Shanghai has overtaken Hong Kong as China's top city in terms of comprehensive competitiveness, said a report released in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

With the establishment of the pilot Free Trade Zone, Shanghai was listed for the first time as the most competitive city in China, overtaking Hong Kong, which held the position for more than a decade. Hong Kong was ranked second, followed by Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Tianjin.

The China City Competitiveness Report is published by the China Institute of City Competitiveness, a nongovernmental organization in Hong Kong. The 12th yearly report was based on research across 34 Chinese cities and areas including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The ranking - which focuses on the overall competitiveness of Chinese cities - also considered quality of assets, safety of city life and sustainable development outlook.

Hong Kong remains the city with the highest asset quality in the country. The report cited its healthy economy, low level of leverage, living conditions and sustainability of development as reasons for that ranking. Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen came next, followed by Macao, Chongqing and Tianjin.

Hong Kong also ranked highest in terms of city life safety, followed by Taipei, for its zero record of public security incidents this year, few industrial accidents and reliability for mass consumption products.

On the sustainability front, Tianjin and Chongqing ranked as the top two cities, with Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing following. For the first time this year, the report also published an environmental ranking. Anji county in Zhejiang province and Dongning county in Heilongjiang province scored the highest for their high forest coverage rate and good environments.