区; Cūn Jí Xíngzhèngqū) in China, serve as a fundamental organizational unit for its rural population (census, mail system). Basic local divisions like neighborhoods and communities are not informal, but have defined boundaries and designated heads (one per area). In 2000, China's densely populated villages (>100 persons/square km) had a population greater than 500 million and covered more than 2 million square kilometers, or more than 20% of China's total area.^[1] By 2020, all incorporated villages (with proper conditions making it possible) had road access, the last village to be connected being a remote village in Sichuan province's Butuo County.^[2]

Types of villages

Urban

Residential community (simplified Chinese: 社区; traditional Chinese: 社區; pinyin: shèqū)
- Residents' committee (simplified Chinese: 居民委员会; traditional Chinese: 居民委員會; pinyin: jūmín wěiyuánhuì)
  - Residential groups (simplified Chinese: 居民小组; traditional Chinese: 居民小組; pinyin: jūmín xiǎozǔ

Note: Urban village (Chinese: 城中村; pinyin: chéngzhōngcūn) one that spontaneously and naturally exists within urban area, which is not an administrative division.

Rural

The building housing the local village committee and other government offices and organizations in Baiwan Village, Xiqiuwan Township, Badong County, Hubei

Administrative village or Village (Chinese: 行政村 or 村; pinyin: xíngzhèngcūn or cūn)
Hamlet or Band (Chinese: 屯; pinyin: tún)
Gacha (Chinese: 嘎查; pinyin: gāchá) only for Inner Mongolia.
Ranch (Chinese: 牧委会; pinyin: mùwěihuì) only for Qinghai.
Ethnic village (Chinese: 民族村; pinyin: mínzúcūn) only for village populated by Ethnic minority.
- Village committees (simplified Chinese: 村民委员会; traditional Chinese: 村民委員會; pinyin: cūnmín wěiyuánhuì)
  - Villager groups (simplified Chinese: 村民小组; traditional Chinese: 村民小組; pinyin: cūnmín xiǎozǔ)

Natural village

Natural villages (Chinese: 自然村; pinyin: zìráncūn) are residential communities as a social concept, which are often described as a village. They do not have formally defined boundaries, although during the late Qing dynasty and Republic of China era, rules defined who was a resident of a particular natural village. They are often named as cun (村), tun (屯), ying (营), zhaizi (寨子), zhuang (庄), wanzi (湾子), or bang (浜), depending on the region. An estimated 2 million of these villages exist in China, with their number decreasing rapidly at a rate of over 100 a day due to urbanisation and consolidation.^[3]^[4]

Lists of village-level divisions

Villages (村)

List of villages in China

Provinces

Autonomous areas

Municipalities

References

↑ Ellis 2004.
↑ "Paved road links China's "last village" with outside world - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived from the original on July 5, 2020.
↑ L, Aaron (2014-07-28). "Bounded Collectivism: Approaching Rural Land Rights and Labor Through "Natural Villages" in Southwest China 限定的集産主義中国南西部の「自然村」を通じて農村地帯の土地所有権と労働を考察する". Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 2025-09-01.
↑ "中国每天消失百个自然村传统村落急需保护(图)-中新网". www.chinanews.com. Retrieved 2025-09-01.

Bibliography

Ellis, E.C. (2004). "Long-term ecological changes in the densely populated rural landscapes of China". In DeFries, R. S.; Asner, G. P.; Houghton, R. A. (eds.). Ecosystems and Land Use Change (PDF). Geophysical Monograph Series. Vol. 153. Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union. pp. 303–320. Bibcode:2004GMS...153..303E. doi:10.1029/153GM23. ISBN 0-87590-418-1.
Joseph Esherick; Mary Backus Rankin; Joint Committee on Chinese Studies (U.S.) (1990). Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06763-9.
Roxann Prazniak (1 January 1999). Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels Against Modernity in Late Imperial China. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8476-9007-7.

External links

[FOOTNOTEEllis2004-1] Ellis 2004.

[2] "Paved road links China's "last village" with outside world - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived from the original on July 5, 2020.

[3] L, Aaron (2014-07-28). "Bounded Collectivism: Approaching Rural Land Rights and Labor Through "Natural Villages" in Southwest China 限定的集産主義中国南西部の「自然村」を通じて農村地帯の土地所有権と労働を考察する". Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 2025-09-01.

[4] "中国每天消失百个自然村传统村落急需保护(图)-中新网". www.chinanews.com. Retrieved 2025-09-01.

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