According to a recent research article posted on the website of the British medical journal The Lancet, China has made substantial strides to improve life expectancy at birth over the past 20 years.
The article says the average life expectancy has been prolonged by 8.5 years. Increases ranged from 4 years in Hebei province to 14 years in Tibet.
Improvements for females exceeded those for males in all regions except Shanghai, Macao, and Hong Kong. Still, Shanghai comes out on top nationallly. Life expectancy there is 80.2 years for males and 85.2 years for females.