Guangzhou was one of the six cities from China that have been listed among the world's top 50 alpha-level global cities, according to the 2020 City Classification by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network on Aug 21.

Based from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, GaWC operates as the leading think tank on cities in the context of globalization and focuses on conducting research into the external relations of world cities. 

A total of 707 cities worldwide were divided into five major levels, namely alpha, beta, gamma, high sufficiency, and sufficiency, based on the distribution of six major senior producer services institutions - banking, insurance, law, consulting management, advertising, and accounting - in the city. 

Out of the six Chinese cities that were included, namely Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, three were from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, fully showcasing the continuous growth of the overall strength of city clusters in the Greater Bay Area.

Guangzhou was ranked 34th, surpassing Taipei and Shenzhen by two and 12 places respectively.