The entire list could probably be filled with Chinese and Indian cities alone. Also, Nanjing is quite well-known for unfortunate reasons related to WWII.
@@jordanmcgrory2171 I mean, it is probably safe to assume that most didn't know it was one of the largest cities in the world, and what it it doing currently.
Idk how many people have heard have heard of Nanjing, but a lot have probably heard of Nanking (most likely because of what the Japanese did there and the Opium Wars); those are the exact same place, just written differently (as you may have guessed)
Yea. I think most people who payed attention during world history would know XiAn and Nanjing, as they are two of the four great capitals of ancient China.
@@lik7953 Guangzhou/Kanton is another place like that. If the Opium Wars came up during History class that name should instantly ring a bell, as that is where the First Opium War started
The Asian events of WWII are not really covered in much depth in western schools. I only learned about the events of Nanjing when I took a course in Chinese language and culture.
@@justsomeguy5103 in the US, it's definitely covered as part of events leading into WWII and why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I remember learning about the Nanjing massacre. We spent more time on it than we did about the US concentration camps for Japanese Americans, of course
Fun fact :The subway system in Xi'an went extremely slow and difficult since Xi'an has been the capital city for 13 ancient dynasties. For every kilometer you go underground you may accidentally encounter an archeological site with hundreds or even thousands of years' history. There is a joke saying that the busiest people for Xi'an subway construction are not engineers but archaeologists.
LOL the construction and expansion of the Rome Metro had the exact same problems. Construction always had to be delayed because of ancient Roman artifacts and ruins being uncovered haha.
Fun fact - Chongqing and Chengdu have a major rivalry that has existed since at least the Qing Dynasty For context, Chongqing is like taking metro Chicago with the terrain of Pittsburg. It has a lot of good universities and is a very industrial city. Chengdu is a very electronics heavy, somewhat counterculture city that’s often gets in trouble for “ignoring” Beijing. Like a supersized Seattle. Unsurprisingly, an American consulate is located on the city.
There actually isn't an American consulate anymore. After the US kicked out China's Houston consulate, China retaliated by kicking the US out of Chengdu.
It's weird clicking on this video and seeing my own city, but considering Nagoya is famous within Japan for being skipped over and ignored despite its large population and historical significance, it makes sense. Here are a few more interesting facts about Nagoya: Nagoya has the annual World Cosplay Summit, Nagoya Station has the tallest railway-station building in the world, Nagoya Station is also one of the oldest in Japan opening in 1886, the Nagoya area also contains the largest Brazilian population in Japan (mostly because of Toyota), and while Japan is more known for things like fish, Nagoya is the chicken capital of Japan with its own style of chicken wings famous all over the country.
As someone new to Japan, I was really impressed when I visited Nagoya a few months ago. Miso Nikomi Udon is one of the best dishes I've had in Japan so far!
I lived in Chengdu in 2016/2017, and visited Chongqing on two occasions. I found the duality of the two so intriguing. They're connected by high-speed rail and despite being roughly the same distance apart as Montreal and Toronto, the trip takes only an hour and 45 minutes, and cost roughly $20CAD. Chengdu is pan-flat and sits at the bottom of the Sichuan basin, but is only about a 1-hour drive away from the foot of the Sichuan mountains, the highest range east of the Himalayas with Mt. Siguniang standing at over 6000m. On a clear day (pretty much only ever after summer rain) you could see the snowy peaks from the city. But most days are humid, cloudy and windless. Not to mention the air pollution. The only way to describe a midsummer day in Chengdu is "heavy". Converseley, Chongqing is at the eastern edge of the basin, and at the confluence of the mighty Yangtze and Jialing rivers. The second time I was there, the water was so low, that you could walk down into the riverbed, where locals would have picnics and fish. On the legs of the bridge, the high water mark was visible about 20m higher up. Rising dramatically from the river is the mountainous topography that the rest of the city is built on/into. It's easily the most dynamic city I've ever been to and to me, is a unique place in the world. Built into the caves in one of the riverside cliffs, is a nightlife area full of bars and restaurants, called the hongya caves, which I believe inspired the architecture seen in the anime film Spirited Away. Aside from the monorail and bus systems, their transit network also features cable cars that traverse the rivers, but serve more as tourist attractions these days, considering the insane lineups you have to wait in to ride them. It also features from what I remember, the world's longest escalator, which you can access with the same card as the metro. During the Sino-Japanese War/WW2, the KMT moved their capital to Chongqing, where they built a network of tunnels/caves/bunkers into the mountains where they could take refuge from bombings. Today, the networks are still part of the city, and many of these underground spaces serve as social spaces - probably most often and famously, as hot pot restaurants. Much like Chengdu, the climate is extremely humid, and somehow even hotter. It's known as one of the 3 furnaces of the Yangtze River valley along with Wuhan (which probably would have also been in this video if it weren't for the pandemic) and Nanjing. The two cities also spar over who makes better hot pot. Otherwise, the character of the cities couldn't be more different. Like the flatness of Chengdu, the locals are laid back, indulge in the very Sichuanese art of public napping and spending all day playing majiang and drinking tea. It's often said that Chengdunese fight with their mouths, and Chongqingers fight with their fists. And I find this apt, as the whole city of Chongqing feels much more brutal. It's more of a fast-paced, rabble-rousing city and it's felt in the people and the dynamism of its landscape and architecture. As someone else in the comments likened it to Chicago, I'll agree wholeheartedly. In what those cities lack in notoriety, being behind others like Beijing, Shanghai, New York, LA, etc., they make up for in character and uniqueness. They're cities with a ton of soul.
I too lived in Chengdu for a period and would visit Chongqing, much more often than you however since my who is now wife was originally from Neijiang (about 1/3 closer to Chongqing between it and Chengdu). The first time I went to Chongqing in 2009 I was awestruck - how could such a major city exist without anybody knowing about it? And this was 2009 when things were basically just starting to take off. In reality, Chongqing is better known in the west as ChunKing which I'm sure more people have at least heard of. And I totally agree with your opinion: Chengdu is definitely more relaxed, almost lazy and flatter than Kansas whereas Chongqing has that big city vibe, fast paced, and a bit more gritty up and down mountains like if you married Chicago and SF or a Vancouver. I found there was more to do in Chongqing but the city is VERY chinese compared to Chengdu. Both also have a major airport but Chengdu - also breaking the trend of Beijing rule - is building a 2nd airport arguably for no reason since they're keeping hte current one open. I think Chongqing may eventually build a new one too but given the lack of land area I wouldn't be surprised if they closed hte current one and reclaimed (esp since the subway lines are already there). I think the OP actually didn't do much justice to Chongqing other than he liked it but not much time was given to the city, it's importance, economy, and ect. So I encourage the OP to do a film jsut on Chongqing, or perhaps each city, separately now. And I agree with the UN population numbers - surprise, I also lived in Nagoya JP and agree with you assessment there as well (although I prob wouldn't count 9m people in the city, more like metro). Chongqing def has 14+ million in the city ( you feel it) and Chengdu about 8.
