For the second year in a row, pollution was ranked as the top problem experienced by expatriates living in China's major cities.

Atom Survey and Xianzai.com, both subsidiaries of BDL Media, announced the results of the second annual survey conducted to gauge sentiments of expatriates working in China about China's work and living environment.

The survey was conducted online in English and results compiled from January 2-18 with a total of 520 non-Chinese respondents who work and live in Mainland China. Last year, 450 respondents were part of the survey. A "non-Chinese respondent" was characterized by an individual who has held a non-Chinese passport for more than 10 years and is currently living in China on a Z-class visa for at least two years already when participating in the survey.

41% of the respondents hold European passports, down 4% from last year, with nations like United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Spain having the highest percentages; 46% hold North American passports, up 11% from last year, with the United States and Canada having the highest percentages; 11% hold Pacific Rim passports with Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong having the highest number of respondents; and the remaining respondents come from other world regions.

51% of the respondents live in Beijing, 31% live in Shanghai, and the remaining respondents live primarily in Guangdong and Sichuan provinces.

For the respondents living in Beijing, the biggest headaches they daily face are Beijing traffic, Internet connectivity, and pollution problems. 87% of the respondents say that Beijing's traffic problems have increased since they first came to work in Beijing, up 4% from last year. 97% say that they often can not visit websites that are important for them to conduct business or complete work-related tasks, up 8% from last year. However, days before the survey was conducted, a major earthquake in Taiwan interrupted Internet service on the mainland, perhaps causing added headaches for respondents. 87% say that Beijing's pollution problems have stayed the same or worsened since they began working in Beijing, an increase of 15% from last year.

For respondents living in Shanghai, 32% say that Shanghai's traffic has stayed the same or worsened since they came to work in Shanghai, down by 8%. 76% say that Shanghai's pollution has stayed the same or worsened since they first came to the city for work, up from 72% last year.

Overall, when asked to list the biggest problems they faced in China, pollution was ranked first, followed by traffic, sanitation, noise, and crowds, respectively.

When asked to rank what they like most about the cities in which they live, expatriates living in Beijing ranked "Culture and History" first for the second year in a row, followed by "Cuisine" and "Business Opportunities", respectively. Last year, "Schools for Children" was ranked third, but it swapped places with "Business Opportunities", which was fourth last year.

For expatriates living in Shanghai, last year they held similar sentiments to their Beijing counterparts, but this year they had very different reasons why they liked living in Shanghai. The top reason for living in Shanghai for expatriates this year was "Environment", which seems to contradict with some of their biggest gripes.

81% of the respondents characterize themselves as "expats" who are hired overseas to come work in China, up 8% from last year. 15% characterize themselves as "halfpats" who were already living or working in China when they were hired by their current employer.

The average annual salary for all the respondents was US$81,540, not including housing allowances or work-related bonuses. The average annual salary for those who considered themselves expats was US$88,000.

14% of the respondents say that they can conduct business negotiations in spoken Mandarin Chinese, down 4% from last year, but 65% say that they can hold a simple conversation in Mandarin with Chinese colleagues, up by 2% from last year.

Atom Survey conducted this survey as an annual marketing analysis for Xianzai.com. The respondents are all subscribers to Xianzai.com's email newsletters. The full results are part of Xianzai.com's materials which are distributed to clients.

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