The report highlights the branding strengths of nine major Chinese cities, all making it into the top 100 global city brands. This includes Shanghai (54th), Beijing (58th), Shenzhen (73rd), Chongqing (74th), Macau (81st), Guangzhou (85th), Chengdu (89th), and Nanjing (93rd).

Key Findings from the Report:

1. Hong Kong’s Global Standing:
   • Hong Kong ranks exceptionally in “Familiarity” (9th globally) and as a “Global Important City” (10th).
   • Known as one of Asia’s largest financial centers, Hong Kong’s favorable tax system, straightforward listing procedures, and robust regulatory framework make it highly attractive to foreign investors.
   • With the easing of travel restrictions, Hong Kong is poised for a strong economic rebound this year.
2. Shanghai’s Financial Influence:
   • Ranking 14th in “Global City Influence,” Shanghai asserts its position as a globally impactful financial center.
   • The city leads China in “Future Growth Potential” (7th) and “Strong and Stable Economy” (18th).
3. Beijing’s Global and Cultural Impact:
   • Beijing scores high in “Global Importance” (13th) and “City Familiarity” (20th).
   • Renowned for its exquisite royal palaces and museums, Beijing is also China’s leader in rich history and heritage (31st globally), making it a popular tourist destination.
4. Shenzhen’s Business and Trade Value:
   • Shenzhen ranks as China’s most valuable city for business and trade (16th globally).
   • The city excels in “Ease of Employment” (4th), “Ease of Starting a Business and Innovation” (5th), “Access to Skilled Labor” (6th), and “Ease of Doing Business” (10th).
5. Chongqing’s Emerging Presence:
   • Known as China’s “Mountain City,” Chongqing, despite limited global familiarity (98th), outranks other Chinese cities in various domains among those who know it.
6. Macau’s Tourist Appeal:
   • Macau leads China in “Lifestyle” (32nd), “Entertainment” (35th), and “Openness and Warmth” (57th), maintaining its allure as a tourist destination.
7. Guangzhou’s Manufacturing Ambitions:
   • Poised to become one of China’s leading manufacturing hubs, Guangzhou consistently ranks in the top 20 for “Access to Skilled Labor” (15th), “Ease of Doing Business” (15th), “Personal Tax Benefits” (17th), and “Ease of Employment” (18th).
8. Chengdu’s Financial Sector Growth:
   • Envisioned as a national financial center in Western China, Chengdu is gaining a reputation in financial technology, rural finance, and consumer finance.
   • The city ranks second in China for “Future Growth Potential” (33rd) and “Investment Reputation” (52nd).
9. Nanjing’s Friendly Business Environment:
   • As one of the nation’s most business-friendly cities, Nanjing ranks second and third in China for “Corporate Tax Benefits” (10th) and “Ease of Employment” (13th) respectively.

The Brand Finance report showcases Chinese cities’ diverse strengths and growing global recognition, positioning them as key players on the world stage.

Hangzhou surpassed Beijing and Shanghai in terms of GDP per capita. Beijing was the most active city compared with Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. Beijing has invested the most in fixed assets while Shenzhen is the fastest-growing one.

Beijing leads with an index of 127.78 in the ranking of urban consumption vitality in the five select cities. Shanghai (97.07) and Guangzhou (82.58) followed in the second and third places, according to the report from People’s Daily Media Opinion Monitoring Office.

The ranking was measured by a series of indexes including basic GDP per capita, disposable income, retail sales of consumer goods, logistics infrastructure, spending on cultural, healthy, intellectual, and environmentally friendly products, and consumers’ attitudes products, good or bad, etc.

GDP per capita in those five cities are all above 100 thousand yuan (US$14,914), higher than the average level nationwide. Hangzhou surpassed Beijing and Shanghai in terms of that.

The urban consumption vitality will further be released along with the development of the tertiary industry. Empowered by the emerging technology and well-developed tertiary industry, the intelligent production and service system will be able to fulfill customers’ unique needs for individualized and premium products and services. Digitalization and online shopping also promote consumption.

By comparison, Beijing invested the most in fixed assets, such as municipal infrastructure and preparation for sports events, while Shenzhen was the fastest-growing one.

Chengdu’s robust performance can be largely attributed to its development of diverse and high value-added industries and encouragement of innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, it has many universities, colleges, and research institutions that provide an abundance of talent to the local labor market.

Chongqing also has diverse and high value-added industries, a deep talent pool, and lower business costs. In addition, it has a pivotal location at the intersection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the “Silk Road Economic Belt.” All these characteristics contributed to Chongqing’s phenomenal economic performance.

Two other cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are also ranked among the top 10 first- and second-tier cities: Nanjing (ranked 5th) and Shanghai (ranked 6th). Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone is ranked fourth. Guiyang was ranked first last year and stands at third place this year. Nanchang was ranked seventh last year and places ninth this year.