@@rchilde1 I'm surprised you got a bustling fast paced city vibe from CQ! I lived there for three years, visited CD three times, and I found them very similar. They really benefit from being far away from BeiShanGuang and under less scrutiny from the national govt. Both places are very relaxed and have awesome QoL
Chongqing is a really cool place. You're right, it is incredibly hilly, but it's still dense. So a building might have a "ground floor" on the 1st floor and the 20th. But a big part of the population is that despite being classified as one "city", it's the size of Austria. If you only counted the built up area, it would be much lower on the list.
Its actually not lower on the list, in the video it was mentioned according to the UN numbers as a population of about 14 million, this is pretty much accurate. So the spot on the list is correct, however if you were to make the list based on city limits it would be in the top 5 if not 1. The UN list is quite accurate with the exception of Seoul, which is listed as 9 million when in reality its closer to 22 million.
That list takes it into account. The city is listed as having 14 million, which is right, counting the central urban area - the municipality (the size of Austria) is the one that's often miscounted, as it has 32 million people. The metro of the central city is 17 million.
Cities in China are often located in a mountainous area and it's because China has 4 times America's population in a country the size of America but with far less flat land than America
This is cool and I think non-Western cities in general don't get talked about enough in urbanist circles. On the one hand I do get there's language barrier issues, differences in economic level of development, and differences in political structure. But cities outside North America/Western Europe do some neat things and no cities match the public transit that East Asian cities have except maybe Moscow. Everybody loves Dutch cities of course but there's good and interesting things, as well as familiar challenges, in parts of the world that most anglo-phone folks don't think much about!
A lot of Middle Eastern and African cities like Alexandria, Giza, Dakar, Yaounde, Douala, Porto Novo, Kumasi, Freetown, Izmir, Antalya, Konya, Sana'a, Amman, Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers are not well known
Well of course western cities are more talked about in the west then Chinese cities. And urban planning is done in a way different way in the west then in china so you really can’t compare the 2.
Dutch cities are generally great to live in, but small compared to those in other countries. The biggest city Amsterdam, doesn't even have a million people (unless you count the greater area and then its still just 1.3).
Chennaite here. Surprised you didn't talk about the metro system here. The city is undergoing a major metro rail network overhaul. 2 lines are already opened and operational since a few years, and 1 more line is under construction. Two more lines have been identified with all tests and studies done and are about to begin construction. Altogether spanning all across the city. The city also has a large bus transit network, covering all corners of the city and outside too.
I took lots of Asian history classes in college, so I knew most of the Asian cities. Very surprised you didn't know about Xi'an. It was the original capitol & cultural heartland of China, until they decided to move it to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty.
I am sorry but you may have glossed over some very important part of Chinese history. Xi'an's importance has gradually declined from 700AD (due to wars and desertification) and ceased to be capital of China from 900AD onwards. Ming moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in around 1400AD. There was a massive 500+ years gap. The real trend is not from one city to another, but the shift of power dynamic from Western to Eastern China, and from Yellow River region to Yangtze River region. In fact -- up till nowadays -- the cultural and economic heartland of China is its eastern region (e.g. cities like Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou), and that shift gradually happened during 700 AD to 1200 AD as Northern China was, from time to time, destroyed by various wars and natural disasters. Also, Beijing has NEVER been the cultural and economic center of China, as its prestige mainly stems from political and military reasons (it stood in midway between Northern China and nomadic territories).
China and India are an universe inself, each one is their own "Americas" in terms of population. Imagine New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima and Bogota in the same country, same flag, sometimes even the same region, and only one of them is the capital.
I think they're overlooked at times because it's so difficult to grasp just how huge India's and China's populations are. Both of their populations are bigger than the "first world" western countries' (EU + associates, US, Can, Aus and NZ are around 930 million). Even if you include the "first world" countries in Asia that are western aligned; Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, that's only 200 million more and still not close enough to China's and India's 1.4 people each. Like you say, they are their own universes. And on top of that, China's population is still only 62% urbanized, in comparison developed countries has around 80+% urbanization rate, which means hundreds of millions of Chinese will keep moving into cities. India is even further behind with only 35% urbanization rate. This combined with the rise of Africa, climate change and an increasing demand of natural resources (and car industries shifting from high demand of oil to high demand of lithium (the lithium triangle shared between Chile, Bolivia and Argentina could make those countries big players on the world stage if no new batteries that uses something other than lithium enters the stage)) will make the 21st century a really interesting time period to live in.
To add some more trivia: Nanjing was the capital of many Chinese dynasties and regimes (it was last the capital under the ROC). Nan-Jing literally means "southern capital," while Bei-Jing means "northern capital" (incidentally Tokyo means "eastern capital"). Nanjing was also known (minorly) for naturally colorful river rocks (Yuhua stones), but that's pretty much gone by now.
@@Blaqjaqshellaq Can attest, the rain in Wuhan doesn't quite rain, it just mists such that you walk into it. Incredibly hot and humid in the summer, and in winter the chilled humidity goes straight to the bones. It can be a very rough city to live in for outsiders.
Puebla is similar in size to Denver and Santo Domingo, and is not some small provincial hub close to Mexico City. And its not some unplanned mess, its a pretty meaty, grand and urban city. La Plata in Argentina is another classic example. Brazil had too many cities like this, it's not just Rio, Sao and the "provinces".
Belo Horizonte, Brazilian 3rd most populated metro area (5.5 million inh.) is relatively unknown. Ditto for Porto Alegre (Southern Brazil, 4 million people), twice the size of Montevideo, Uruguayan capital.
