A view of Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province has been included in the list of the nation's top 50 cites in China, according to a recent report. 

The city was ranked 46th on the 2022 list of the top 100 Chinese cities, six places higher than the previous year, according to the report published by the Warton Economic Institute in Shanghai on June 30.

The report evaluated the nation's top 110 cities in terms of GDP in 2021 based on factors including household savings, government revenue, environment, science and education, and culture and health.

Huzhou was ranked third nationwide in the appraisal for environment thanks to its keen focus on green and low-carbon development.

The top 100 cities created a combined GDP of 80.44 trillion yuan ($12.38 trillion) last year, accounting for 70.3 percent of China’s total.

Meanwhile, their combined R&D spending hit 2.13 trillion yuan, making up 87.22 percent of the nation's total. Forty of these cities saw their R&D spending surpass the national average. 

Beijing topped the list, followed by Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Tianjin.

Four of the cities in the top 10 are from the Yangtze River Delta, a region encompassing the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui as well as Shanghai municipality.

The Warton Economic Institute is a Shanghai-based organization focused on enterprise analysis and the research of macro and regional economies.