The Quality Of Life In China's Cities

China Daily (h/t to ChingDangVu Blog) just did a story on a comparison study of the quality of life in China's cities  So like so many of these studies that come out of China, both the methodology and the accuracy is murky, but it does make for fun reading so here goes:

1.   Shenzhen

2.   Qingdao

3.   Hangzhou

4.   Ningbo

5.   Shanghai

6.   Wuxi

7.   Yantai

8.   Suzhou

9.   Dongguan

10.  Dalian

The survey consisted of 287 cities and combined an objective ranking with a subjective online poll.  "The ranking was judged using a series of criteria, such as residential incomes, consumption levels and the traffic situation. Education, social security, medical facilities, public security, the environment, culture and leisure, and the unemployment rate were also included."   

Beijing fell from fourth last year to 14th this year and was deemed to have the worst traffic.  However, at 80.09 years, it topped the country in life expectancy.  Lu'an, in Anhui Province, is the worst place to live in China, according to the survey.

It is hard to know how accurate this sort of study is, but since I am often blogging about how much I like Qingdao (where my firm has an apartment) and Yantai, it was good to see those two cities do so well in this study.  None of the cities in the top ten list were a major surprise to me, but I was surprised Shenzhen came in first.