"The national capital, international metropolis, famed cultural city and livable city" is just aligned for Beijing. It is the first time that the concept of "livable city" has been put forward with the play-down of "economic center". Not just for Beijing, nowadays many other cities are striving for the goal to become a "livable city".

What are the standards for a livable city? When a city can be ranked as a "livable city"?

According to a survey on "livable city" conducted by "Business Weekly" and Zero Company the most important indexes include "traffic convenience", "urban cleanness and neatness free from pollution" and "air quality" in public eyes.

The multi-stage survey with sampling was conduced at the end of last year by way of entering residents' houses. It involves 3,212 urban interviewees aged at 18 to 60 living in 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenyang, Xi'an, Jinan, Dalian and Xiamen.

When evaluating weather a city is a livable one, 47.9 per cent, 46.1 per cent and 43.9 per cent of the interviewees respectively list "traffic convenience", "urban cleanness and neatness free from pollution" and "air quality" as the necessary conditions. These are more evident than other factors including "economic development level", "social security situation" and "social security level. It is discovered by further analysis: the more higher of residents' cultural level, the more attention is attached to environment factor.

In the list of "China's livable cities" Shanghai tops the list, Dalian and Beijing are ranked the second and third. Following them are Guangzhou, Chengdu, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Guilin, Zhuhai and Xiamen in order.

Graduate student Li Jin, tourism lover, has taken may photos in various parts of China and many of his photos have been bought and published by "National Geographic" magazine. When mentioning Shanghai, he said at once in an interview with the China Youth Daily reporter, "I have two Shanghais in my mind. The first Shanghai begins from the New Field and ends at the No 3 Outer Beach. The second Shanghai includes Amao on Julu road; fried dumplings near Shanghai railway station as well as convenient shops everywhere. When I first bought glutinous rice dumplings from a convenient store at midnight, I recognized that Shanghai is a livable city".

The survey shows that "developed economy, rapid economic development and strong economy are attributed to the main reasons for Shanghai listing as a "livable city". And so "more opportunities with high economic level" is the key factor for Guangzhou to be in the list of "livable cities". The choice of Beijing is because "Beijing is the capital of China with advantages in all fields to a great extent".

Different from these big cities with economic advantages, some small cities are chosen as "livable cities" to a great extent because of their specific environment -- Chengdu's leisure, Dalian's atmosphere, Zhuhai's romance, Qingdao's elegance, Xiamen's gracefulness, Hangzhou's touching and Guilin's beautifulness, which is the main reasons for their choices.

"The long coastal line, splendid sunshine, azure sky, coquettish oriental cherry, luxuriant French plane tree, Tsingdao beer, the small houses in the fairytales, the elegant Eight Passes and night rambling are attributed to the romance of Qingdao. Those twisted and up-and-down streets and lanes will make you have to slow down your footsteps. It is very comfortable and beautiful to stroll in the old street lanes, even if to saunter with temper wantonly", writes Li in his travelogue to describe the city.

According to the analysis by the researchers in the survey, in general a city's prosperity is based on the coordinated and balanced development of environment, economy, politics and culture. Only such cities can become cities with the most livable value. As far as it is at present, there are areas needing further improving for each city. It is a tendency for city development that the big cities should make great efforts to improve their ecological environment while small cities should draw close to big cities on economic levels or even on the city size.

By People's Daily Online