Chengdu voted China's happiest city, Beijing ranks 11th

Turn that frown upside down, it's only the opinion of 14 million voters

The results are in. On December 7, Xinhua announced that China's Happiest City Survey voted Chengdu as its smiliest urban environment for 2017. According to the survey, 256,382 votes from a reported turnout of over 13.95 million people chose Sichuan's capital as China's happiest city for the fifth consecutive year.

Red pandas. Chengdu's happiest residents.

The survey, which has been carried out by Xinhua's Oriental Outlook magazine since 2007, allows voters to choose between 91 Chinese cities which have been preselected according to 16 criteria including residents' income, quality of living, environment and education. These criteria were not present however in the final vote, which simply asked the public to pick which city they thought had the biggest spring in its step; because there's nothing like thorough, well-rounded research.

Other major exporters of endorphins included Hangzhou (second, 250,981 votes) and Ningbo (third, 248,271 votes). Beijing (11th, 229,019 votes) did not fare so well, placing two rankings behind the coal mining town of Tongchuan in Shaanxi province which accrued 233,527 votes. Although this may not come as much of a surprise to any commuter who has had to descend into the dank chasm of any Line 2 metro station during any given rush hour.

Now yes, the final vote for China's happiest city may be based upon a wildly open internet poll with no criteria whatsoever. But who are we to hate on the perpetually sunny boulevards of Tongchuan, Xuzhou (not to be confused with Suzhou) and Changchun (Jilin)?

To find out what actually makes Beijingers happy, hit '阅读原文'.

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