In a move nobody saw coming, Guangzhou has been ranked as the best city to live in all of Mainland China.
In a survey called the China City Life Quality Index Report (a quintessentially Chinese bureaucratic name), Guangzhou ranked first as the most livable city in China with a score of 64.07, followed by Shanghai at 60.5. Where’s Beijing? Oh, it’s down in eighth place with a score of 56.23. Beijing’s poor showing is being blamed on poor city management and traffic chaos (which anybody who’s visited the dusty capital can certainly attest to).
The China Daily tells us how these figures were reached:
The “Life Quality Index” for Chinese cities was calculated using objective indicators such as per capita income and inflation rates, as well as subjective indicators provided by urban residents, such as their opinions on their incomes, living costs, medical care and living environment.
Subjective indicators were weighted at 40 percent in compiling the index, organizers said.
Shanghai city blog Shanghaiist couldn’t resist taking a few shots at its northern rival in a post titled “Suck it, Beijing: Shanghai life quality way better than northern capital’s“:
We did it! We’re #1! Err actually were #2, but at least we beat those big, smelly, good for nothing, uncivilized louts from Beijing!
Got to love the competition between Shanghai and Beijing. What neither city gets is that they are fighting it out for second place.