Recently, the global HR consultation enterprise Mercer published its 2015 global urban life rankings of major cities to provide references to multinationals when they send employees to station overseas. Vienna, the capital city of Austria, once again stayed on the top. Of Chinese cities, Xi'an, Chongqing and Taichung are on the list of emerging cities of the rankings, which are trying their best to attract more foreign enterprises and employees.

There are a total of 230 cities on the list of city rankings published by Mercer, of which Western European cities occupy 7 of the top ten places, and Vienna, for a successive 7 years, has remained in the first place. Among North American cities, Canadian city Toronto comes only next to Vancouver, taking the 15th place on the rankings. Of Asian cities, Singapore City，the capital of Singapore holds the top ranking in the 26th place. While in listed Chinese cities, Hong Kong is on the top with its 70th position, Taipei comes next on the 83rd, and Taichung, the 99th. Shanghai holds the top ranking among mainland regions on the 101st, and Beijing, the 118th.

In addition to city rankings, Mercer also published 9 emerging cities which were selected worldwide, including Xi’an, Chongqing and Taichung of China. According to the definition of the rankings this year, these emerging cities are not traditional financial or business centers, but that they are trying to enhance living quality so as to attract more foreign enterprises or employees. According to the introduction of the rankings, the highlights of Xi’an lie in its development zones, while Chongqing has already become a major automobile manufacture center and transportation hub.

According to Mercer, the survey aims to help multinationals and international organizations to formulate “more fairly” their salary and subsidy levels when they send employees to station in other countries or regions. Taking New York as a contrasting model, it compared more than 440 cities in the world by 39 items of 10 categories. The main standards include political stability, crime rate and other political and social environment criteria, business environment elements such as foreign currency exchange and banking services, etc., medical and health factors such as medical service and air condition, public services including education and transportation, and entertainment, housing and natural environment.