Beijing may be the nation's capital, but according to a recent survey, it does not even rank in China's top 10 cities in terms of suitability for living.

The city came 15th in the list, as compared to third in 2004, due to its bad traffic, high housing prices and heavy pollution.

Coastal city Dalian in northeast China was selected as China's most suitable city for living, followed by Xiamen, also a coastal city, in east China's Fujian Province.

Following were Mianyang in southwest China's Sichuan Province and the provincial capital Chengdu; Wuhan, provincial capital of Hubei; Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang; Shanghai; Nanjing, provincial capital of Jiangsu Province; Qingdao in Shandong Province; and Chongqing Municipality.

Beijing was not the only well-known city to miss the top 10: Tianjin, Shenzhen, Xi'an and Guangzhou also lost out.

The list was compiled last month by Beijing-based polling agency Horizon Group after interviewing 3,434 urban residents aged between 18-65, and 1,604 investors.

The urban habitable index, which takes traffic, environment, social welfare and security into account, averaged 65.7 out of 100 points. "The findings indicated that there is much room for improvement in Chinese cities," the polling agency said.

The agency listed major problems faced by Chinese cities such as shortage of housing supplies, tough job markets, lack of or poor waste water and garbage treatment, and pollution.

Social groups differ over the degree of satisfaction with cities.

"Investors and high-income groups showed a high degree of satisfaction, but low-income groups were generally dissatisfied because of soaring housing prices and grim employment situation," said the polling agency.

The Chinese mainland has about 660 cities and 41 percent of its populations are urbanites. By 2020, the rate is expected to surpass 60 percent.

(China Daily January 3, 2006)