China's latest census released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that nearly 600,000 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 120,000 of its nationals living on the Chinese Mainland. Over 71,000 were from the United States, and more than 66,000 from Japan.

The national census also counted residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan who were living on the mainland. Nearly 235,000 Hong Kong residents and over 21,000 Macao residents were living on the mainland by November 1 2010.

The number of residents from Taiwan was over 170,000. 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.

(CNTV.cn May 1, 2011)