The top 10 most attractive Chinese cities favored by foreign talent in 2019 are launched on Nov 8. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Hefei in Anhui province has retained its position as one of the most attractive Chinese cities for foreign talent for the third year in a row, according to the results of a poll released by the Ministry of Science and Technology's State Bureau of Foreign Experts on Nov 8.

The top 10 cities in 2019 were Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Chengdu, Qingdao, and Suzhou.

Eight Nobel Prize laureates and one Turing Award winner participated in the voting. According to the bureau, the voting process for the latest poll involved a record number of top experts.

The questionnaires focused on 23 indicators spanning five fields: policy environment, government affairs environment, working environment, living environment, and science and innovation environment.

Official figures show that there are currently 4,923 foreign talents staying in Hefei long-term. By the end of October, around 150 top experts were working in Hefei on a talent visa. They are involved in the research and development of new technologies, the development of innovative management models, the promotion of enterprises, industrial upgrading and development, and the improvement of culture and education.

As a national science center, Hefei has been focusing on technological innovation, especially in emerging industries such as new-energy vehicles, smart voice technology, quantum information, equipment manufacturing, and biomedicine.