Get a shortlist built around you
A few multiple-choice questions. No personal details required, just your priorities, so the tool can weigh what matters to you.
Our algorithm weighs multiple dimensions — affordability, investment climate, international connectivity, food culture, cultural depth, environment, lifestyle quality, and academic resources: against our full city dataset. The result: a personalized shortlist that changes based on what you value.
Not a ranking. A couple planning retirement sees different results than a founder chasing investment opportunities: because cities and people are different.
How it works
We weigh what you care about, not what's popular.
Most city guides rank places from "best" to "worst." This tool does the opposite: it starts with you. Your answers adjust the weight of multiple research-backed dimensions, which are then scored against our full city dataset.
The same city can be a top match for a digital nomad and invisible for a retiree, because we score across multiple dimensions rather than forcing each city into a single category.
Your matches
Your top matches
How your answers shaped these results
Complete the questionnaire above to see a breakdown of how your priorities map to each dimension.
How we matched these cities
Based on the priorities you selected.
Before you start
Where people like you usually end up
The quiz weighs eight dimensions at once, which is the point of it. If you would rather see the shape of the answer first, these are the five profiles that come up most often and the cities the tool tends to surface for each. Treat them as starting points rather than verdicts, and run the quiz for your own combination.
Remote worker on a foreign income
Your income isn't tied to the local job market, so you collect the low rent without taking on the low wage. These three hold the healthiest rent-to-local-wage ratios in the whole project, Kunming at 28%, Xi'an at 29%, Chengdu at 36%, which means the affordability isn't borrowed from anyone's future.
Retiree or long-stay couple
Climate and pace tend to outweigh career considerations, and all three have an established foreign community. Kunming holds the lowest rent-to-wage ratio in the series, while Dalian and Qingdao are both meaningfully cheaper than their reputations suggest, one shaped by Japanese and Korean industry, the other by a German-built core and a beer that got famous first.
Founder or someone chasing opportunity
Opportunity and affordability pull in opposite directions, and this is the profile where the tool's weighting shows most. Shenzhen has the lowest barriers to entry and the harshest exit. Hangzhou concentrates tech and capital. Chengdu is the compromise that still clears the cost bar.
Ceramics or craft practitioner
The one city in this project where cheapness is deliberate policy rather than a side effect: subsidized workshop streets, starter rents around ¥300 a month, and interest-free loans aimed at young makers. If you work in clay, this is the only entry on this list that is really a subsidy and you should take it. If you don't, the discount isn't worth what the city hasn't built yet.
Usually surfaces: Jingdezhen
Family with school-age children
School supply concentrates in the first tier, which is exactly where the cost arithmetic stops working: Shanghai's rent-to-income is the worst in the project, and Beijing doesn't price you out so much as ration you out, through hukou and school enrollment. Suzhou is the practical third option, a 33% ratio roughly thirty minutes from Shanghai by rail.
Questions people actually ask
Quick answers
Is this tool ranking Chinese cities from best to worst?
No. Different priorities produce different recommendations. The same city can be a strong match for one set of answers and not appear for another. There is no single "best" city in the results.
How does the matching algorithm work?
Your answers adjust the weight of multiple factors, investment environment, international connectivity, affordability, food culture, cultural depth, climate fit, lifestyle quality, and academic resources, which are then scored against a fixed city dataset. The cities with the highest weighted scores are shown as your strongest matches.
Why are only these cities included in the results?
The current dataset covers a curated range of cities that span the range of Chinese urban experiences while keeping the tool focused. We expand the pool as we publish more city guides.
Can a city appear in more than one type of match?
Yes. A city like Chengdu or Hangzhou can be a strong match for very different combinations of priorities, because each city scores across multiple dimensions rather than fitting a single category.
Should I use this instead of the detailed city guides?
They answer different questions. This tool helps narrow a shortlist based on what you value; the individual city guides and the cost calculator run the actual math on rent, salary, and day-to-day living once you have specific cities in mind.
Before you go
Get the next city, when it's ready
One short email when a new guide goes live: the real numbers, and the life behind them. Written by someone who lives in China and does the math in yuan.
No spam. One click to unsubscribe.