Pros and Cons of Living in China
The useful thing about the China directory is breadth. It brings together 320 eligible cities from 30 administrative regions rather than leaning on one or two famous destinations. The current set reaches across 30 administrative regions, adding geographic variety to the population comparison. The climate model most often places these cities in the subtropical band, while the city-level pages show where the national pattern breaks. The strongest use of this page is comparison—finding which city profiles are genuinely different enough to deserve a closer look.
Pros of living in China
China has 320 eligible tracked cities in the current release, giving the country page a broad set of city-scale comparisons rather than relying on one or two places.
Chongqing is the largest tracked city in China at about 32.1 million residents, providing a clear upper-end population reference for the country's city set.
320 tracked cities fall in the site's big, large or megacity bands, giving China multiple high-population urban options in the dataset.
319 tracked cities have at least six modeled months in the site's 15–27°C daytime mild band, creating several moderate-temperature options in the model.
The tracked cities span 4 latitude-based climate bands, so the country set contains meaningful modeled climate variety rather than one repeated temperature profile.
30 tracked cities are marked as a national or administrative capital, adding clearly identified capital-role locations to the comparison set.
Cons of living in China
None of the tracked China cities fall in the site's small-city or town bands, so readers prioritizing lower-population urban scale have less variety in the current tracked set.
The tracked city set spans 4 latitude-based climate bands. That wide variation means a single country-level temperature description is a poor fit for many of its cities.
The largest tracked city is more than 20 times the population of the smallest tracked city, producing a very wide urban-scale gap across China.
Cities in China
Frequently asked questions
Is China a good place to live?
There is no single countrywide answer. The score on this page is an average of a sample of released city-profile models, intended for comparison only. Use the city guides below and verify the local factors that matter to you.
Which part of China is best to live in?
The dataset cannot rank neighbourhoods or regions by quality. Start with the released city list, shortlist by location and scale, then compare current housing, work, healthcare, schools, safety and transport using local sources.
Is China expensive to live in?
This dataset does not include current rent, salary or consumer-price data, so we do not classify China as cheap or expensive. Costs can differ sharply between cities and regions.
Is China safe?
Country and city population fields are not safety data. Use recent official or reputable crime and safety information for the exact city and neighbourhood you are considering.
What is the best city in China?
We do not name a universal best city. Chongqing is simply the largest tracked city by population in the source dataset; your best option depends on your own constraints and verified local evidence.
Country score averages up to 10 of the largest released city-profile scores. It is a comparison heuristic, not a national quality-of-life ranking. Data/content last materially updated September 2026.