Although this capital has also been a fast-growing city in recent decades, the province of Jiangxi is not as industrialized as the nearby provinces, and the city is not connected to as many rivers as Wuhan or Changsha.
lthough it is the capital, it is also a T2 city. It lies on the Fen River, but this river’s access to the Yellow River is a lot more cumbersome compared to Zhengzhou or Xi’an. The province’s focus on coal mining in recent decades makes it less developed than other areas of China.
What else can we learn about lower-tier cities from looking at qatar whatsapp number Central China? Let’s take a closer look at Henan.
Henan
In Henan province, we can again see that geography plays a part. Zhengzhou may be a Tier 1 city, or “New Tier 1,” but there are no other first or second-tier cities in the entire province.
For example, the neighboring Luoyang and Kaifeng are T3 and T4 cities, respectively, so Zhenghou’s status as a first-tier does not rub off on those nearby (as we saw with cities close to Hong Kong). This reveals that the tier system also considers a province’s location within China as a whole.
Zhengzhou may be labeled “the heart of the Chinese railway network” because of Henan’s centrality within the country, but its distance from the ocean has still prevented it from becoming as developed as other provinces.
Still, we may ask why Nanyang, Luoyang, Xuchang, and Shangqiu are T3 cities while Kaifeng, Anyang, and Hebi are rated lower, despite all being “prefecture-level cities.”
Hebi belongs to the smallest prefecture in the province, and the ancient dynasty capital of Anyang is the home of a massive archaeological site. Therefore, factories or other economic activities could interfere with the ancient ruins.
Still, this does not differentiate Luoyang and Kaifeng, both of which also have buildings of historical importance. The answer may be found in how Kaifeng and Anyang were only capitals of one dynasty each while Luoyang was the capital of many.
This is why the latter is also regarded as one of China’s four great ancient capitals along with Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi’an (all first-tier cities).
Summary
Hopefully, this overview gives your business some idea of how China’s city-tier system works and a quick way of understanding a city’s economic standing within modern China.
Nevertheless, things are always changing.
Some cities in central China have been upgraded to T1 in the last five years, which may reveal the country’s government plans for future economic development.
China’s coasts have played a key role in the country’s economy since the 1980s, but new trends are beginning to occur in places like Zhengzhou and Wuhan too.
I was not able to discuss western China today, but the same six elements apply:
history,
GDP,
geography,
proximity to other countries,
industry, and
administrative status.
This is evident in how Chongqing is its administrative region (along with Tianjin, Beijing, and Shanghai) and is classified as a “New Tier 1 city” (like Wuhan, Changsha, etc.)
Sichuan’s Chengdu, like other capitals in geographically and economically important provinces, is also rated a New Tier 1 city.
Provincial capitals more cut off from the world or next to less-developed countries are usually lower tier, e.g., Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Gansu.
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Any company interested in doing business in China should monitor changes in the tier system to get a sense of the economic developments and how this could influence business strategy and a marketing campaign.
But if you find yourself looking at a map of China and feel a bit ov