Why is Chengdu called the happiest city?

As a tourist city, the phenomenon of high consumption and low income cannot be changed. It looks glamorous on the surface, but miserable behind the scenes.

Recently, the 2022 "Happiest Cities" list was announced. The top three are basically Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Ningbo. Chengdu has topped the list for more than ten consecutive years. Never given up. Among the remaining cities, Nanjing, Qingdao, Changsha and Xining have been on the list for the past three consecutive years, while Guangzhou has been on the list twice in the past three years and this year.

The "Happiest City in China" selection began in 2007 and is organized annually. It sets an evaluation system, including employment index, resident income index, quality of life index, ecological environment index, and city attractiveness. 9 first-level indicators such as power index and hundreds of second-level subdivision indicators.

The selection method will be carried out through big data collection, questionnaire survey, material declaration, field survey, expert review, etc. The entire survey and selection activity will generally take more than two months. In short, there is both a detailed evaluation system and strict organizational implementation, which gives people a very formal and formal feeling, making you feel that this list is very valuable.

This selection activity is sponsored by a media. Judging from the grand press conferences every year, many people still value this list.

This year, Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee Secretary Liu Jie said in an interview with the media: "We are very encouraged that Hangzhou has been selected as the 'Happiest City' for 15 consecutive years and won the national title in 2019. The only 'Happiness Demonstration Benchmark City'. This is an important manifestation of the historic achievements of Hangzhou's reform and development in the extraordinary decade of the new era. It is the best interpretation of the united struggle of the people of Hangzhou in the new era to build and enjoy a happy homeland. ”

Secretaries, mayors and other key leaders from many other cities on the list also expressed their acceptance speeches. In addition, judging from the reports this year, when a city is awarded an award, the person who represents the city to receive the award is usually the mayor or deputy mayor. When a city wins an award, the official media of the city usually focus on the report. Officials from various places pay more attention to this The emphasis on awards is evident.

Looking at the results, the first cities on the list are mainly concentrated in economically developed provinces, and the Yangtze River Delta is the main one. These places are relatively wealthy, with many job opportunities, convenient life, and happy residents. The sense itself is not easy to decline, so cities are not easy to "fall off the list".

The Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are the two most dynamic regions in China's economy. It seems reasonable that the cities in these places are selected, but for the cities in these places that are not selected, it probably doesn't mean much. . The two regions have high cultural homogeneity and close economic ties. It is probably far-fetched to say that there are any qualitative differences between different cities within the region. This point can fully illustrate the limitations of this type of selection.

Secondly, when a city manager attaches great importance to this list, will he consider "failure on the list" to be a failure in some sense? For example, if Chengdu, which has been at the top of the list for many years, suddenly falls off the list in any year, will the leaders feel that this is their own work mistake? Therefore, I believe that no matter who becomes the leader, they will not easily let their city “fail”.

There is another problem. The politicians want their city to be on the list, and the local residents of a city generally have feelings for their city. As long as the city management is not too bad, they will generally give it good reviews. So if the respondents know that this is a survey to select the happiest cities in China, they will definitely have a certain preference when filling out the questionnaire.

Imagine, if I were a resident of Chengdu and knew that Chengdu ranked first on the list, I would definitely continue to give Chengdu good reviews, and it would have to be very good reviews. In other words, ordinary residents who are the respondents may also think that they must not let their cities "fall off the list." Living in a city that is officially recognized as "the happiest city" is quite happy in itself and quite enviable by others, isn't it?

The author briefly reviewed the changes in the happiest cities in the past three years. Among the list of provincial capitals and cities under separate state planning, among the 10 cities rated each year, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Ningbo Seven cities including Nanjing, Qingdao, Changsha and Xining have been on the list for three consecutive years.

The statistical results of prefecture-level cities are that five cities, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Taizhou, Weihai, and Wuxi, have been on the list for three consecutive years, and five cities have been on the list twice in three years. The changes in county-level cities are that 7 county-level cities in Taicang City, Jiangsu Province have been on the list for three consecutive years. Statistics of the happiest urban areas show that four urban districts including Fuyang District in Hangzhou have been on the list for three consecutive years, and five urban districts have been on the list twice in three years.