Forbes China edition released its list of the Best County-Level Cities of the Chinese Mainland for 2013 on Nov 28. Taicang came in sixth on the list. The top four cities are all located in Jiangsu province. They are, in order, Kunshan, Jiangyin, Changshu and Zhangjiagang.

The county-level cities that made the list were mostly from rich and developed regions in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Sea coastal region.

Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province and Shandong province each had eight county-level cities on the list. Jiangsu and Zhejiang almost embrace the top 10 cities on the list .

Since county-level cities are usually small, they often do not serve as hubs of transportation and logistics. But these rich cities have tremendous spending power and innovative potential that can attract talent.

Taicang’s talent index and freight index ranked fifth place against the other cities. Its innovation index, spending power index, city scale index and cost index were among the top 10 against competing cities. These indices reflect Taicang’s social development, especially the growth of Taicang Port and technological innovation.

Taicang also ranked 70th overall and fifth among county-level cities in Jiangsu province on the list of the Top 100 Business Cities on the Chinese Mainland.

According to Forbes, county-level cities have made tremendous contributions to economic and social development. They serve as an important engine for urbanization in East China.