During the
Republic of China, the first municipalities were the 11 cities of
Nanjing,
Shanghai,
Beijing,
Tianjin,
Qingdao,
Chongqing,
Xi'an,
Guangzhou,
Hankou (now part of
Wuhan),
Shenyang, and
Harbin. They were established in 1927 soon after they were designated as "cities" during the 1920s. Nominally,
Dalian was a municipality as well, although it was
under Japanese control. These cities were first called
special municipalities/cities (), but were later renamed
Yuan-controlled municipalities (), then
direct-controlled municipalities () by the
Central Government of the People's Republic of China. After the establishment of the
People's Republic of China in 1949,
Anshan,
Benxi, and
Fushun were also made municipalities, while Qingdao, Dalian, and Harbin were reduced to
provincial municipalities. Hankou was merged into
Wuhan, which became a municipality of its own. Hence, there remained 12 municipalities. In November 1952, Nanjing was reduced to a provincial municipality in
Jiangsu. In March 1953, Lüda, which had resulted from the merger of Dalian and
Lüshun in December 1950, was made a municipality. In July 1953, Harbin was restored to municipality status, whereas
Changchun acquired that status for the first time. Except Beijing and Tianjin, which were under central control, all other municipalities were governed by the
greater administrative areas. In June 1954, 11 of the 14 municipalities were reduced to sub-provincial cities; many of them became capitals of the provinces they were in. Only Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin remained municipalities, until Chongqing was restored as a municipality in 1997 with a much enlarged area. Tianjin was also temporarily reverted to sub-provincial city status between 1958 and 1967. == Position in hierarchy ==