Happiest places to live across the country

Ten cities at or above the prefecture-level have been listed as the happiest cities in China of 2019, according to a forum in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

The 10 happiest cities are Chengdu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Changsha, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Tongchuan, and Xuzhou.

Another 10 county-level cities or districts were selected as the happiest county-level cities.

The cities were selected by Oriental Outlook magazine and the Liaowang Institute thinktank, both run by Xinhua News Agency, in a three-month process that included big data collection, questionnaires and panel discussions.

Education, employment, income, social welfare, health care, living conditions and environment all concern people’s sense of happiness and they are the key criteria in making the list, said Yan Wenbin, vice president of Xinhua. The annual activity to select the happiest cities in China was first held in 2007.