Beijing claims top spot in Schroders’ Global Cities 30 Index

Beijing has been named the top global city in the second publication of the Schroders Global Cities 30 index, putting it ahead of Shanghai which took the top spot in August.

China’s mega-cities dominated the latest index, taking four of the top five places. China’s capital city Beijing jumped from fourth place to first, while Shanghai, China’s most populous city with 22 million residents, fell from first place to second. Shenzhen, which links Hong Kong to China’s mainland, jumped from sixth place to third, whilst Tianjin, China’s third largest city, fell from third to fourth place.

“Chinese cities continue to grow at a rapid rate as the country industrializes,” said Hugo Machin, co-head of global real estate securities, in a statement. GDP and retail sales in China are growing quickly. According to Schroders, the only one of the five factors that holds China’s cities back is disposable income, but the rate of gro