Tianjin City, about 200 kilometers east of Beijing, is falling far behind other Chinese metropolises in developing tertiary leisure business. 

The leisure industry development index (LIDI) of Tianjin does not match its metropolitan status, a report released by National Academy of Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, showed on Monday.

The report said Beijing's immense political and economic strength has obscured Tianjin's leisure sector growth, and, Tianjin is also disadvantaged in inadequate resources, while neighboring Shanghai and Hebei provinces has ample supplies of iron ore, coal, and water resources. As a result, the development of Tianjin's leisure industry lacks name-brand products and influential catering enterprises.

The report also said that Northeast China's Jilin Province has also suffered from a lackluster leisure industry development, and the province's economy has been growing at the slowest pace in the past few years. 

Currently, China's well-developed leisure businesses are concentrated in the country's eastern coastal zones, along the Beijing-Guangzhou belt and along the Yangtze River belt, while the development level of the leisure industry in the new Silk Road Economic Zone remains to be developed. The imbalances are mainly caused by natural environment and the lower development levels there, the report said..