The city of Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, has been rated one of the world's second-tier cities, according to a report released Nov 14 by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC).
In 2016, GaWC identified Jinan as a city with rapid growth and in 2017 as a quasi-global city. This year, it surpassed all the world's third-tier cities to achieve the higher rating.
The GaWC global city ranking is considered the most authentic ranking in the world. GaWC grades cities on four levels: alpha, beta, gamma and sufficiency. Each level has two or four ratings indicated as +/- on their connectedness.
On this year's list, London and New York ranked among the world's first-tier cities, and were at the alpha++ level.
At the alpha+ level, Hong Kong was in first place, with Beijing second and Shanghai fourth.
Shenzhen, a city in South China's Guangdong province, rose from beta to alpha-, reaching the alpha category for the first time.
Hu Gang, a professor from Guangzhou-based Jinan University, said the rapid rise of Chinese cities in the ranking matches the rise of the country's overall strength.
Besides Hong Kong and Shenzhen, another major city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster, Guangzhou, continues to be a first-tier city on the list. Its place on the list shows the increasing strength of the area.
There are 13 Chinese cities at beta level: Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing, Suzhou, Dalian, Xiamen, Changsha, Shenyang, Qingdao and Jinan. Among them, Chengdu rose from beta- to beta+, Hangzhou rose from gamma+ to beta+, Tianjin went from beta- to beta, Nanjing from gamma+ to beta, Wuhan from gamma- to beta, Qingdao from gamma+ to beta-, and Jinan leapt from sufficiency to beta.
In addition to the GaWC ranking, Jinan also ranked high in some domestic lists, such as taking 18th place on the list of the top 100 Chinese cities released by Warton Economics Institute in Shanghai in July. In the top 100 Chinese districts list, Jinan had four entries, accounting for one- third of the province's total.
As one of the most famous agencies on cities in globalization, GaWC releases reports on global cities on an irregular basis to test the intercity flow of financial, professional and innovative knowledge.
According to GaWC's website, the list graded 707 global cities based on the work of a network of 175 advanced producer service companies in major cities around the world.
It examines cities to narrow them down to a roster of global cities, then ranks these based on their connectivity through six "advanced producer services": banking, insurance, law, consulting management, advertising and accounting, focusing on the city's leading role and driving capacity in global activities.
The cities' GDP and output value from manufacturing are not contained in the rating indicators. That's to say, the more international organizations in these industries are distributed in cities, the higher rank the cities will achieve and the more likely they are to be regarded as influential global cities by GaWC.
The city of Jinan has been expanding its international competitiveness and influence since early this year to develop into a modern global cosmopolis.
Shi Zhaohong, deputy of the Development Research Center of Jinan Academy of Social Sciences, said Jinan deserves its ranking. As a researcher who has followed the list for years, she said she was pleased by the news.
Jinan has kept exploring more channels for international communication and exchanges, such as hosting international conferences like the Confucian Merchants Conference 2018, the Senior Dialogue between MNCs and Jinan, and the Belt and Road Urban Credit Alliance Summit on International Cooperation.