Wow I am actually current residing in Chongqing! Chongqing is by far my favorite city in China outside of Shanghai. The city itself is so physically 3-dimensional from the seemingly minimum 30+ story building requirements and the hills and mountains that the city is built on. Chongqing is also the only city in China that doesn’t have exclusive bike/scooter lanes because the city is so mountainous that bikes and electric scooters aren’t going to cut it. I assume this put extra pressure to design such impressive metro system. The main part of the city is divided into three parts by two large rivers (lesson known Jialong River to the north and Yangtze River to the south) running west to east. The best thing about the bridges that span these rivers is that they are all walkable! Most large bridges in China don’t include pedestrian lanes (e.g. none in Shanghai do). Chongqing also has a seemingly laissez faire approach to zoning a building. Within many residential buildings are entire floors that are a hotel, other floors that are a different hotel, floors with restaurants, barber shops, eyeglasses stores, and basically most businesses you could think of. Last thing I love about chongqing is that lots of national parks are just a bus or high speed train ride away. Lots and lots of gorgeous mountains, rivers, and other geological formations out here. And some of the most beautiful flora and fauna too. I know it’s not everyone’s top travel destination in China (not that anyone can come to China right now anyways 😂) but if you ever find yourself in China for an extended period of time, Chongqing is a great city to visit!
@@alastairzotos well I’m usually based in Shanghai but I came out here in March before the big lockdowns all began (best decision of my life). I speak Mandarin Chinese which most everyone under 50 speaks, although the local dialect is so similar to Mandarin that I can still understand and communicate just fine. There’s not really an expat community out here because there’s very few international schools, which is essentially the only source of foreigners ever since the “double reduction” policy closed English training schools nationwide. Cities like Shanghai and Beijing are still much more accommodating to foreigners, but Chongqing really is an amazing city too!
Nagoya is in the perfect place if you want to visit Japan, specifically Kansai, but can’t find available accommodations in Osaka or Kyoto. With the Japan rail pass, you can easily hop on and only need to sit on a train for 45 minutes. That’s not to say there’s nothing to see there, there’s Nagoya castle, the Toyota museum, and the humble Osu Kanon district. There’s also Sekigahara, the site of the last big battle of medieval Japan, if you want to hike in rural Japan, all just a local jr ride away
And you got a great amusement park Nagashima Spa Land, I spent 2,5 days in the city. You don't really need longer than that yueah. But in Osaka you'll find much cheaper hotel options especially in the neighborhood near tsutenkaku
Latín América is a good example. We tend to think of countries like Colombia and Argentina as having like 5 or 6 mayor cities with the rest being provincial hubs. There is definitely a Global Divide issue, some Latin American mid sized cities have more of a urban feel compared to US cities but have a less influential global economy, while other Latin American cities are similarly big but never managed to build a truly urban feel.
In general, Latin American countries have a very large city and those that follow are much smaller (not so different from the rest of the world). The exception to this would be Brazil, but indeed several countries have large cities, such as Colombia, which has Bogota, medellin, cartagena, cali and barranquilla, mexico that has mexico city, monterey, guadalajara, puebla and queretaro
imo large cities in Latin America (like Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Santiago) have an amazing urban feel to them. But it's true that Latin American mid sized cities are far exceeding the urban feel of similarly sized American cities (like Rosario, Valparaiso, Queretaro, Guadalajara, Cartagena, Porto Alegre, Salvador) but some are also just as disappointing as American cities (like Tijuana, Brasilia, La Serena)
@R. Mariano yeah or places like Savannah and Charleston which are absolute gems of midsized cities in the US, often overlooked for not so nice cities like Atlanta, Dallas etc
Language barrier do exists. As a Chinese, Those East Asian cities in this video, no matter Nagoya, Chongqing, Nanjing and more, is very familiar to me. Many of them were famous big cities since thousands years ago.
Shall do the stereotypical Chennai person online thing and point out, tiny bit unfair on the description for Chennai. Glossed over its history but, at least from a city-planning/urbanism/transit perspective, it deserves more. Great commuter train network, incredibly well connected bus system, two existing lines and three under construction metro lines being built, plus some focus on building a more sustainable, car-free city
@@pulkitgera8509 Yeah. But I've been whining about people missing out Madras's great history for years now (I got online in 1995, been complaining about Madras history being overlooked since 2003) it's gotten a tad tiring for me too :)
Talking about the population of Chinese cities is kinda tricky because "cities" in China are extremely large jurisdictions with municipal boundaries spreading far beyond their metro areas (in China, counties are subordinate to cities, and "cities" can cover thousands of square miles of area). Chongqing, in particular, is probably the biggest exemplar of this issue. It is a "directly administered municipality", which puts it equivalent to a province in administrative hierarchy and covers an area larger than Austria, but a large portion of its some 33,000,000 residents live in far-flung rural areas of the "city". Also, Chengdu is generally considered to be in southwestern China, not central (which would be where Wuhan is).
American cities are similar tho. With metro New York being the size of Belgium, and metro LA being the size of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg combined.
@@jamescoulson7729 American cities have the opposite problem in that their metro areas are split into a number of independent municipalities separate from the city proper. NYC proper covers about 300 square miles of land with a metro area that covers around 3,500 square miles. In contrast, Chongqing proper has an area of a little under 32,000 square miles, but the urban/metro area is only around 2,100 square miles (and it's not clear if that number includes urbanized areas that would be considered separate satellite cities in a non-Chinese context).
@Abhinav Madahar The issue as regards Chongqing, specifically, is that the city proper includes enormous amounts of rural land that wouldn't properly be considered as part of a "metropolitan area", anyway. It would be like the US city of Wichita's municipal borders including all of the State of Kansas. Nearly none of the Chongqing jurisdiction's area is inhabited on the basis of land-area.
Similar in Sweden, sort of. Stockholm Region is way larger than the actual city, but there's also many municipalities within. I honestly don't know which is the higher level of governance.
Chongqing is by far the coolest place I've ever lived. Dirt cheap rent, unbelievable transit and architecture, great food, amazing people. Everyone should go if you get the chance. It's also about 90 minutes away from Chengdu by train, which is an equally wonderful place.
As a Chennaiite, I think that you didn't cover the city enough - the great transit, beaches and neighbourhoods. And it is also a major cultural centre apart from the movies - for instance, it has a month-long Music and Dance festival that is visited by tons of people from India/outside India It's not just a big boring industrial city. I also think there are lots more of great pictures/videos that would do more justice to the city than what you used. PS: Don't get me wrong on the criticism - I love your videos, just that this one did Chennai a disservice.
