South Korea is made up of 17 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 metropolitan cities (gwangyeoksi ), 1 special city (teukbyeolsi ), 1 special self-governing city (teukbyeol-jachisi ), and 9 provinces (do ), including one special self-governing province (teukbyeol jachido ). These are further subdivided into a variety of smaller entities, including cities (si ), counties (gun ), districts (gu ), towns (eup ), townships (myeon ), neighborhoods (dong ) and villages (ri ). Local government Official Revised Romanization of Korean spellings are used Provincial-level divisions The top tier of administrative divisions are the provincial-level divisions, of which there are several types: provinces (including special self-governing provinces), metropolitan cities, special cities, and special self-governing cities. The governors of the provincial-level divisions are elected every four years. Municipal-level divisions Si (city) A si (, pronounced ) is one of the divisions of a province, along with gun. A city must have a neighborhood(dong) and can have towns(eup), townships(myeon) if the city is combined with urban and rural areas. Once an eup of a county (gun) attains a population of 50,000, the county can become a city. A city with a population of over 500,000 (such as Suwon, Cheongju, Cheonan and Jeonju) is considered as a specific city, which can set non-autonomous districts(gu). An administrative city doesn't have a city council and the mayor of the city is appointed by the provincial governor. Gun (county) A gun () is one of the divisions of a province (along with si), and of the metropolitan cities of Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Ulsan (along with gu). A gun has a population of less than 150,000 (more than that would make it a city or si), is less densely populated than a gu, and is more rural in character than either of the other 2 divisions. Gun are comparable to British non-metropolitan districts. Counties are divided into towns (eup) and townships (myeon). Specially, the size of a "gun" is less than a US "county". Gu (district) A gu () is equivalent to district in the West. The metropolitan cities of Busan, Daegu, Incheon and Ulsan contain gun as well. Gu are similar to boroughs in some Western countries, and a gu office handles many of the functions that would be handled by the city in other jurisdictions. Gu are divided into neighborhoods (dong). Submunicipal level divisions Eup (town) An eup () is similar to the unit of town.