A Swedish expert working for the Kunming Pharmaceutical Company. [Photo/kunming.cn]

[InKunming--Kunming]  The city of Kunming in Yunnan province was recently honored as one of the most attracting cities for foreign skilled personnel in 2014. The honor was announced at an evaluation held by China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Nearly 20,000 foreign talented personnel who had worked in China took part in the evaluation and voted for their favorable cities on the Internet. There were also more than 1,500 experts who filled out questionnaires and evaluated the 45 candidate cities and counties according to their policies for foreign skilled people and their working and living environments.

"Kunming ranked first regarding its natural inhabited environment," said Chen Huabei, director of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs' Information Center. The city also received favorable comments for its urban planning and government staff services.

The vice president of Kunming Foreign Languages School's International Department, Sun Jiangyu (Zach in English), has been in Kunming for four years and can speak fluent Chinese. He said that he liked the city's pleasant climate but what attracted him most was its delicious food and friendly residents. "I loved the city and I’m going to marry a local girl this year," said Zach.

Kunming is the only city in Western China to enter the list of attracting cities for foreigners. The other nine winners were Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao in Shandong province, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Suzhou in Jiangsu province and Xiamen in Fujian province. (Written by Yang Fan Edited by Jacob Hooson)