I've been to all these cities aside from Luanda, I need to bump that up in priority. Chongqing is truly mind-blowing! The downtown is so dense, it can barely be described. You can't use a map here because there are two levels of street navigation: the street level and the building-to-building level as many edifices have walkways half way up between them. Outside of downtown the city expands endlessly, and seems to be nothing but tall apartments. I need to shout out Chennai, that city has a really cool vibe with an interesting restaurant culture and market districts. It's also very colorful, the citizens love to paint everything bright colors and the temples feature symphonies of hues. The areas around Chennai are crammed full of ancient temples and towns, one of the most culturally rich regions I've been to.
I did my bachelor's degree in the city of Nanjing two years ago and it was at that time I realized how underrated some Chinese cities are. I am definitely planning to go back there and explore other cities included in this video's list (Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chongqing) . China has many things to offer and you wouldn't regret visiting it at all!
5:46 I wanted to point out after I saw the earlier release on Curiosity Stream that many of the innermost ring roads in Chinese cities are the location of the former city walls. Knocking the obsolete walls down in favor of roads was a major undertaking that's worth looking into. The innermost ring road is actually not highlighted on that map of Sichuan, though visible, but it and the first three highlighted rings were almost definitely walls. The outermost road is likely the only one that's a new modern path.
@JimboNetics Baidu maps should have street view if you want to take a look at stuff, I'm not sure if there's an English option but it's simple enough to navigate that it shouldn't take too much fumbling around to figure out either way.
happy to see my fascination/admiration for Chinese rail isnt as niche as i thought. I had always been amazed at the sheer amount of High Speed Rail that they have managed to build over the past 20 years, so it doesnt really come as a surprise that theyve been doing the same thing at scale within their cities as well.
You've gotta respect the honesty of this guy. "Yeah I don't actually have any in-depth knowledge of these places. I just did a quick Google search which you could have easily done yourself."
Chongqing is another relatively new city by Chinese standards. It's only been around since the 1700s. For a long time it was totally eclipsed as a small settlement by neighboring and very ancient Chengdu. But then it got a huge boost when the Republic of China made Chongqing its capital city during the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and 1940s, after Nanjing had fallen. Lots of refugees flooded into this new capital city during these years, which turned Chongqing from a small non-entity city into one of the most important in China. And apparently that continues to this day.
3:44 In Age of Empires 3 Asian Dynasties DLC, the Porcelain Tower is one of the Wonders you have to build to age up for China. As a bonus, it gives some crates after the age up, and passively gives you a slow amount of ressources you want, whether it's food, wood, coins or all 3. Of course, getting the wonder destroyed makes you lose that passive bonus.
Xi'an, Nanjing and Chongqing have all served as China's capital in the past. Nanjing was Chiang Kai-shek's capital until the Japanese invasion forced the Nationalists to flee upriver to Chongqing, which suffered a bombing campaign at the same time as the London blitz, and on a similar scale. (I did my Ph.D. on Chongqing in its treaty port days.) Nanjing has suffered more than its share of misfortune. The rebel Taiping regime made the city its headquarters between 1851 and 1864, and at one point after an unsuccessful counter-rebellion blood literally flowed through the streets! And of course, the Japanese takeover was accompanied by the Nanjing Massacre, with widespread murder and rape.
Many cities in China are like that. Wuhan as well has its own famous battles in WW2 and the Taiping rebellion. It was also a major home of the early Communist movement and the HQ of the Wang Jingwei leftist KMT during the KMT split. The big cities are all like this. They are big because they occupy key areas, and naturally they are magnets for big affairs.
Great concept! Most people know nothing about my city Calgary, even though it's the 3rd largest in Canada after Toronto and Montreal. Vancouver has a large urban area but the actual city's population is about half that of Calgary.
Depends on what you think of as Vancouver. Vancouver municipality is 115 km², much smaller than Calgary's 800+ km². But Metro Vancouver (which includes the surrounding burbs) has about 2.5 million people.
@Sheldon Pon Your comment isn't accurate. The city of Ottawa has a greater population than Washington DC but when you consider the metropolitan population of Ottawa (around 1.2 million) vs. Washington DC (over 6 million) it quickly becomes clear which is the larger city. Toronto's claim of being bigger than Chicago is equally suspect. Toronto metropolitan population is 6.5 million vs. Chicago 9.5 million. Technicalities aside, Chicago is bigger than Toronto. Furthermore this video is considering metropolitan (aglomerate) city sizes.
Chongqin is also known as the "bridge capitol" and also reffered to City in the mountains normally. Went there now 2 times and its an insane city, Chongqin is nearly as big as Austria and is home ti 32~m people. Cant wait to go back to China once it opens up again. Their nightclub scenes are also insane.
I've stayed in Nagoya (na-go-yuh) and been there twice. Very busy city. The subway system is great and the city is one of the few in Japan that is awake late.
Dude, thank you SOO much for literally just putting probably in the title! It annoys me so much when people write "10 things you didn't know about..." and you know half the stuff. It's like, bruh, you don't know who I am, stop assuming stuff about me and go back to your little man cave. But thank you SOOO much for not doing that!!
Jeez, as an America, it's downright embarrassing to hear how fast those metro systems were built. It took nyc 10 years to open 3 stations on 2nd Ave lol
The USA has to deal with personal property rights and environmental studies among others. In China, the government can do whatever they want whenever and wherever they want. Those mom and pop stores and restaurants that make NYC so special wouldn't stand a chance in other countries if they were in the way of development.....and it's not just the transit systems, it's all those "economic zones" and massive infrastructure projects. You won't hear anything about the negatives because all information in and out of some of these countries is completely censored.
There are mom and pops and street stalls in most Chinese cities and Chinese residential neighbourhoods are dominated by residential apartment buildings from low to super high rise and are actually mostly mixed use residential and commercial. Public transportation is frequent and easy to get, unlike in most American cities. Rates of violent and property crimes are significantly lower. These are facts and objectively goods things about urban living, regardless of the fact that they do not have "freedom".
The governments of China have with regards to City done whatever they want largely to make cities well run... Having democracy or dictatorship does not necessitate that governance will be competent. The most competently run state bureaucracies in the United States are actually those that are not democratic and are highly hierarchical in nature: that is the United States Armed Forces.
