Xiamen has won promotion to a Beta city, a second-tier global ranking, according to the world cities ranking list recently released by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC).
GaWC is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization, and the rankings it issues are regarded as the most authoritative.
Xiamen has appeared in the list since 2012 when it was at Sufficiency level, and after six years of further development, the city was promoted two levels to a second-tier world city.
GaWC categorizes world cities into Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Sufficiency tiers, based on their international connectedness.
According to the recent list, six Chinese cities are among Alpha world cities, the highest level: Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Ben Derudder and Kathy Pain, deputy directors of GaWC, believed that the layout of world cities has tilted to the Asian-Pacific region, and as increasingly more Chinese cities appear in the list, layout may enter into "China's century".
China announced and implemented on May 15 a policy allowing visa-free entry of foreign tourist groups aboard cruise ships via all cruise ship ports along the country's coastline.
China and Georgia are set to waive visa requirements for travelers starting May 28.
