China administrative boundary data, answered.
Formats, licensing, where the data comes from, and what happens when something goes wrong. If your question isn't here, email us; a person reads it.
Questions
What is actually in the download?
One zip per dataset: the same geometry in seven formats (GeoJSON, shapefile with .shx/.dbf/.prj/.cpg, SVG, DXF, GML, KML), a CSV of the attributes, a second CSV of label points for slides, a README describing every field, and the license.
Where does the data come from?
The division list and its codes follow GB/T 2260, the national standard. Geometry comes from public boundary data and is matched to that list, so every polygon has a code and every code has a polygon. Each file records when it was generated.
How are the English place names decided?
By the Chinese national standards, not by translating them. Romanization is Hanyu Pinyin under GB/T 16159: syllables joined, apostrophes before a vowel (Xi'an, Lu'an). Names that already have an English form keep it: Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, Macao, Hohhot, Urumqi, Lhasa, Kashgar. Where pinyin reads a character wrongly the name is corrected by hand, which is why it is Changning and not "Zhangning", Minhang and not "Minxing".
How current is it?
It follows the current published division list, including the county-level changes of recent years. Divisions do change, so if your project is time-sensitive, take the free sample and check the codes you care about before paying.
Is Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao included?
Yes. Taiwan is a province-level division. Hong Kong and Macao are special administrative regions, with their sub-units at county level. Neither SAR has a second level, so they are sold at county level only.
Why are there 368 cities when China has 333 prefecture-level divisions?
The second level as published isn't only prefecture-level cities. It also includes prefectures, leagues, autonomous prefectures, and the county-level cities that Hainan, Hubei, Henan and Xinjiang administer directly. Dropping them would leave holes in the map. The 39 units that appear at both levels are listed in the README.
Do all counties have a city code?
No, and the empty ones are deliberate. 124 of the 2,890 have no city_code: the 85 districts of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing, which sit directly under the municipality, and the 39 units of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, which have no second level. Everywhere else the parent is a prefecture that exists in the city file. 39 units are themselves city-level: the county-level cities a province administers directly, prefecture-level cities with no districts such as Dongguan and Zhongshan, and a few reserve areas in Gansu. For those the city_code repeats their own code, so a join still finds them.
Which format should I pick?
GeoJSON for code and web maps, shapefile for ArcGIS and QGIS, DXF for AutoCAD and illustration, GML for GeoServer, KML for Google Earth, CSV if you only want the table. All of them are in the zip, so there's nothing to get wrong.
Can I use the data commercially?
Yes. One purchase covers one organization, including work you do for clients. You can modify the data, combine it with other data and publish maps made from it. You can't resell it as a dataset or republish it as a competing download.
Do I get updates?
If a dataset is regenerated with a materially different division list, buyers get the new file through the same link. The link doesn't expire.
I lost my download link — how do I get the files again?
Open the find-my-download page and enter the email you paid with and the order number from the Waffo confirmation. Every dataset bought with that address comes back with a fresh link. The link in the email keeps working too, since it is reissued each time you open it, so bookmarking it is enough.
What if the file will not open?
Email us with the format and the software you're using. If it's our bug we fix it. If the file is not what this site describes, we refund it, in the first 14 days or after them.
Why is the DXF simplified?
A full-resolution national county DXF is a hundred megabytes of vertices that no CAD drawing needs. It is projected to meters and simplified to about 45 m. The GeoJSON, shapefile, GML and KML keep the full geometry.
Do you offer a sample?
Yes. Zhejiang at city level, all seven formats, free, no signup.
Can I build a map for a slide deck?
Open the DXF in Illustrator, restyle it, save as SVG or EMF for PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides. It stays vector, so it's sharp at any size. If you would rather have a picture, render the GeoJSON in QGIS and export a PNG at whatever size the slide needs.
How do I get an invoice?
The confirmation email from Waffo is the receipt and carries the order number. Email us if you need a VAT invoice with your company details.
Two background pages cover what is not a question and answer here: the three administrative levels and the GB/T 2260 code, and coordinate systems and the GCJ-02 offset.
Still unsure?
Download the sample and open it in the software you actually use.