The library has recently purchased updated data from the China Data Center: the 2015 edition of the China City Statistical Indicators with Maps. Data is provided in point and polygon shapefiles and in a tabular Excel format for Prefecture-level and County-level cities. Cities in China differ from the North American model, in that they represent areas that contain both urban and rural components and they cover the country in it's entirety. The point shapefiles represents the center of the urbanized area, while polygon files represent the entire administrative or legal area. Provinces are the 1st-level administrative sub-divisions of China, Prefectures are the 2nd-level, and Counties are the 3rd.
The data includes several demographic and socio-economic indicators, many for the prefectures and fewer for the counties. You can view an index of the available variables and files on the China Data Center Datasets page. The data is copyrighted for educational, non-commercial use and our license permits us to share the data only with current Baruch students, faculty, and staff. Current members of the Baruch College community can email us (using your CUNY email address) to request access to specific files.