District-level town (thị xã), a type of second tier subdivision of Vietnam is divided into 713 units along with

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, municipal city, and provincial city have equal status. Also by virtue of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP, town are officially classified into Class-3 or Class-4. The towns may only be a capital of a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

, but not of a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

as the Second Tier unit. At the Third Tier, Town is divided into

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

and

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, relig ...

. Most provincial capitals were once towns, but now most of them have become provincial cities.

District level

In Vietnam, there are other kinds of district-level urban subdivision: urban districts ( vi, quận), districts and provincial cities. The urban districts is within urban and only consists of

, but provincial cities and towns can consist of the

(within urban) and

(within suburban). Towns are similar with provincial cities, but towns are smaller than provincial cities in population density. Moreover, municipality can includes towns (

Sơn Tây (Hanoi) ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...

), even municipal cities. The type town is categorized as urban and its residents is classified as urban population, although there may still be a part of residents living in agriculture. Main economical activities in town included industry, services and business.

Upgrade and downgrade

Regularly, a commune-level town or township ( vi, thị trấn) can be upgraded to a district-level town or town ( vi, thị xã), and district-level towns can develop into provincial cities. But the district-level town can also be downgraded to a district capitals, especially when there is a merger of the provinces. That are the cases of the An Lộc (provincial capital of former Bình Long Province),

Sông Cầu Sông Cầu is a town (''thị xã'') of Phú Yên province in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. After the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1 ...

(formerly the provincial capital of Phú Yên Province) ... Some district-level towns were downgraded into commune-level towns for some time and then be re-established, as

Nghĩa Lộ Nghĩa Lộ is a town in Yên Bái Province, in the north-east region of Vietnam. It is bordered by Văn Chấn District and Trạm Tấu District. In 1951, the Viet Minh 312 Division fought French forces in the area as part of the First Indo ...

, Bắc Cạn,

Đồ Sơn Tu () is a Chinese surname, and the 279th family name in Hundred Family Surnames ( 百家姓). Tu (涂 or 凃) is another Chinese surname. Origin From one of the characters in the name of the ancient city of Zoutu. The legendary emperor Yellow Emp ...

(from 2007, became urban district of Đồ Sơn),

Phúc Yên Phúc Yên is a city in Vĩnh Phúc Province in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam.Atlas of the World', Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 226. As of 2003 the district had a population of 83,352. The district covers an area of 120 km². T ...

Hà Tiên Hà Tiên is a Provincial city in Kiên Giang Province, Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Its area is and the population as of 2019 is 81,576. The city borders Cambodia to the west. Hà Tiên is a tourist site of the region thanks to its beaches and l ...

Vị Thanh Vị Thanh is a provincial city and also the capital city of Hậu Giang Province in Vietnam. Formerly, it was the capital town of Chương-Thiện province in South Vietnam. In 2004, Vị Thanh became the capital of Hậu Giang Province. It h ...

Gia Nghĩa Gia Nghĩa is the capital city of Đắk Nông Province, in the Central Highlands (Vietnam), Central Highlands of Vietnam. It is located on the main road northward to Buôn Ma Thuột.Jonathan D. London ''Education in Vietnam '' 2011 Page 178 " ...

. When a district-level town is downgraded, the urban become a commune-level town, and the suburban is merged into other districts or established rural communes. Some district-level towns have become commune-level towns and not re-established, so far as: Đô Lương, Tiên Yên, Ninh Giang, Cát Bà, Vĩnh An of Đồng Nai Province. There is a rare case:

Phan Rang Phan may refer to: * Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name * Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand * Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam * Phan (tray) Phan ( th, พาน, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It ...

as district-level town is divided into two commune-level towns,

and Tháp Chàm in 1977. Each commune-level town belonged to a county ( Ninh Hải and An Sơn), and in 1981 the two commune-level towns was merged and re-established as county-level town named

Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm, commonly known as Phan Rang, is a city in Vietnam and the capital of Ninh Thuận Province. The community has a population of 161,000 (2004), of which 91,000 (2004) live in the main city. The name ''Phan Rang'' is the V ...

(now as provincial city). Kiến An, a former district-level town, located in a municipality in

Hải Phòng Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...

from 1962 to 1980, later downgraded into a commune-level town and was recovered between from 1988 to 1994 and is now an

of Hải Phòng.

ever (after 1994) was the only district-level town within a municipality (Hải Phòng), until September 12, 2007 it became the new

of Hải Phòng.

Sơn Tây ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...

is a district-level town governed under

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

in the period 1978 to 1991, then merged into

Hà Tây Province Hà Tây () was a former province of Vietnam, in the Red River Delta, now part of Hanoi. On May 29, 2008 the decision was made to subsume the province into the city of Hanoi. The merger took place on August 1, 2008. The name of the province wa ...

. August 2007 this district-level town was upgraded into provincial city. In 2008

was merged into

, Sơn Tây was moved back into district-level town.

List of district-level towns

References

{{Subdivisions of Vietnam Subdivisions of Vietnam

District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Vietnam 1

District level

Upgrade and downgrade

List of district-level towns

See also

References