A view of Shanghai.[Provided to China Daily]

Shanghai has for the fourth time topped the list of the 10 most attractive Chinese cities for expats, according to a survey conducted on foreign professionals living in China nationwide.

The financial hub scored highest in the ranking's four important indexes for foreigners to evaluate cities, namely policies for foreign professionals, governmental affairs, the working environment and the living environment.

The cities which follow are Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Qingdao, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Jinan.

Shanghai and Beijing led the race, with Shanghai surpassing Beijing in all four indexes.

Shanghai has become one of the hottest destinations in China for foreigners to work and study and has more than 88,000 resident foreign experts, one-sixth of the national population.

This is the sixth time the ranking, organized by the International Talent magazine and China Society for Research on International Professional Personnel Exchange and Development, has been released. Between July and December of 2015 , nearly 20,000 foreign professionals throughout China participated in the survey.