Cities and towns of China

Laibin

Laibin (来宾市; Zhuang Laizbinh) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangxi, China, established in 2002, with about 2.07 million people, mostly Zhuang and Yao, and a sugar industry producing a tenth of China's sugar.

Laixi

Laixi (莱西市) is a county-level city of Qingdao in Shandong, China, between Qingdao, Yantai, and Weihai. Known for Laixi Lake, the Jiaodong Peninsula's largest reservoir, strong agriculture, and its "Laixi Weekend" tourism brand.

Laiyang

Laiyang (莱阳市) is a county-level city of Yantai, Shandong, in the Jiaodong Peninsula; 1,732 km², 795,000 people, GDP 547.8亿元 (2025). Known for the Laiyang pear, Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, and mantis boxing.

Langfang

Langfang (廊坊) is a prefecture-level city in central-eastern Hebei Province, China, lying between Beijing and Tianjin and approved as a city by the State Council in April 1989.

Lanzhou (兰州)

Lanzhou (兰州), capital of Gansu, China: a 4.4-million-person Yellow River valley city, petrochemical and research hub, once severely polluted, now with 82–86% good-air days and a national rail-freight and New Area role.

Laohekou

Laohekou (老河口市), county-level city in northwest Hubei on the middle Han River under Xiangyang; named for the old river mouth, merged with Guanghua County in 1983, 2024 GDP 50.7 billion yuan.

Lengshuijiang

Lengshuijiang (冷水江市) is a county-level city in Loudi, Hunan, China, home to the Xikuangshan antimony deposit, the world's largest; a 1969-founded mining city designated resource-exhausted in 2009.

Leshan, Sichuan

Leshan (乐山, formerly Jiazhou) is a prefecture-level city in Sichuan at the Minjiang, Qingyi, and Dadu river confluence, home to the 71 m Leshan Giant Buddha, Mount Emei, and Dongfeng Weir world heritage sites; 3.15 million residents, 2025 GDP 250.2 billion yuan.

Lhasa (ལྷ་ས་)

Lhasa (ལྷ་ས་, 拉萨), Tibetan for "holy land," is the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region at 3,650 m elevation, home of the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, and Norbulingka World Heritage ensemble, with 883,000 residents in 2025.

Lhoka

Lhoka (Shannan, 山南, Tibetan Lhokha) is a prefecture-level city in southern Tibet, seat Tsetang, covering 79,090 km² along the Yarlung Tsangpo; cradle of Tibetan civilization with Yumbulagang and Samye Monastery.

Lianjiang

Lianjiang (廉江市, also Lianjiang City) is a county-level city under Zhanjiang, Guangdong, on the northern Leizhou Peninsula bordering Guangxi and Beibu Gulf; 2,835 km², about 1.87 million registered residents, red-orange farming and small-appliance industry.

Lianyungang (连云港)

Lianyungang (连云港), a prefecture-level port city in northeastern Jiangsu, China; also historically Haizhou. Eastern terminus of the Longhai Railway and New Eurasian Land Bridge; 5.27 million people, 367 million tons port throughput, Huaguo Mountain tourism.

Liaocheng

Liaocheng, or Liaocheng Shi, is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong, China, at the junction of Shandong, Hebei, and Henan, prospering on the Grand Canal in Ming and Qing times.

Liaoyang (辽阳)

Liaoyang (辽阳), formerly known as Xiangping, is a prefecture-level city in China's Liaoning province and is described as the oldest city in Northeast China, with over 2,300 years of history.

Lijiang

Lijiang is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Yunnan, China, on the Lijiang plain at 2,400 meters elevation, known for its World Heritage Old Town inscribed in 1997.

Linfen

Linfen (临汾) is a prefecture-level city in southwest Shanxi, China, on the Fen River; ancient Pingyang, seat of Emperor Yao's legendary capital. Coal, coke, and steel hub once ranked among the world's most polluted cities, now undergoing environmental cleanup.

Lingyuan

Lingyuan (凌源市) is a county-level city of Chaoyang, Liaoning, at the Liaoning–Hebei–Inner Mongolia junction; 3,278 km², 602,000 people, steel and glass industry, flower farming, Niuheliang Hongshan culture site.

Linqu

Linqu County (临朐县, Línqú Xiàn), also called Pianyi, is a county of Weifang, Shandong, China, at the north foot of Mount Yi on the upper Mi River. Han-established, 1,831 km², 4 subdistricts and 6 towns, 2025 GDP 50.2 billion yuan, National Ecological Civilization Demonstration Zone.

Linyi

Linyi (临沂), also historically Langya and Yizhou, is Shandong's largest prefecture-level city by area and population, a 3,000-year-old city on the Yi River, a famous revolutionary base, and China's leading wholesale market and logistics hub.

Lishui (丽水)

Lishui (丽水) is a prefecture-level city in southwest Zhejiang, China, the province's largest by area at about 17,300 km², a mountainous source of six rivers, a national ecological civilization pilot area, with 2.5 million residents and GDP of 230.14 billion yuan in 2025.

List of cities in China

Cities in China (建制市, jianzhi shi) are legally designated administrative units at province, prefecture, and county levels, not built-up urban areas; 681 existed in 2020, up from 164 in 1955, shaped by county-to-city conversion and the city-leading-counties system.

Liupanshui

Liupanshui (六盘水), a prefecture-level city in western Guizhou, China, formed in 1964 from Liuzhi, Panxian, and Shuicheng counties as a Third-Front coal base; a karst, cool-summer "China Cool Capital" of about 3.03 million residents.

Liuzhou

Liuzhou (柳州, Longcheng) is a prefecture-level industrial city in central Guangxi, China, on the Liu River; founded as Tanzhong County in 111 BC, named Liuzhou in 634, and one of Guangxi's two mature green-economy cores with Nanning.

Longling County

Longling County (龙陵县), Baoshan, western Yunnan, China: mountainous border county between the Nu and Longchuan rivers, 2,794 km², seat Longshan; site of the 1944 Songshan and Longling battles; dendrobium and huanglongyu producer.

Loudi

Loudi (娄底市) is a prefecture-level city in central Hunan, China; 8,117 km², 3.68 million people (2025), GDP 223.73 billion CNY. Known as the world antimony capital and a steel city, with world-first antimony reserves and province-first coal reserves.

Lüliang

Lüliang (吕梁市) is a prefecture-level city in central-western Shanxi, China, seat Lishi District, named for the Lüliang Mountains. It covers 21,000 km², administers 1 district, 2 cities, 10 counties, and is a major coal and qingxiang baijiu producer.

Luoyang (洛阳)

Luoyang (洛阳) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan, China, on the Luo River; a capital for thirteen dynasties, home to the Longmen Grottoes UNESCO site, and in 2025 a 7.08-million-person city with a 616.45-billion-yuan economy.

Lushui

Lushui (泸水市) is a county-level city in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China, and the prefecture seat on the Nu River bordering Myanmar. Formerly Lushui County (est. 1913, city in 2016), population 197,000, 2024 GDP 110.94 billion yuan; distinct from Lishui, Zhejiang and Luzhou, Sichuan.

Luzhou

Luzhou (泸州), Sichuan prefecture-level city at the Yangtze-Tuo River junction, historically Jiangyang; home of Luzhou Laojiao baijiu, 2025 GDP 300.4 billion yuan, major upper-Yangtze container port.