The Happiest Chinese Cities and the Most Attractive Chinese Cities for Foreigners survey results for 2014 illustrate how different local and foreign experiences of Chinese cities are.
Only two cities, Qingdao and Hangzhou, appear on both lists, and while the foreign survey holds little surprise especially in the front rows of the ranking, the Chinese results are astounding when pitted against the expats with not one single first tier city to be found amongst them. See below the comparative rankings:
Foreigners and Locals – Difference of Opinion
Off the bat, it becomes rather obvious that there is a considerable gap in what constitutes an attractive living environment necessary for a happy life in China. It seems only Hangzhou and Qingdao offer both locals and expats the things they need for a happy life, while with most other cities satisfying the desires of one group is not reconcilable with the other.
Looking at the lifestyles of both groups, it is quickly established that differing priorities result in diverging perceptions of cities. As the lists indicate, none of China’s first-tier cities have made it onto the local happiness list, while all four of them appear in the top ten ranking of attractiveness for foreigners.
What it boils down to in the end is the cost; as a Chinese person one will typically be looking at purchasing real estate and a vehicle throughout one’s lifetime and all this on a local salary. Such is also the argument of Chinese media outlet Phoenix Qingdao, citing housing prices the reason of the lack of first tiers among China’s happiest cities. Indeed their comparison shows that in most of the Top Ten happy cities real estate costs per sq m are equal to 1.6 – 3.3 times the average monthly salary in these cities.
Nanjing, coming in second in the ranking, stands out because it places rather high despite the fact that it has the most expensive housing in the entire list; with an average monthly salary of ¥4,447 in 2014, locals need to calculate 3.3 times that amount per sq m of real estate they desire to purchase.
The entire list features only one location, Xinyang in Henan province, where the average rate of property is lower than the average monthly salary.
By comparison, the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau announced in June 2014 that the average monthly wage for 2013 in the country’s capital reached ¥5,793, while in June 2013, one sq m of property reportedly sold for around ¥23,800, equaling a 4.1 ratio of salary to real estate.
In light of the fact that Chinese societal expectations include home ownership as a prerequisite for marriage and as a safety net against sickness and old age in lieu of an effective and reliable welfare system, it is no surprise that first tier cities’ residents are laden with worries and unable to enjoy their lives.
Expats on the other hand have a much more carefree life due to a better financial starting point plus no pressure, and quite frankly for most, no intention of becoming property owners in China. In January 2014, China Business Central reported that foreign teachers, as the article states “the lowest paid foreigner in China” earned an average of ¥11,000 per month, more than twice the amount of locals, while not facing the financial pressure of the countries’ natives. Foreigners doing other types of jobs will see an even higher pay and relatively low expenses, leaving them to enjoy all the great things a city has to offer in terms of food and entertainment. Hence, it is no surprise that foreigners prefer the glitz and glamour of more developed first- and second-tier cities, which by association offer more opportunities for entertainment and are infinitely more international in terms of dining and shopping, while to their Chinese counterparts the urban centres of this country are killers of happiness. In this sense, Chinese and local expat’s requirements for a happy life are entirely juxtaposed, the former craving an affordable, secure life, the latter often thirsting for the excitement of the big cities.
Another topic eliciting opposite opinions is pollution. That this is a major issue for locals becomes apparent in the waves created by the recent documentary “Under The Dome”, which dominated public discussion for the last few weeks. To expats, however, it seems the pollution issue is not quite as worrying overall. In a dipstick sample conducted by Nanjing Expat in November 2013, 43 percent of respondents stated that pollution in Nanjing had little impact on their lives. The reason might be that foreigners enjoy more freedom to leave the country and hence can escape the poisonous air whenever they feel uncomfortable; the ones amongst us that stay, though, seem more able to accept the environment than locals who do not have the choice of breathing fresh air.
Nanjing Loses Out
Having been featured on the list of most attractive cities for foreigners in 2013, on seventh place, this year brings a rather disappointing result as Jiangsu’s capital has not made it into the Top Ten.
While last year’s success was brought about based on its extremely attractive health care package and advantageous policy environment, though scoring low in the living environment category, this year, it seems the city has failed to impress its expats in any of the ten categories examined by the survey. These include six categories in which Shanghai took the lead; “best food”, “suitable for creating businesses”, “most fashionable”, “most humorous”, “most tolerant” and “most innovative”, as well as “best tourist city”, won by history-laden Beijing, and finally “most livable”, “biggest potential” and “best city to age in”, all three of which were claimed by Suzhou.
The disappointing results with relation to Nanjing might come as quite a surprise considering the general improvement in infrastructure, general standard of living and internationalization expats may have witnessed over the last year in relation to the Youth Olympics. Furthermore, while Nanjing’s environment without a doubt leaves much to be desired, overall pollution levels are lower than in the winners of this competition, Beijing and Shanghai. Offering up further doubts as to the reliability of the results of the survey, initial Big Nanjing Expat 2015 survey results suggest that over 80 percent of Nanjing expats are happy with their Jinling lives. This figure closely correlates with the aforementioned dipstick, when 83 percent of respondents described themselves as either “happy” or “very happy”.
Our failure to measure up to the winner’s standards might be explained by the approach of the research team. The survey results are calculated from three different types of submission; an online survey in which 20,000 foreign participants were asked to pick their favourite from 30 finalist cities and 15 finalist county cities in addition to the results from 33 members of a foreign expert panel and 1503 foreign experts, who filled-in questionnaires. In previous years, the approach had been to list over 350 Chinese cities in a first knock-out round and reduce them to 20 cities in the final round from which participants had to chose their favourites. Based on the fact that not every expat has been to, let alone lived in, all 45 cities open for discussion, this research method does seem rather conspicuous.
Aside from that there is always the political debate, which seems to have had an effect on the selection. For the purpose of this survey, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were excluded, while the research into China’s happiest cities ranks Hong Kong as number 18.
Yet, it is the 5th year that the “Amazing China — The Most Attractive Chinese Cities for Foreigners” survey has been conducted and participant numbers seem to be steadily growing; it seems there is considerable interest among both Chinese and expats to understand which of the country’s cities are hot and which not for foreigners. At least Shanghai is celebrating, having been crowned no. 1 for the third year in a row; one cannot help but wonder whether that research company is located in Pudong.