I’ve heard of Luanda… mainly because I’m a geography nerd and I’ve memorized my world capitals. I also know Chengdu because my airport has flights there. Heard of Nagoya and Chennai too. There are also a lot of flights to Shenzhen and Guangzhou from where I live.
I used to live near Nagoya, it is one of the best cities in Japan. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend going! Definitely check out Sakae and Osukannon!
Spent three years living in Chengdu, and spent a considerable amount of time in Chongqing. Also spent some time in Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and several other Chinese cities.
Really wishe a channel like this talked about big cities in Brazil other than São Paulo Rio, or Brazilia and Manaus if they're feeling fancy. Fortaleza and Salvador are massive cities with much more than just tourism, Belo Horizonte is a massive part of the economic trifecta it forms with SP and RJ, and there's also the massive underdiscussed cities in the south of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Curitiba is at best known as footnote in the history, while Porto Alegre, a city with a metropolitan population of Rome, doesn't get discussed at all. The last 2 are also fascinating because they show actual subtropical climate, getting pretty unique vegetation and geography because of it. There's so much more to Brazil than 2 really big cities
In Sao Paulo State alone, the following cities have populations in excess of 400,000 people, not including those that are within the Sao Paulo City Metropolitan Area: Sorocaba, Campinas, Franca, Taubate, Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Ribeirao Preto, Presidents Prudente, Marilia, Santos.
Just proof it is not the size of the city that matters when it comes to making a city interesting it is Culture, Geography, and other factors that make a city appealing. Like every year Japan releases its most charming Prefectures and Cities and Hakodate and Sapporo usually top the list, and they are not very large, but everyone in Japan knows them
@@santiagopalacio7875 culture has to exist first in most cases, it's not easy to sell a overpopulated, bare, grimy industrial city as a destination for the majority of tourists, i sure am not interested, i'm sure many mayors have tried in vain.
@@quitlife9279 but of course. Barcelona is the clear example of that ( and one that i know very much). Before its reconversion to a Mass Tourist city, that the 92s games were the zenit, Barcelona was one of the best spanish cultural cities. The commons made It a city of art and of architecture. You could find local asemblies in games, bars and book clubs all over the inner city that gave Life to the city. That made Barcelona attractive to the outside. That started the commodification of Barcelona, and look at how It is now. A shallow pit of consumerism, massive tourism, and all the things that made Barcelona actually great, have dissapeared.
Thanks for such a great video. As someone who is currently living in China, please allow me to add some corrections and comments to your video: 1. Xi'An is a fascinating city and you absolutely should visit it. In addition to the Terracota Warriors, it's also renowned for being home to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Hui Street (some of the best street food in China is found here) and the fantastic Mt. Hua is only a 20 minute high speed rail ride away if you want to escape the city scenery. 2. You can actually visit Najing's Porcelain Tower, as they rebuilt a replica of it in 2015. Not only that, but some large pieces of the original porcelain tower can still be viewed in the Nanjing Museum today. I also highly reccommend visiting Nanjing, as it has a vast amount of history from both ancient and modern China. The Nanjing Massacre Museum, the old headquarters of the GuoMinDang (which also houses the throne of the TaiPing Rebellion), and the former mansion of Chiang Kai-shek's wife are just a couple of the fascinating historical sights around Nanjing. The food is amazing, too! 3. Guangzhou is my favorite city in all of China. Best food in China, and has some wonderful historical sites, too. You should know however that the Guangzhou-Foshan metro link is not the only one in China that goes between two major cities; Shanghai and Suzhou also have connected metro lines. In short, China is a fantastic country, and yes, the metro systems here are very impressive. As long as I'm not in a major hurry, I love riding the metro to save money.
I only knew about the Chinese cities because some Brazillian football players were in the Chinese Super League. As Brazillian, I learned about Luanda because some friends worked in civil construction.
It's really interesting that Shenzhen is considered a Mandarin-speaking city when all cities within Guangdong province were traditionally majority Cantonese speaking. Due to massive internal migration from the last 10 or so years, it shifted from majority Cantonese to majority Mandarin. You'll only really find Cantonese speakers at traditional markets. My mother's family were among the first to move to Shenzhen when it was planned to be an SEZ, and my grandfather helped to recruit people to move there, he also was the architect of some of the older skyscrapers that still remain.
The migration to Luanda has more to do with the effects of the war. Due to the destruction of much farmland by the Portuguese, as well as the destruction caused by the group unita, many Angolans who relied on subsistence farming had to leave the countryside into Luanda to find a job in service and other such fields. Luanda became a financial engine in the region as a consequence of the migration, not the other way around
You could spend days exploring Nagoya station without ever going outside. Not only is the station building itself a massive mall, it's also connected to several other big shopping complexes via inter-building and underground passages that stretch all the way to the next subway stop.
I have been to 3 of those cities, Chengdu, Xi'an and Nagoya! Nagoya was probably my least favourite city in Japan, unfortunately its automotive manufacturing makes it very car-centric, something that was not the case in most other Japanese cities. Xi'an is also pretty well known in the tech industry as there is a lot of outsourcing of development and testing moving there.
I agree, I've been to Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Nagoya on the list (lived in Nagoya and Chengdu for a time). By far my most favorite city on the list is Chongqing and least would be Nagoya. When I was in Japan, I couldn't wait to get away to Osaka or (to a lesser extent) Tokyo for my big city fix.
I'm sitting here watching this video from one of the "leading" cities in the west being incredibly jealous of Chinese public transport infrastructure. It's at the same time so ridiculous and incredibly obvious that it would be a great investment for a city
Heard of all of these cities, could have told you a thing or two about all but one, and even visited six of them.....but even when the title failed me, I still very much enjoyed this video! Quite a number of mindblowing facts. And it is kind of funny that when I visited some of these cities they didn't even have their metro system yet, but are now among the biggest.
Though it's been a while, I didn't realize Kinshasa was that heavily populated and kind of fascinated by the urban layout with most of those cities in China. Love those shipping ports too. Not sure why, but I find the logistics of it very interesting.
Xian (silk road), Nanjing (former capital + WW2), Tianjin (Beijing events of 1900), Shenzhen (Chinese Silicon Valley) and Guangzhou (only port open to foreign commerce in the 18th century) are pretty famous I would say. More than say Kinshasa. But it’s true I know next to nothing about Chongqing.
