(Yicai Global) March 22 -- Kunshan, a county-level city in Jiangsu province, has surpassed eight provincial capitals including Guiyang and Lanzhou to become the first Chinese county to record a gross domestic product exceeding CNY500 billion (USD72.6 billion).

Kunshan, which is home to many companies that manufacture automotive components and electronic materials, logged CNY500.7 billion in GDP in 2022, up by 1.8 percent from 2021, based on public data. Last year, China had 52 counties that reported such indicators of productivity above CNY100 billion.

Kunshan is very close to Shanghai and receives a lot of spillover effects from the eastern metropolis, Niu Fengrui, president of the Guoxin Small and Medium Cities Index Research Institute, said to Yicai Global. In recent years, Kunshan has been transforming and upgrading, and even developing high-tech industries, Niu added.

Jiangyin, another county in Jiangsu province, has been No. 2 in the top 100 for several straight years. In 2022, its GDP tallied CNY475.4 billion, increasing by 2.3 percent. This year, Jiangyin is also expected to join the CNY500 billion+ league. Jiangsu province's Zhangjiagang is No. 3 and its GDP was CNY330.2 billion in 2022.

Most of the highly developed towns are in eastern China's coastal regions. These hubs have strong manufacturing clusters, per Niu. In total, the 52 leading counties are located in 12 provinces. Jiangsu is No. 1 as it has 21 of these powerhouses, followed by Zhejiang.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi