District of China
As a political division in China, there are two types of districts (区，pinyin: qū) : a district at county level and the other one at township level.
District at county level
A district (市辖区, pinyin: shÃÂì xiÃÂá qū, lit. a district of a city) is a subdivision of a city such as Special administrative regions, municipalities, sub-provincial cities and prefecture-level cities, its status is equal to a county.
Before 1980s, a district is mostly the commercial, industrial and cultural area of a city in China, a city also was regarded as a industrial or commercial centre with few agricultural industries, except for a suburb as an administrative division to afford a large supply of food, there were mostly no other rural areas in large and middle cities in China when the areas of districts in a city are urban.
After 1980s, most of prefecture level regions were changed into cities (prefecture-level cities) with the same Subdivision before they had. From then on, cities, especially the prefecture-level cities are still as divisions of administration which are no much more difference with prefectures, they are sbudivided into districts, counties, autonomous counties, county level cities, most of the cities are rural areas.
A district in the dense areas (industrial or commercial areas ) of population of a city is divided into some sub-districts (街道办事处， jīe dÃÂào bÃÂàn shÃÂì chÃÂù, lit. "street office"). Lots of districts are formed from counties after 1990, so the main body of a district is rural area, not only the organizational system of the government is like a county, also its subdivision and industries are the same to a county. just like a county, a district in rural areas of a city may be divided into some sub-districts, towns and townships.
In 2002, there counted up to 66 districts at the level in China, they are 1 in Hebei, 8 in Shandong, 8 in Hunan, 32 in Sichuan, 6 in Gansu and 11 in Xinjiang.District at township level
A district is rifely an important sub-division of a county all over China from 1950s to 1990s, there were about 5 to 10 districts in a county then and about 3 to 5 towns and townships in a district, its status was at the same level with a town or township, in fact a district was roughly ranked above town or township. After 1990s, almost all the districts at the level were repealed while the former townships and towns were reorganized, about two or more townships or towns were recombined to a present town or township.