2.Metropolitan area power

The top three cities in this dimension are Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen with overwhelming leads. Following them, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan round out the top 10. Compared with the 2018 figures, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou have secured their places, while Chongqing and Hangzhou have moved up by one and two places in the 2019 ranking. Other cities that fare well in the new ranking are Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Fuzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Guiyang, Shijiazhuang, Xining, Yinchuan, Hohhot and Lhasa.

The metropolitan area power is a basic indicator for the growth performance of a core city. This dimension not only focuses on a city's economic and population scales, but also the population density, demographic structures and its capacity as an economic hub.

Therefore, we have established three sub-dimensions, namely the economic scale, metropolitan area quality and enterprise agglomeration, which are supported by 14 major indicators including the GDP, taxation, fixed assets investment, power consumption, permanent resident population, DID population, growth index of the permanent resident population, people's movement, DID area index, population density of metropolitan area, structures of the metropolitan area, Fortune Global 500, Fortune China 500, and listed companies on the main board.

(1)Economic scale

Shanghai, Beijing, and Chongqing top the economic scale ranking with overwhelming leads. Following them, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Hangzhou round out the top 10. Shenzhen and Guangzhou have overtaken Tianjin in terms of economic scale with even better performance than the municipality. The top 10 cities in the 2019 ranking remain the same with the 2018 ranking. Cities including Zhengzhou, Ningbo, Changsha, Xi'an, Hefei, Fuzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Taiyuan, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Hohhot, Yinchuan, Xining and Lhasa all fair well compared to their ranking in the previous year.

(2)Metropolitan area quality

The top 10 core cities in this sub-dimension are Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, Chengdu and Hangzhou. Among the 297 cities at prefecture level or above, Chongqing has moved from 43rd to 31st in terms of metropolitan area quality, which contributes to its higher ranking in terms of metropolitan area power. Similarly, Hangzhou also moves from 13th to the 10th in terms of metropolitan area quality, contributing to its higher position in the metropolitan area power ranking.

(3)Enterprise agglomeration

Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen top the ranking with overwhelming leads with a huge concentration of business headquarters. Following them, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Chongqing, and Fuzhou round out the top 10. Among the 36 core cities, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Jinan, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Yinchuan and Hohhot have moved higher in the ranking compared with the previous year.