The predecessor of prefecture-level cities can be traced back to "Zhou" in Tang and Song Dynasties, "Fu" in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Xia Ling County and Sanzhou (equivalent to today's county-level cities). It is a second-level administrative unit between provinces and counties, and is directly led by provinces with first-level administrative units (Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties called provinces, Tang and Song Dynasties called praise or Taoism).
Extended data:
Danzhou is a city (prefecture-level) under the jurisdiction of Hainan Province, located in the northwest of Hainan, near the Beibu Gulf, more than 30 kilometers away from Haikou, the provincial capital, and more than 280 kilometers away from Sanya in the south. Administer 16 towns, 275 village (neighborhood) committees, 143 1 natural village; The land area is 3394 square kilometers, accounting for about110 of the whole province; The total registered population is 945,400 (2016); The coastline is 267 kilometers long.
Danzhou City is the economic, transportation, communication and cultural center of western Hainan, and Hainan Yangpu Economic Development Zone, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences and Danzhou Campus of Hainan University (formerly South China University of Tropical Agriculture) are all in its territory.
Danzhou has successively won the titles of "Top 100 Agricultural Cities in China", "National Sanitary City", "National Civilized Demonstration City", "National Garden City", "National Excellent City for Comprehensive Improvement of Urban Environment", "Excellent Tourist City in China" and "Top Ten Cultural Tourism Cities in China Favored by Netizens in 20 12".
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Danzhou