Inner Mongolia - Administrative Divisions

Administrative Divisions

Inner Mongolia is divided into 12 prefecture-level divisions. Until the late 1990s, most of Inner Mongolia's prefectural regions were known as Leagues (Chinese: 盟), a usage retained from Mongol divisions of the Qing Dynasty. Similarly, county-level divisions are often known as Banners (Chinese: 旗). Since the 1990s, numerous Leagues have converted into prefecture-level cities, although Banners remain. The restructuring led to the conversion of primate cities in most leagues to convert to districts administratively (Hailar, Jining, and Dongsheng). Some newly founded prefecture-level cities have chosen to retain the original name of League (Hulunbuir, Bayannur, and Ulanqab), some have adopted the Chinese name of their primate city (Chifeng, Tongliao), and one League, Yekejuu, simply renamed itself Ordos. Despite these recent administrative changes, there is no indication that the Alxa, Hinggan, and Xilingol Leagues will convert to prefecture-level cities in the near future.

Many of the prefecture-level cities were converted very recently from leagues.

The twelve prefecture-level divisions of Inner Mongolia are subdivided into 101 county-level divisions, including twenty-one districts, eleven county-level cities, seventeen counties, forty-nine banners, and three autonomous banners. Those are in turn divided into 1425 township-level divisions, including 532 towns, 407 townships, 277 sumu, eighteen ethnic townships, one ethnic sumu, and 190 subdistricts.