Shenzhen, a city in South China's Guangdong Province, tops the China City Competitiveness ranking, according to a report released by China think tanks on May 15 in Beijing.

The "Blue Book of Urban Competitiveness: China Urban Competitiveness Report NO.13" , was jointly launched by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Strategy Institute of Finance and Economics, China's Urban Forum, Social Science Documentation Publishing House and City and Competitiveness Research Center of Chinese Academy of Social Science.

The report published the top ten cities in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in 2014: Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Suzhou, Beijing, Macau, and Wuxi.

These cities are concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions. No city in the middle west region has entered the top ten of the ranking list. Wuhan, the highest ranking Midwest city, ranks only No. 12.

Shenzhen has replaced Hong Kong to become the highest ranking city. Ni Pengfei, director of the City and Competitiveness Research Center of Chinese Academy of Social Science, said Shenzhen has the highest per capita GDP and produces the lowest GDP energy consumption in China. This ranking illustrates that innovation-driven economic development has realized a great breakthrough in Shenzhen.

Eastern cities become leaders in transformation

The top ten cities on the sustainable competitiveness Index include Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen.

Even though Hong Kong was overtaken by Shenzhen in comprehensive economic competitiveness, it still holds evident sustainable competitive advantages compared with mainland cities. Hong Kong ranks high in six aspects such as knowledge city, harmonious city, ecological city, cultural city, global city and information city. Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Xiamen did not enter the top ten cities of overall economic competitiveness, but their sustainable competitiveness offers great advantages. These three cities will be engines of China’s transformation and development.

High-speed rail services reform urban patterns, east and central China tend to integrative

Li Yang, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, indicated that the promotion and extension of high-speed rails have changed the physical distance of the city, thus the patterns of economic resources and urban competition have changed. Since China entered the era of high-speed rail in 2010, and the Internet began to achieve deep and comprehensive social transformation, great changes have taken place in China's urban spatial structure.

The article is edited and translated from《中国城市竞争力排名:深圳夺冠》, source: People's Daily