About 70 percent of university students in Hong Kong are willing to work in the Chinese mainland after graduation, especially in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, according to a survey released on Thursday.

The survey, conducted by the Hong Kong United Youth Association, found that 22 percent of students said they would like to find a job in the Chinese mainland "very much" and 48 percent of those were pleasant to work there.

Of the cities, Shanghai, the financial center of China, was the first choice of 69 percent of respondents, while Beijing, ranking second, interested 21 percent of students.

Shenzhen and Dalian were also eye-catching cities, attracting 4 percent and 5 percent of respondents respectively.

And 46 percent of respondents thought that, for their first job, the salary should be between 5,000 to 8,000 HK dollars per month, while 33 percent of those expected a monthly payment of 5,000 to 12,000 HK dollars.

Some 11 percent of respondents said they would accept the job in the Chinese mainland even if the salary was less then 5,000 HK dollars.

Since the job market in Hong Kong becomes more and more competitive, university students in Hong Kong have turned to the mainland to find opportunities, said Adrian Yip, managing vice chairman of the association.

Yip also said the survey showed 90 percent of students highly valued the intern experience in big companies in the mainland, which they believed would help a lot during their job-hunting process.

About 460 students in 6 universities have been interviewed, including those from the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.