Xiamen is also one of the top 10 favorite cities for expats. [Photo/icpress]

All of the top 10 cities are situated in eastern China, where the country is economically more developed, which reflects China’s regional disparity in attracting foreign talents.

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Special:The most attractive Chinese cities for foreigners

In the previous two surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012, the situation was the same.

William Brown, who started teaching in Xiamen University in the late 1980s and received China’s “green card” in 1992, said, “Some (Chinese) cities are simply too remote for many foreigners, though the western development programs are rapidly giving inland provinces easy access to the rest of China and the rest of the world.”

Another eight cities — Fuzhou, Jinan, Changchun, Changsha, Chongqing, Chengdu, Dalian and Harbin — were recognized as cities with high potential to be the most attractive Chinese cities in the future, based on the survey results.

Some 550,000 foreign experts were working on the Chinese mainland in 2012, according to statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Respondents who answered the in-person questionnaire, said obstacles in terms of children’s education, medical care and visa policies make it difficult for them to work in China for the long term.

Some respondents also said they would like to see more expat-friendly policies in place to help them better integrate into Chinese society, such as pension programs and housing benefits for foreign talents.

“There is no retirement plan or obligatory medical care for foreigners paid by their employers. There are no housing benefits, such as low-interest housing loans, available to foreigners,” said Khaytovich from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences.

He suggested China should allow foreigners working in China for more than three years to enjoy the same social and economic benefits as local residents.

“The easiest way would be to make the hukou system open to long-term foreign residents based on their education and work value,” he said.