The city of Kunshan in Jiangsu province topped the Forbes list as the best commercial county-level city and the most innovative county-level city on the Chinese mainland, released by Forbes China on Dec 15.

Among all the cities around the country, Kunshan ranked 38th and 13th, respectively, in the two lists. The findings show that Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai are the top three best commercial cities, while Shenzhen, Suzhou and Beijing take the first three places for their innovation.

Forbes introduced this 2014 ranking list by assessing eight indexes, including talent, city size, consumptive power and passenger transport.

Over the years, Kunshan has stepped up efforts into developing the headquarters economy, modern finance, logistics, exhibition economy and e-commerce. It has optimized its business layout with five commercial areas, including a cross-Straits business area, a comprehensive commercial area, a clothing street, a jewelry street and a Taiwan-flavor food street.

In addition, the city has attached equal importance to innovation that plays a key role in improving a city's competitiveness. To date, Kunshan has attracted 310,000 skilled professionals, and 723 enterprises have received the "High-Tech Enterprise" recognition. The city now boasts 35,000 patents, and it also cooperates with famous universities at home and abroad to carry out national key projects.

(Source: China Daily)