(Yicai) April 29 -- Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province and seven other Chinese prefecture-level cities, which are governed by their provincial government and are not in the tier of first-tier and provincial-level cities, logged gross domestic product of over CNY1 trillion (USD138 billion) last year, according to the latest data. This is two more than in 2022.

In all, there are 26 municipalities in China whose economy was bigger than CNY1 trillion in 2023, according to Yicai research. Prefecture-level cities fall under the largest first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, municipalities directly under the central government, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, and provincial capitals.

Suzhou, which neighbors Shanghai, had the biggest economy among prefecture-level municipalities with an economy of CNY2.4 trillion (USD341 billion). It also ranked sixth among all Chinese cities. The metropolis' economic transformation and upgrading of its manufacturing sector have had noticeable results. The sectors of biomedicine, integrated circuits and artificial intelligence performed particularly well.

Wuxi, also in Jiangsu province, scored a GDP of CNY1.5 trillion (USD207 billion), the vast majority of which at CNY1.3 trillion (USD183.6 billion) was from the city’s highly developed high-tech sector. The value of the high-tech sector’s output climbed 8.5 percent year on year.

Wuxi was followed by Foshan in southern Guangdong with a GDP of CNY1.3 trillion (USD183.6 billion). Quanzhou in southeastern Fujian province, Nantong in Jiangsu province and Dongguan in southern Guangdong province were in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively.

Changzhou in Jiangsu province and Yantai in eastern Shandong province were the two newcomers on the list. The output value of Changzhou’s new energy-related manufacturing sector surged 15 percent year on year to CNY768.1 billion (USD106 billion). The city’s output of new energy vehicles and solar cells surged greatly.

Yantai is the first prefecture-level city in the north of the country to score a GDP above CNY1 trillion. Green petrochemicals, non-ferrous and precious metals are the city’s major industries. And the sectors of biomedicine, clean energy and aviation are also developing rapidly.

Other prefecture-level cities, including Tangshan in northern Hebei province, Xuzhou in Jiangsu province and Wenzhou in Zhejiang province all approached the CNY1 trillion mark last year with GDP close to or above CNY900 billion (USD124.3 billion)

Those in the CNY700 billion range included Shaoxing and Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, Weifang in Shandong province, Yangzhou and Yancheng in Jiangsu province as well as Yulin in the northwestern Shaanxi province.

Editor: Kim Taylor