Shanghai excelled over 29 candidate cities with the highest recognition in terms of working and living environment, expat-friendly policy and administrative capacity.[Photo/icpress]

Shanghai topped the list as foreigners’ favorite city in the Chinese mainland in 2013, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Bund of Shanghai: Where old and new meets east and west

Special:The most attractive Chinese cities for foreigners

Shanghai excelled over 29 candidate cities with the highest recognition in terms of working and living environment, expat-friendly policy and administrative capacity.

The survey was jointly published on Wednesday by the Beijing magazine International Talent Monthly and the China Association for International Exchange of Personnel.

Some 72,000 expats and English speakers participated in the annual survey via an in-person questionnaire or by voting on China Daily’s website.

The survey, called “Amazing China — The Most Attractive Chinese Cities for Foreigners”, was launched in 2010 to find out which Chinese cities are the most attractive to foreigners.

This year, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Qingdao ranked as the top 10 cities.

Survey participant Philipp Khaytovich, a scientist from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, dubbed Shanghai as “the most international and foreigner-friendly city in China at the moment”.

Although Shanghai and Beijing scored the highest overall, these two big cities scored the lowest for the quality of their environment.

Beijing was engulfed by severe smog for weeks in early 2013, with leading pollutants including vehicle emissions, coal burning in neighboring regions, and construction dust. The serious air pollution raised public awareness and prompted the government to adopt emergency measures.

Jon Michael Davis, President and CEO of the National Institute of Clean-And-Low-Carbon Energy, said he chose Beijing as his favorite city in China for its robust business and culture. He urged the Chinese government to take measures to tackle pollution.