10:09 71 million people in the Pearl River Delta region. To put that into perspective, if it were a country, it would rank 20th in the world in terms of population, behind Germany but ahead of France and the United Kingdom. And this is on a land area comparable to the Netherlands (who themselves have a population of 17 million, which is ALREADY enough to beat out every single US state including New Jersey and Rhode Island - the PRD region therefore has more than four times the average population density of those states). An area slightly larger than Maryland, but with the population of the ONE HUNDRED BIGGEST USA CITIES together. And that's assuming we go with the 71 million people figure in the first place. Wikipedia claims the Pearl River Delta region has a population of 78 million.
For a bit of international relations: Many experts argue that the reason China is putting a squeeze on Hong Kong now, stripping it of free speech and political autonomy, is because Hong Kong is no longer as valuable economically as it once was. In 1997, Hong Kong was everything. But now, as the video states, Shenzen is larger. Beijing has little need to appease Hong Kong or not meddle with it at this point. It's essentially expendable. The situation is a shame.
Before, Hong Kong was the only notable financial center from which China could get foreign capital for its industries, but since Shanghai has risen in prominence as a competing financial center while being more tied to CCP ideologies, Hong Kong no longer has a monopoly on foreign access to China. In a few decades or so with the growth of the southern provinces and especially the cities, China will seek to unify the Pearl River Delta.
Tianjin is a relatively new city by Chinese standards. Its claim to fame was that it served as the port to the imperial capital of Beijing from the 1600s onwards. Before then it was an insignificant fishing village. It became a major focal point of European expansion during the colonial period in the 1800s and early 1900s as Tianjin was easily accessible by sea, making it easy for European gun boats and ships to land there. Thus European influence arrived first in Tianjin on its way to Beijing.
I think you should rename this video, either cities US people have never heard of (as African, European, Asian, and Aussie school kids will recognise most of them), or cities people don't know under their current name (as many Chinese cities were called something else outside China, until recently).
Maybe because I live in a country just a sea away from China, almost all of the cities seemed familiar for me... Wondered how Kinshasa and Ahmedabad was skipped since most won't even know that Kinshasa is the capital of the DRC and Ahmedabad is something which I don't know much about despite 10 years of living in India. P.s. - just a nitpick, but Chennai is pronounced like "chen-nai" not "che-nai"
To interpret the title somewhat differently, while people most likely have heard of Essen, Cologne, Dortmund etc. few people probably realize that they make up a continous metropolitan area that with a combined population of over 10 million people is one of the biggest "cities" in the world.
Great video, as always. Like most I knew nothing about those cities, except one - Guangzhou. A famous footballer from my country played there for a few years and suddenly the media was filled with countless of articles about this city.
I had heard of Shenzen, due to the Strange Parts TH-cam channel (he used to live there). But plenty of cities skipped in your list I had never heard of and know nothing about. Follow up video for the uncultured among us?
Interesting. I appreciate the attention paid to Chinese cities. Even if I may not want to emulate their governmental system, there’s still something to be learned from them. Also on the topic of relatively unknown cities. I have found a number of times in my travels that I like the “2nd city” or another lesser known large city in a country or state better than the more well known one. I’m wondering if there are any common factors that influence the design and features of these cities. I think it would be a great topic.
I am really surprised to see most of these cities here at all honestly, though, I am a big geography nut and map guy, so... haha. But not knowing of Guangzhou? Or Shenzhen? REALLY?! Baffles me! Absolutely baffles me. I do not understand how those two would be some of the least known in China, let alone the world. Especially being so close to Hong Kong which the international community is obsessed with. It's also painfully close by to Macau, which was a former Portuguese colony, and is directly across the bay from Hong Kong - you literally will pass by, over and look directly at Macau flying in and out of Hong Kong. Wild to me.
Yeah I don't think Guangzhou or Shenzhen fit. While not as near famous as shanghai or beijing they are both tier 1 cities and have a lot more fame then the other chinese cities except wuhan.
@@guppy719 And Wuhan only because of the lab now. Without that whole debacle I think Wuhan would be essentially still unknown of by most people of the world. Ironic isn't that?
The thing is, there are so many giant cities in China. Every time something internationally noteworthy happens in one of them, I'm like "oh, never heard of that city before, it's probably on the small side" and it turns out to have like 5 million people. Best example is Wuhan, which was obviously covered a lot when 2020 happened. A city many people have never heard about, and it's got 8 million people.
Due to Turkish citizens officially residing elsewhere but informally living in Istanbul, and millions of refugees, both of which are not counted in the official counts, Istanbul likely has a population of 19-20 million, I'd reckon most residents would estimate. Just wanted to append that about the initial portion of the video.
6:08 Nagoya Station (245m, 804ft) is not currently the tallest station in the world. It's Osaka-Abenobashi Station (300m, 984ft) which is known as Abeno Harukas.
Chinese cities are really something else. After living in one of the cities on this list, the only city in North America that really feels like a "big city" is New York. I get that L.A. and Mexico City have large populations, but they don't have the "Sky scrapers as far as the eye can see" thing going on. The bus ride from the outskirts to the new town in the city I lived in feels like traveling forward in time by at least a century.
@@marashdemnika5833 Chicago's downtown is nothing compared to a number of Chinese cities. As a Minnesotan, Chicago feels very familiar. It's like if St. Paul, Milwaukee, or Des Moines were much bigger. But when I first visited New York, my eyes popped out of my sockets. It's nothing like any other North American City. And the Pearl Delta Region makes NYC seem sleepy.
I've always wanted to visit Shenzhen, HK, and Congqing. Megacities have always been fascinating to me. As a kid I could never get over how tall the buildings were in NYC. Since leaving it is still interesting to me how small and spread out north American cities are
I think there was an oppurtunity to talk about more indian cities, like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, or Bangalore (I know that many may know about the latter, I think its justified to talk about the city when you're talking about cities like shezhen that appear on global news quite often).
How could anyone not know about Nagoya? It's the eastern end of the Kintetsu Empire. You have heard of Kintetsu, right? Other well known cities have also made the list, for some reason. Guangzhou is famous for it's motion picture industry, which is shared with Hong Kong. Also Cantonese food. Nanjing (formerly Nanking) is the former capitol of China. Very historically significant.
