There's a saying in Chinese 上有天堂，下有苏杭 which means 'Heaven is above, on Earth there is Suzhou amd Hangzhou'.

I loved Suzhou. Suzhou is a large city about an hour west of Shanghai (half hour by HSR) in the wealthy province of Jiangsu (think Newcastle relative to Sydney, Geelong to Melbourne). It's an old city full of canals (I mean... all the cities are old) built close to the Great Canal. It's reputed for its old silk culture and style of opera (not as famous as jingju but quite nice). Hangzhou in nearby Zhejiang province is probably a bit too tech-y, influencer-y (it's the headquarters of Alibaba) but is considered one of the most aesthetically pleasing cities in the country alongside Suzhou because of the West Lake and its rolling tea fields. Nanjing (the capital of the Jiangsu province) is very nice too and probably overlooked.

Other cities tend to be those that are within commuting distance from major cities like Zhuhai (close to Shenzhen) for employment but not over urbanised yet.