Provinces of China
Provincial-level administrative divisions () or first-level administrative divisions (), are the highest-level Chinese administrative divisions. There are 34 such divisions, classified as 23 provinces (), four municipalities, five autonomous regions, and two Special Administrative Regions. All but Taiwan Province and a small fraction of Fujian Province (currently administered by the Republic of China) are controlled by the People's Republic of China.
China proper
The Manchu Qing referred to the Han Chinese inhabited 18 provinces as "nèidì shíbā shěng" (), which meant the "interior region eighteen provinces", or abbreviated it as "nèidì" (內地), "interior region" and also as "jùnxiàn" (), while they referred to the non-Han areas of China such as the Northeast, Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet as "wàifān" () which means "outer feudatories" or "outer vassals", or as "fānbù" (, "feudatory region"). These waifan were fully subjected to and governed by the Qing government and were considered part of the China (Zhongguo), unlike wàiguó (, "outer/foreign countries") like Korea, Vietnam, and the Ryukyus, who paid tribute to the Qing but were not part of China.