Guiyang makes biggest gains of China's top 100 cities

A list of the top 100 cities in China has been released in Beijing by the Warton Economic Institute, and Guiyang ranks 37th, 12 places higher than its position last year, giving it the most progress of any city on the list.

The ranking chose the top 110 candidate cities based on their GDP performances. They were then comprehensively assessed against a set of hard and soft economic indicators, with the former consisting of indexes in GDP, reserve funds and government finances, and the latter of indexes concerning the environment, science, education, culture and healthcare. The ranking has continued for seven consecutive years since 2015.

In addition to Guiyang, Chengdu, Yibin and Mianyang in Sichuan province and Kunming in Yunnan province also advanced up the rankings.

The figures speak for themselves. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Guiyang's annual economic growth hit 9 percent. The city registered a regional GDP of 431.17 billion yuan ($64.68 billion), an increase of 5 percent year-on-year, and its GDP per capita exceeded $12,000 in 2020.

As a forerunner and pilot zone for the nation's big data industry, Guiyang boasts 117 big data enterprise above designated size, and the value added by its digital economy topped 160 billion yuan, accounting for more than 38 percent of its regional GDP. The Big Data Expo held in Guiyang has become a State-level international open platform for the industry.

Efforts have also been taken by the Guiyang government to build the city into a more eco-friendly and hospitable place for its residents, with its "excellent" air quality rate reaching 98.9 percent and the number of city parks reaching 1,025.