In Hangzhou, capital city of east China’s Zhejiang Province, a regular information-technology (IT) employee can earn about RMB 16,303 (USD 2,315) per month, the highest pay among China’s 15 new first-tier cities, according to Chinese online recruiting site Boss Zhipin.
What’s more, nearly one-fifth of the job postings in the city in the first three quarters of 2019 focused on skilled IT workers. A tech worker in Hangzhou can earn as much as 70% higher than the city’s average level.
Following Hangzhou, Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu and Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan ranked third and fourth on the charts, with average monthly salaries for tech workers of RMB 12,817 (USD 1,812) and RMB 11,389 (USD 1,610), respectively.
The report further reveals that the average monthly wage for a new first-tier city technologist is RMB 12,153 (USD 1,718), up 6.6% from the previous year. AI-related positions like proprietary algorithms, software and data architect, deep learning and search algorithms, are being paid most generously, with monthly compensations hitting over RMB 20,000 (USD 2,829).
The term “new first-tier cities” was coined by the local media China Business Network in 2013, referring to a list of prosperous cities in the country. They have the potential to function as a hub and count with rich commercial resources, in addition to a convenient and developed public transportation system, among other criteria.
Alongside Hangzhou, there is Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan (capital of Hubei) and Xi’an (capital of Shaanxi), among others, according to a study from The Rising Lab, a subsidiary of financial news portal Yicai Media Group.
In recent years, these cities have been sweetening perks to land tech workers. Hangzhou, the eastern Chinese technology core is also the birthplace of many tech companies such as the e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba, China’s second-largest game publisher NetEase, and video surveillance products supplier Hikvision.
While there is not an official ranking, cities in China are frequently categorized into four respective tiers, where first-tier cities are the largest and wealthiest. Traditionally, those cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.