Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, was ranked third among China's all counties in terms of comprehensive strength, according to a report recently released by Guangming Daily.

The top two counties are Kunshan in Suzhou and Jiangyin in Wuxi.

Three towns in Zhangjiagang – Yangshe town (2nd), Jinfeng town (9th), and Nanfeng town (50th) – were also included in a list of China's top 100 towns.

The report was written by the China Small and Medium Cities Development Index research group and the Guoxin Small and Medium Cities Index Research Institute.

The two organizations have been producing the index for 18 years. By monitoring the green development, attractiveness to investment, technological innovation, and urbanization level of China's small and medium-sized cities, they aim to find out the key factors that drive high-quality development in small and medium-sized cities.