Residents in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, feel the happiest compared with people living in other cities, but Shanghai and Beijing remain their top places to move in, according to a survey report on China's ten largest cities.

The survey was conducted by China Europe International Business School.

The ten cities surveyed include China's biggest five -- Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Tianjin. The other five were selected randomly from 15 largest cities apart from the top five.

Beijing becomes their second choice as the capital city is at the bottom in terms of environment and traffic.

Beijing: third in monthly income, seventh in happiness

In the rankings of cities' overall happiness, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing are the top three in terms of residents' monthly average income, 2,847 yuan, 2,556 yuan and 2,484 yuan respectively.

Their rankings in overall happiness are Shanghai the third, Guangzhou, the tenth and Beijing the seventh respectively.

The survey indicates many non-economic factors, for instance, life tempo, marital status, socializing and living environment, are weighing more and more in affecting people's happiness as China's is undergoing rapid economic development.

GDP growth, therefore, should not be the only indicator of social harmony. More attention should be paid on whether people feel happy about their lives or not.

Hangzhou people feel the happiest

The list shows that people in Hangzhou residents, with an average monthly income of 2,300 yuan, feel the best about life, followed by those in Chengdu, 1, 515 yuan, and Shanghai.

However Hangzhou people most long for moving to Shanghai and next Beijing.

The report shows that people in Hangzhou, Chengdu and Shanghai would most like to remain in their own cities and Shanghai residents most wish their children could also stay.

Shanghai, Beijng most attractive in housing

Hangzhou leads the cities in many aspects such as overall happiness, environment and traffic.

Shanghai is among frontrunners in other aspects. In particular, it ranks first in terms of opportunity for making money, convenience and recreation.

Ranking the third in money-making opportunity, Beijing lags behind others in environment and traffic.

The survey also concerns the people's kindness, opportunity for making money, convenience, natural environment, recreation, life pace and traffic in the cities.

People in Hangzhou, Chengdu and Shanghai would love to stick to their own cities while those in Shenyang, Tianjin and Xi'an are the most unwilling to stay.

The report points out that the most relevant factors evaluating people's feeling of happiness are whether they have their own housing or not followed by if they have a stable job.

The survey also finds that the more people care about wealth and their \face, the more they would feel unhappy.

By People's Daily Online