Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen Still the Wealthiest Cities in China, in Terms of Capital

In terms of having total capital or deposit balance in financial institutions, the big cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen remain the top three cities of the country, according to recent statistics compiled by China Business News.

CRIENGLISH.com reported that the total capital in Beijing and Shanghai, which are China's super first-tier cities, exceeded 10 trillion yuan (around $1.5 trillion), far bigger than cities in other regions.

A report by ecns.cn said that the figure refers to the total capital amount as the result of economics and not as a measurement of the city's GDP per capita.

Beijing and Shanghai's savings deposits in renminbi and foreign currencies in financial institutions have reached a total of 12.86 trillion yuan and 10.38 trillion yuan at the end of 2015, an increase of 1.52 trillion yuan and 1.33 trillion yuan, respectively, at the beginning of the year, statistics from the Municipal Bureau of Statistics showed.

On the other hand, Shenzhen has overtaken Guangzhou, which often follows Beijing and Shanghai, but has experienced slow growth in recent years.

With only a few financial institutions, and whose real estate sector and emerging industries are slow in its development, Guangzhou has seen a widening gap from Shenzhen, statistics showed.

Central and western Chinese cities like Changsha, Hefei, Wuhan and Zhengzhou have also registered faster growth than other cities.

Ding Changfa, associate professor with the Department of Economics at Xiamen University, was quoted by ecns.cn as saying, "it is mainly due to the excellent resources in education, medical treatment, culture, and finance provided by provincial cities, which help attract more funds to these major cities."

The list showed that Chengdu, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Tianjin, Nanjing and Suzhou ranked sixth to 10th place.

Analysts said that the rank also reflects the cities' power and influence.