The latest city rankings are out! Chongqing surpasses Guangzhou, Hangzhou overtakes Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Hong Kong surprises

For many years, 'Bei-Shang-Guang' was a habitual phrase used to describe China's first-tier cities. Later, Shenzhen quietly surged and unexpectedly overtook Guangzhou, so people changed 'Bei-Shang-Guang' to 'Bei-Shang-Guang-Shen', still accustomed to placing Guangzhou ahead of Shenzhen. But last year, Guangzhou and Chongqing both crossed the 2.5 trillion GDP mark. When Chongqing first released its data, many, based on the first three quarters' figures, thought it might really have surpassed Guangzhou. However, later when Guangzhou published its figures, those predictions were proven wrong—Guangzhou's fourth quarter turned out much better than expected.

Time flies, and a year has passed without us noticing. It's once again time to compare the development data of major cities across the country. Just as everyone was eagerly waiting to see which city had performed best over the past year, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shengbang released the latest 'China City Brand Influence Report (2021)'. The report caused quite a stir upon its release because the rankings showed significant changes compared to previous years.

Beijing and Shanghai ranked first and second, which is uncontroversial—one is the capital, the other the largest city; whichever comes first, other cities can accept it. But Hangzhou surpassing Shenzhen and Guangzhou surprised many. The familiar 'Bei-Shang-Guang' has become 'Bei-Shang-Hang', and many people likely find it hard to get used to.

Hangzhou wasn't the only surprise. Chongqing also ranked ahead of Guangzhou, placing fifth after Shenzhen, while Guangzhou slipped to sixth. Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Tianjin took positions 7-10, which roughly aligns with their GDP rankings, so there wasn't much debate. However, Hong Kong, ranked 11th after Tianjin, is probably another unexpected result for many.

Yu Fan noticed that among the top 20 cities, Hangzhou and Wuhan made the biggest progress: Hangzhou moved up from 5th to 3rd; Wuhan from 11th to 8th. Next, Shenyang advanced from 23rd to 20th, and Chongqing also rose one spot, from 6th to 5th.

In this ranking, the biggest decliner was Hong Kong, falling from 3rd to 11th. Xiamen dropped from 13th to 17th. Additionally, Guangzhou and Xi'an each fell two places; Nanjing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Qingdao, and Zhengzhou each dropped one place; while Chengdu and Ningbo remained stable, ranking 7th and 14th respectively.

After such a list is released, it inevitably sparks comparisons between cities and even some online arguments among netizens. But at the very least, it reflects the dynamic catch-up competition among domestic cities, which contrasts sharply with many countries ravaged by the pandemic. There's no doubt we should count ourselves fortunate. What do you think?