SHENZHEN advanced one place in rankings by International Talent magazine to reach the No. 3 spot on the magazine's list of China's 10 most-attractive cities for foreigners in 2012, local officials announced yesterday.
The selection was made between September and December with participation from about 175,400 voting foreigners. The final cities were selected by a 34-member panel of expats that included Friendship Award winners and professionals included in the national experts program, the city's foreign experts affairs administration said yesterday.
International Talent magazine is managed by China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.
Shanghai and Beijing remained No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the 2012 ranking. Other cities on the top 10 list include Suzhou, Kunming, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xiamen and Qingdao.
About 1 million foreigners came to China for employment in 2012, an increase of 8 percent from 2011.
Among the 1,050 expats who signed their names to votes, 30.4 percent said they wanted to settle with their families in China.
Visa procedures, education, medical care and environmental issues were the top concerns of surveyed foreigners who want to live in China, the magazine said.
Though many foreigners viewed Beijing as the country's most comfortable city, especially after improvements made for the Beijing Olympics, the capital's sustained air pollution is forcing many foreigners to move out or causing them to hesitate before moving in, the survey showed.
Beijing and Shanghai both got low marks in categories related to nature and the environment. The survey showed most foreign professionals work and live in China's economically developed areas, especially the Bohai economic zone, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.
About 4,500 foreigners had received green cards, or permanent residence permits, and half of those were living in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou. Beijing had issued 911 green cards, accounting for one-fifth of the total in China, through 2012.
(Source:Shenzhen Daily)