Tengzhou belongs to several cities.

Tengzhou is a county-level city and does not participate in the ranking.

According to today's headline website, the so-called first-tier cities refer to the ranking above prefecture-level cities, while Tengzhou is a county-level city and does not participate in the ranking. But there is a strange place that can explain some problems. Zaozhuang is a fourth-tier city, ranking third from the bottom in Shandong, only higher than Liaocheng and Binzhou. However, Tengzhou ranks third among the top 100 counties in Shandong. It shows that Tengzhou, as a county-level city (including counties and prefecture-level cities), accounts for the proportion of the whole prefecture-level city and ranks among the best in the province. To be more clear: if all prefecture-level cities are compared with one of the strongest county-level cities, Zaozhuang is definitely a fifth-tier city, ranking very low. Tengzhou's development is limited by its low level. If Tengzhou has the preferential conditions of prefecture-level cities, it will definitely develop better than Zaozhuang.