The 2010 Chinese City Rankings - Tourist Cities Development Summit was held Tuesday in Jinan, Shandong Province, with academics, experts and government officials from well-known tourist cities discussing the development of China's tourism industry.

More than 200 people attended the summit, with the issue of the similar developments in many cities highlighted as a problem.

"We are lucky to have beautiful natural resources, diversified ethnic culture and fame as a spaceflight city and we want to keep those features in the development of the city, especially protecting nature with reasonable commercial exploitation," said Zhu Ming, vice-mayor of Xichang, Sichuan Province.

"A city is a space shared by local residents and tourists together and a lifestyle with unique characteristics is the most important tourism resource for one city. Only by making a city livable can it attract tourists," added Dai Bin, vice-president of China Research Institute.

A six-month online poll was recently conducted in more than 40 languages with global Web users voting for a final 20 recommended tourist cities in China.

Apart from already famous cities such as Hangzhou and Suzhou, some lesser-known cit-ies with unique characteristics such as Yinchuan in Ningxia and Xichang in Sichuan made it on to the list. In December the top 20 will be cut to a final top 10.

"Different from other tourist city selections, we take four standards into consideration: Unique and charming scenery, a safe and harmonious living environment, friendliness and openness and tourism facilities," explained Peng Li, organizer of the summit.

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