Qujing, a city reportChina · population 880,000 · index 5.5 of 10

Qujing in 200 words.

Qujing scored 5.5 on the everycity index in 2026, a midrange figure built on very high safety and a low cost base, and pulled down by an interior coal and tobacco economy and a thin international profile. The headline numbers: a central one bedroom rents at 1,700 yuan a month, the monthly all in cost lands at 580 dollars for a single resident, the income tax position runs a progressive personal income tax from 3 percent to 45 percent, and the safety score is 8.4 on the same 10 point scale we apply to Tokyo, London, and Singapore.

The case for Qujing, in shortest form, is the second city of Yunnan and the source of the Pearl River. This is the gateway between the Yunnan plateau and Guizhou, a city at 1,900 meters of altitude that sits two hours from Kunming by high speed rail, with the rapeseed flower seas of Luoping, the Jiulong waterfalls, and the source of the Zhujiang at Maxiong mountain inside the prefecture. A single resident covers a central one bedroom and a full month for 580 dollars, near the floor of any provincial Chinese city.

The case against is the profile of an interior resource city: an economy weighted to coal, phosphate chemicals, tobacco, and agriculture rather than services, a small international community, a job market that thins for anyone outside industry, the public sector, or education, and the foreign internet behind the national firewall. The data feeding this report comes from our methodology page. For the headline figure with your own weights, the city score generator returns the index number in 30 seconds. For the country view, China places Qujing on the national table, and Asia sets it alongside peer cities.

A 10 point read on streets, day and night.

Qujing scored 8.4 overall. The breakdown matters more than the headline.

Set against the rest of the index, Qujing reads in the safest tier, measured against Tokyo at 9.6, Singapore at 9.5, London at 7.4, and Berlin at 8.0 on the same scale. The safest cities ranking and the low crime ranking track the same axis and place Qujing in context.

Practical notes for new residents: the four categories behind the overall score are the violent crime rate per 100,000, the property crime rate per 100,000, the traffic fatality rate per 100,000, and emergency response time in minutes, drawn from the EIU Safe Cities framework, the Numbeo crime indices, and WHO traffic data. Carry an international policy from SafetyWing or Cigna Global for the first months while local cover gets sorted. The full safety method sits on our methodology page, the family safety ranking shows how Qujing places for households with children, and the best cities for retirement ranking sets the wider liveability picture for anyone weighing a long stay.

Who pays, and how much the tax takes back.

Salary medians are May 2026, sourced from Glassdoor, the national statistics office, and OECD wage data. Tax figures are from the official revenue authority.

The major employers in Qujing are the coal and phosphate chemicals sector that anchors the eastern Yunnan industrial belt, the tobacco industry that runs through the whole province, the energy and power plants on the plateau, and the public sector, healthcare, and Qujing Normal University. The resource and agriculture base sets the economy, and the resident with a specialist industrial skill or the ability to earn from outside the local market is best placed. The tax calculator tool is the cleanest way to run a real offer.

Note on tax: China runs a progressive personal income tax from 3 percent to 45 percent, with social contributions typically additional to the headline rate. Read the visa and tax guide 2026 before assuming the headline rate is the take home rate. The tax calculator tool is the cleanest way to run a real offer, and for benchmarking the highest paying cities ranking, the cities for tech jobs ranking, and the cities for jobs ranking cover the major destinations against which Qujing is measured.

Where to actually live.

7 areas, each with the rent number and a one line verdict.

The neighborhood scores feed our neighborhood matcher tool, which takes your lifestyle inputs and returns the right area within Qujing on a 1 to 10 fit. For long term rentals beyond the first month, residents use local agents and listing apps, and the rental portal guide sets the approach, while the standard pattern is a deposit of one to three months plus an agent fee on the first lease. For comparable neighborhood guides elsewhere, see Tokyo neighborhoods, Bangkok neighborhoods, and Mumbai neighborhoods.

Schools, if you have kids.

The international school option, the local school option, and the cost of each.

Schooling is the local public system in Mandarin, with a thin layer of private schools and effectively no international school market, a real constraint for a relocating family without the language. Qujing Normal University and Qujing Medical College anchor the local higher education sector. Families needing a full international track weight Kunming, the provincial capital, where the options concentrate.

The family rating for Qujing weights school quality, park access, safety, healthcare, and the cost of a three bedroom home. See the best cities for families ranking for the full table and the cities for students ranking for the university view. The relocating with kids guide covers the school admissions calendar, and Babbel is a starting point for the parent who wants the working local language, though immersion does the heavy lifting.

What makes Qujing itself.

The food signatures, the nightlife rating, the cultural calendar.

Qujing is the historic gateway between Yunnan and the rest of China, the seat of the ancient Cuan culture whose stone steles are among the most prized examples of early Chinese calligraphy, and the source of the Pearl River that runs 2,400 kilometers to the delta at Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The Luoping rapeseed flower fields draw photographers across China each spring, the Jiulong waterfalls step down the eastern county, and the Xuanwei cured ham is a national delicacy. The altitude gives the city a cool, dry, high plateau character closer to Kunming than to the lowland cities.

The food is Yunnan at its base: rice noodles in the crossing the bridge style, Xuanwei ham, wild mushrooms from the surrounding hills, and the sour and spicy palate of the plateau. Nightlife scores 3.7 on the 10 point scale, modest and local, built on tea houses, hot pot, and karaoke rather than a bar scene. The best cities for nightlife ranking places Qujing well below Bangkok and London.

Tour bookings run cleanest through GetYourGuide, and the cities for history ranking and the cities for foodies ranking cover the heritage and food views for Qujing.