More than 80 percent of Chinese who return home after completing their studies abroad choose Beijing as their favourite city to work in, Xinhua News Agency said Monday, citing a survey.

The survey, which covered 1,216 people and 452 companies, showed that Shanghai was the runner-up on the returnees' shortlist, Xinhua reported.

Shenzhen and Guangzhou in south China, Chengdu in the southwest and Xi'an in the northwest are also attractive to some, according to the survey conducted by Beijing Orient Huibo Human Resource Consulting Services.

Very few would be willing to work in the west of the country, seen as an underdeveloped hinterland with a tough natural environment, the survey showed.

Xinhua cited the survey as saying that Chinese returning with a foreign education are mostly wanted in sectors such as finance, trade, culture, education and media.

But they are less sought after by the real estate industry due to their lack of knowledge of government policies and measures as well as domestic industrial regulations, the survey said.

By the end of 2006, more than one million Chinese had studied abroad, and 26 percent of them had returned to the country, Xinhua said.

Last year, 42,000 people returned to China, up 21 percent on 2005, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education, it added.