Chinese people living in second-tier cities generally had less leisure time than residents living in first-tier and third-tier cities in the most recent year, according to the China Economic Life Survey (2019-2020) released on July 6, 2020.

The annual survey was conducted by China Central Television (CCTV), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China Post Corporation, and National School of Development at Peking University. By issuing questionnaires via post, the survey involved 130,000 Chinese people in 154 cities and 297 counties across the country.

The survey showed that the average leisure time of Chinese people was 2.42 hours per day in the most recent year, a decrease of 25 minutes from that of the previous period. About 40% of respondents spent 1 to 3 hours on leisure activities per day, while 24.92% felt they were too busy with work to relax for up to an hour each day.

According to the survey, nine of the top 10 busiest Chinese cities where residents had the least leisure time are second-tier, with Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei province, ranking the first. Surprisingly, among the four first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen), only Guangzhou landed in the top 10.