China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has released the latest ranking list of the country's mainland cities with the most invention patents. Shenzhen of Guangdong province tops the list, followed by Hangzhou of Zhejiang and Nanjing of Jiangsu.

According to SIPO's statistics, a total of 172,113 invention patents were granted in 2011, marking a 27.4 percent increase on the previous year. A total of 112,347 invention patents were granted to Chinese people, marking an annual increase of 6.3 percent, and accounting for 65.3 percent of the total amount of patents granted.

The following is the list of the 10 Chinese cities with the most invention patents in 2011. (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are not included)