China's latest census released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that nearly 600 thousand foreigners were living on the Chinese mainland at end of 2010.

It's the first time foreigners were surveyed in the once-in-a-decade census. The top three foreign nationalities were from South Korea, the United States and Japan.

South Korea topped the list with over 120 thousand of its nationals living on the Chinese Mainland. Over 71 thousand were from the United States, and more than 66 thousand from Japan. The national census also counted residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan who were living on the mainland. Nearly 235 thousand Hong Kong residents and over 21 thousand Macao residents were living on the mainland by Nov.1 2010.

The number of residents from Taiwan was over 170 thousand. Among all those from outside the Chinese mainland, including foreigners, over 60 percent are in the country for business, work, and study.

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou had the highest numbers of foreign nationals. Those on short term business were not included in the census.