Area (Beijing)

Area (simplified Chinese: 地区; traditional Chinese: 地區; pinyin: Dìqū) is a type of township-level divisions of China that is only used within Beijing. It is an intermediate designation between the rural township or town and the more urban subdistrict, and is given to settlements resembling desakotas.^[1]

Usually, each area within Beijing will also carry its previous respective designation as a town or township, and the town/township government will take additional role as the area office (Chinese: 地区办事处). Such a system is referred to as "One agency, two nameplates" (Chinese: 一个机构，两个牌子). For the most part, the area and town/township will share the same place name, such as Nanmofang and Liangxiang. However, there are also exceptions, such as the town name of Wanliu Area being Haidian.