Nantong grabs the top spot this year among third-tier cities, having reached the top 10 in the last two years. Its strong performance can be attributed to its diverse industries, abundant talent pool, and well-connected transportation network. Being part of the Yangtze River Economic Belt also bolsters its competitive advantages.

Taizhou (ranked 6th), Yangzhou (ranked 8th), Yichang (ranked 9th), and Suzhou (ranked 10th) are other cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt entering the top 10 third-tier city index this year. Overall, these cities together with Nantong have shown a more robust and stable economic performance than other cities in the top 10 list. Ji’an was ranked ninth in 2015 and No. 20 in 2016, and bounces back to fourth place this year.

Bengbu (ranked 2nd), Foshan (ranked 3rd), Zunyi (ranked 5th), and Luohe (ranked 7th) are newcomers to the BPC top 10 list among the third-tier cities. The rise of Foshan and Zunyi may be related to the progress made by the regional clusters they belong to. Bengbu and Luohe may have benefited largely from the OBOR initiative. However, these two cities will need to develop more robust industrial bases in order to keep up their growth momentum.

REPORT: E-economy: China vs. the U.S.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 67.6708 trillion yuan (US$10.2872 trillion) with an increase of 6.9% YoY in 2015. The growth rate hit a record low since 1990 according to National Bureau of Statistics.

Related: China GDP grew faster than expected in Q1 2017, Top China Provinces/Municipalities by GDP in 2016

Shanghai ranked top city in China in 2015 with GDP of 2.5 trillion yuan (US$0.38 trillion), followed by Beijing (US$0.35 trillion) and Guangzhou (US$0.28 trillion). Hangzhou reached over 1 trillion yuan becoming the tenth largest GDP city in China.

Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province, ranked top 11th top GDP city in China in 2015 and it was expected to reach 1 trillion yuan (US$0.15 trillion) in 2016.

Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province,  ranked the 21st largest GDP city in China in 2015. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang provinces were the four strongest provinces in economy in China in 2015.

Also read: China Retail V.S. Online Shopping 2015

Alibaba Ali Institute and Chinese Academy of Information Technology jointly started “E-Commerce Development Index” research in 2010. This year, Ali Institute studies 294 cities and released “China’s Top 100 Best E-Commerce Cities 2013” report.

1. Shenzhen
2. Guangzhou
3. Hangzhou
4. Beijing
5. Shanghai
6. Jinhua
7. Zhuhai
8. Xiamen
9. Suzhou
10. Nanjing

Among the top 100 e-commerce cities, 11 are from Zhejiang and Jiangsu province respectively, followed by Guangdong (10 cities) and Fujian province (9 cities).

796 million products are published on Taobao by over 8 million sellers by end 2013.

E-commerce is huge in China and online shopping has even become part of some China internet users’ life. According to data from Taobao, there were 5,758 Taobao users who spent over one million shopping on Taobao in 2013, 1,053 of which are from Guangdong province.

A recently released Shenzhen Internet Development Research Report demonstrates that, Internet penetration in Shenzhen reached 76.8% and there are 7.97 million netizens there. This penetration rate is quite close with that of Japan, whose penetration is the highest in the world.

The internet penetrations of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are 70.3%, 66.2% and 72.9%, respectively. As for the international cities, Hong Kong’s Internet penetration is 68.7% and Singapore is 77.2% based on the statistics from Internetworldstats.com. Judged on the penetration rate, Shenzhen has surpassed Hong Kong and is getting closer to Singapore.

Total number of Shenzhen netizens has increased from 1.93 million in 2008 to 5.79 million in 2012. And the mobile Internet penetration is 72.6%, 3 percentage points higher than the national average. Among those everyday Internet-surfers, 24% will spend more than 4 hours every day.

Liu Bing, vice-president of China Internet Information Center, said that Shenzhen’s netizens infrastructure is better than most cities in China. Netizens between 20 to 40 year-old account for approximately 60%. Take a closer look on these young netizens, student groups are comparatively smaller while on-job groups are bigger. Netizens’ education level is higher than the national average.

It is worth mentioning that Shenzhen has the highest weibo penetration rate in China, which is  58.6% and 10 percentage points ahead of the national average. At the same time, Shenzhen weibo users are more active. The ratio of netizens who use weibo 3 times per day is 16 percentage points higher than the average. Weibo users that spent more than 2 hours per day account for 35.3%.

Except for performance on weibo, Shenzhen netizens are also more active on SNS, blogs, BBS and online videos compared with netizens in other first-tier cities. So do they in the field of online apps like group deal, online travel booking and online stocks:

1. 23.2% of them are using group deal
2. 42.8% are using online banks
3. 46.5% are using online payment.

Only in online literature and gaming categoires, Shenzhen’s penetration rate is lower than the average. It seems that Shenzhen netizens are more concerned on business affairs than on entertainment.