0:01 I'mma bet most of them are in China. 0:13 That sounds like Chongqing. 1:34 Know that one. It has the Terracotta Army and is in its own valley near the desert. 2:36 No metro? Could be in India. 2:37 Oh. Know that one. 3:32 We know of the rape of Nanjing. It means "southern capital" in Chinese. Not too far from Shanghai. 3:46 Never heard of the wonder. 4:34 Heard that. Just west of Chongqing in its own flat plain. 5:55 Africa 5:56 Know that one. Between Tokyo and Osaka. 7:18 Is it Egypt's planned new capital? 7:23 First in India. Know that southern India city. 8:33 Is it Dongguan? 10:10 That's like the 3rd most famous Chinese city. 11:35 Hope it's not Beijing. Everybody knows that. 11:36 Just southeast and Beijing's port. I was close.
My school in Sweden had a few teachers and students visit from Bangalore due to a UN educational cooperation. Never having heard of Bangalore I didn't think it was such a remarkable city, until I looked it up and realized it had a population of 11,4 million which is larger than the entirety of Sweden. Sent me down an existential crisis.
I had an existential crisis when I learnt that Delhi had more people than all Nordic countries combined. You can even toss in a whole ass Estonia, which may or may not be Nordic, and still have less people than Delhi.
I'd say Shezhen and Chongqing are pretty well known, alongside with Nanjing. I mean like they have quite a presence. Guangzhou and Tianjin is also pretty well known if ur in the business world, since they're like massive ports for logistics.
I feel like it’s fascinating to learn about these undiscovered places. The ones we’re already familiar with (ex. Tokyo, Manila, Seoul, Jakarta, New York City, Dubai, etc) are deemed overrated. They’re very, very touristy, based on what I’ve observed. The lesser known cities should elevate their tourism somehow.
I’ve been to all the Chinese cities that you listed! I lived in china for 2 years and visited as many cities as I could. Of all the cities that you listed, I loved Nanjing the most, especially as I lived in Shanghai for a year.
Fun fact, Chongqing not only became the capital of China in WWII after the actual capital, Nanjing, was captured by Japanese, it was also the capital for the Korean government at the time.
This is a very common mistake made by people who aren't that familiar with Chinese, but the "zh" in "Shenzhen" is pronounced more like the English "j" sound, just like how you pronounced it in "Guangzhou". The closest English approximation of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation is probably "shun-jun", but "shen-jen" is probably more widely recognized.
For Chengdu, the rings circled aren't all the actual ring roads. 1st Ring Road is not in blue, and then your first two inner rings are 2nd ring Road, a two level city street + raised freeway with BRT transit. The next is 3rd ring Road which is also a freeway similar in style to most Texas freeways (4 lanes + 2-3 lane feeder roads). After there are two ring highways (a 3rd is under construction) which are both labeled on the map. Chengdu is a great city for pedestrians, I lived there for about 5 years and loved it, wish the US has something remotely comparable.
Regarding Luanda @ 03:05 "... only the African cities of Cairo and Lagos have more people ..." Also @ 10:09: Shows Kinshasa, An African city with more people than Luanda (but less than Cairo or Lagos)
People who work with portable generators or in the construction industry might know of Chongqing. It's where a lot of small engine manufacturers are headquartered such as Lifan and Loncin and the name Chongqing is often labeled on the engines.
Nagoya is also terra incognita for me. It was a castle town during the Tokugawa shogunate from 1600 to 1853. It became a large industrial center during the Meiji years and this is the city from where Toyota emerged.
i guess i’m biased because i’m an asian studies major, but i’m so shocked to see that people don’t know about these chinese cities lol as well as nagoya
I’m from Guangzhou and I’m so excited to see my birth city on the list! I actually think North American audience is generally pretty familiar with Guangzhou because nearly all early Chinese immigrants are from the Guangzhou/Canton region, and the Chinese cuisine North Americans are familiar with is Cantonese food, brought over by these early immigrants. Underrated city (by international standards) to visit, but I think it has some of the best persevered culture in China; the rest of China has their local culture toned down a lot from the revolution and rapid economic growth. Guangzhou is still so quirky and unique
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
The entire list could probably be filled with Chinese and Indian cities alone.
Also, Nanjing is quite well-known for unfortunate reasons related to WWII.
I know. I thought that was quite naive too, that his viewers wouldn't know nanjing,
There were quite a few Indian cities on the list that are far more unknown to me Than the 10 featured ones.
I may have missed it but it was also a former capital, aka Southern Capital, before it was moved to Beijing, aka Northern Capital.
@@jordanmcgrory2171 I mean, it is probably safe to assume that most didn't know it was one of the largest cities in the world, and what it it doing currently.
@@jordanmcgrory2171 yup its like expecting people who aren’t interested in said topic to know what Volgograd is
Idk how many people have heard have heard of Nanjing, but a lot have probably heard of Nanking (most likely because of what the Japanese did there and the Opium Wars); those are the exact same place, just written differently (as you may have guessed)
Yea. I think most people who payed attention during world history would know XiAn and Nanjing, as they are two of the four great capitals of ancient China.
@@lik7953 Guangzhou/Kanton is another place like that. If the Opium Wars came up during History class that name should instantly ring a bell, as that is where the First Opium War started
The Asian events of WWII are not really covered in much depth in western schools. I only learned about the events of Nanjing when I took a course in Chinese language and culture.
@@justsomeguy5103
It's a shame. We had great history teachers over the years. It shouldn't have to depend on having a good teacher.
@@justsomeguy5103 in the US, it's definitely covered as part of events leading into WWII and why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I remember learning about the Nanjing massacre. We spent more time on it than we did about the US concentration camps for Japanese Americans, of course
Fun fact :The subway system in Xi'an went extremely slow and difficult since Xi'an has been the capital city for 13 ancient dynasties. For every kilometer you go underground you may accidentally encounter an archeological site with hundreds or even thousands of years' history. There is a joke saying that the busiest people for Xi'an subway construction are not engineers but archaeologists.
true
LOL the construction and expansion of the Rome Metro had the exact same problems. Construction always had to be delayed because of ancient Roman artifacts and ruins being uncovered haha.
LOL
Should’ve built above ground. Elevated subway.
Same thing in Rome
Fun fact - Chongqing and Chengdu have a major rivalry that has existed since at least the Qing Dynasty
For context, Chongqing is like taking metro Chicago with the terrain of Pittsburg. It has a lot of good universities and is a very industrial city.
