page_title: Provinces of China
section_title: Song provinces
hierarchical_section_title: Provinces of China / History / Song provinces
caption_attribution_description: English: Circuits of Northern Song Dynasty (as of 1111 A.D.)
context_page_description: Provincial-level administrative divisions or first-level administrative divisions, are the highest-level Chinese administrative divisions. There are 34 such divisions claimed by the People's Republic of China, classified as 23 provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions, and two Special Administrative Regions. The political status of Taiwan Province along with a small fraction of Fujian Province remain in dispute, those are under separate rule by the Republic of China.
  Every province on mainland China has a Communist Party of China provincial committee, headed by a secretary. The Committee Secretary is effectively in charge of the province, rather than the governor of the provincial government.
context_section_description: The Song government abolished the previous commissioners and renamed their circuits (路; lù, literally meaning "roads", but however is still usually translated into English as "circuits"). They also added a number of "army" prefectures (軍; jūn). Similarly, Liao and Jurchen Jin dynasties also established circuits as the first-level administrative division.
caption: Song circuits, ca. 1111
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