The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) indentified the top emerging cities on Chinese mainland based on such measures as population, income, infrastructure and economic activities.

EUI's emerging city ranking aims to identify fast-growing cities. According to EUI, most of the top 20 cities are from China's central and western provinces.

Guiyang, capital city of China's Southwest Guizhou province is the top on the list with its position as a leading "big data" center followed by Xiangyang city and Hengyang city in Central China.

Xiangyang in Hubei province has established a dedicated industrial park to attract businesses relocating from the southern manufacturing powerhouse of Shenzhen.

Benefitting from industrial relocation and population migration, the third- and fourth-tier cities in eastern provinces, such as Suqian in Jiangsu province also have bright growth prospects.

Here are the top 10 cities with positive outlooks.

No 10 Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province

Some shadow puppets at a store in Jinli ancient street in Chengdu, June 18, 2014. [Photo/IC]