Want to move away from Beijing and can't decide where to live next?Try the city of Zhuhai on the coast of southern Guangdong province. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has identified Zhuhai, also called the "Chinese Riviera," as the most livable city in China.

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In making the determination, the report by CASS evaluated nine factors including living conditions, city harmony, cultural competitiveness, environment and ecology.

Zhuhai came out first in the list. The city was followed by Hong Kong, Haikou, Sanya, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Zhoushan, Wuxi, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Smog- and pollution-cursed Beijing placed a lowly 41^st on the list of China's most livable cities.

Hong Kong, however, ranked first in ecological competiveness based on environmental quality, energy savings and ecological vitality.

Hong Kong was followed by Huangshan, Macau, Erdos, Shiyan, Yangzhou, Nanning, Xianning, Dalian, and Sanming.

Beijing came in 41st because of its persistent haze problem and a high house price-to-income ratio. These are major factors restricting Beijing's sustainable development, said the CASS report.

Of the 10 most polluted cities on the list of 74 monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, seven are cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Pollution problems will continue to plague the region and threaten its development.

In 2013, 25 provinces and more than 100 mid- to large-sized cities fell victim to massive haze. The haze problem became so bad that the average national hazy days in China hit 29.9, the highest in 52 years.

After three decades of rapid economic development, China has had to re-tool its development strategies and begin a massive restructuring of its industry to cope with the changing demands of the domestic and international marketplace. Whether this will mitigate China's haze and pollution problems remains to be seen.

The CASS report includes research indices for the most livable, most business friendly, most economically competitive and sustainably competitive cities in China.