Chengdu is a very electronics heavy, somewhat counterculture city that’s often gets in trouble for “ignoring” Beijing. Like a supersized Seattle. Unsurprisingly, an American consulate is located on the city.
There actually isn't an American consulate anymore. After the US kicked out China's Houston consulate, China retaliated by kicking the US out of Chengdu.
A lot of foreigners like Chengdu cuz its more hip and laid back
@@joon3900 one of my mums friends got married to a guy from chengdu
Bruh, he pronounced it so wrong. Is there an A in Chongqing?
@@labadaba5088 it is his american accent
It's weird clicking on this video and seeing my own city, but considering Nagoya is famous within Japan for being skipped over and ignored despite its large population and historical significance, it makes sense. Here are a few more interesting facts about Nagoya: Nagoya has the annual World Cosplay Summit, Nagoya Station has the tallest railway-station building in the world, Nagoya Station is also one of the oldest in Japan opening in 1886, the Nagoya area also contains the largest Brazilian population in Japan (mostly because of Toyota), and while Japan is more known for things like fish, Nagoya is the chicken capital of Japan with its own style of chicken wings famous all over the country.
oh i AIready seen anime carachters taIking about nagoya chicken before
As a Chinese, I know many cities of East Asian countries
Grampus 8?
As someone new to Japan, I was really impressed when I visited Nagoya a few months ago. Miso Nikomi Udon is one of the best dishes I've had in Japan so far!
Just curious. My relatives live just nearby, in Seto. How does one commute there from Nagoya?
timestamps:
10 | Xi'an, China 1:33
9 | Luanda, Angola 2:37
8 | Nanjing, China 3:31
7 | Chengdu, China 4:33
6 | Nagoya, Japan 5:54
5 | Chennai, India 7:23
4 | Shenzhen, China 8:30
3 | Guangzhou, China 10:09
2 | Tianjin, China 11:35
1 | Chongqing, China 0:20 12:47
Thanks for the spoilers ;)
@@top12s99 If you didn't want spoilers then don't open the comments...
I would have thought Shenzen was a well known city, especially due to its huge number of tech manufacturing🤔
I would say it is only really known if you know a lot about tech.
Xi'an seems to be fairly well known too, unless my impression is skewed since I know about it due to the Terracotta Army there.
@@timseguine2 Probably since I am in the tech industry, I guess I am biased.
I think it's known in Asia, but not in the western world.
@Zaydan Naufal no, Shenzhen is part of the Pearl River Delta with cities like Hong Kong and Guangzhou ... very separate from Shanghai.
I lived in Chengdu in 2016/2017, and visited Chongqing on two occasions.
I found the duality of the two so intriguing. They're connected by high-speed rail and despite being roughly the same distance apart as Montreal and Toronto, the trip takes only an hour and 45 minutes, and cost roughly $20CAD.
Chengdu is pan-flat and sits at the bottom of the Sichuan basin, but is only about a 1-hour drive away from the foot of the Sichuan mountains, the highest range east of the Himalayas with Mt. Siguniang standing at over 6000m. On a clear day (pretty much only ever after summer rain) you could see the snowy peaks from the city. But most days are humid, cloudy and windless. Not to mention the air pollution. The only way to describe a midsummer day in Chengdu is "heavy".
Converseley, Chongqing is at the eastern edge of the basin, and at the confluence of the mighty Yangtze and Jialing rivers. The second time I was there, the water was so low, that you could walk down into the riverbed, where locals would have picnics and fish. On the legs of the bridge, the high water mark was visible about 20m higher up. Rising dramatically from the river is the mountainous topography that the rest of the city is built on/into. It's easily the most dynamic city I've ever been to and to me, is a unique place in the world. Built into the caves in one of the riverside cliffs, is a nightlife area full of bars and restaurants, called the hongya caves, which I believe inspired the architecture seen in the anime film Spirited Away. Aside from the monorail and bus systems, their transit network also features cable cars that traverse the rivers, but serve more as tourist attractions these days, considering the insane lineups you have to wait in to ride them. It also features from what I remember, the world's longest escalator, which you can access with the same card as the metro.
During the Sino-Japanese War/WW2, the KMT moved their capital to Chongqing, where they built a network of tunnels/caves/bunkers into the mountains where they could take refuge from bombings. Today, the networks are still part of the city, and many of these underground spaces serve as social spaces - probably most often and famously, as hot pot restaurants.
Much like Chengdu, the climate is extremely humid, and somehow even hotter. It's known as one of the 3 furnaces of the Yangtze River valley along with Wuhan (which probably would have also been in this video if it weren't for the pandemic) and Nanjing. The two cities also spar over who makes better hot pot.
Otherwise, the character of the cities couldn't be more different. Like the flatness of Chengdu, the locals are laid back, indulge in the very Sichuanese art of public napping and spending all day playing majiang and drinking tea. It's often said that Chengdunese fight with their mouths, and Chongqingers fight with their fists. And I find this apt, as the whole city of Chongqing feels much more brutal. It's more of a fast-paced, rabble-rousing city and it's felt in the people and the dynamism of its landscape and architecture. As someone else in the comments likened it to Chicago, I'll agree wholeheartedly. In what those cities lack in notoriety, being behind others like Beijing, Shanghai, New York, LA, etc., they make up for in character and uniqueness. They're cities with a ton of soul.
Thank you for sharing! That's very interesting to read!
Beautifully put. Chongqing is my mom’s hometown, I have the same impressions too
I too lived in Chengdu for a period and would visit Chongqing, much more often than you however since my who is now wife was originally from Neijiang (about 1/3 closer to Chongqing between it and Chengdu). The first time I went to Chongqing in 2009 I was awestruck - how could such a major city exist without anybody knowing about it? And this was 2009 when things were basically just starting to take off. In reality, Chongqing is better known in the west as ChunKing which I'm sure more people have at least heard of. And I totally agree with your opinion: Chengdu is definitely more relaxed, almost lazy and flatter than Kansas whereas Chongqing has that big city vibe, fast paced, and a bit more gritty up and down mountains like if you married Chicago and SF or a Vancouver. I found there was more to do in Chongqing but the city is VERY chinese compared to Chengdu. Both also have a major airport but Chengdu - also breaking the trend of Beijing rule - is building a 2nd airport arguably for no reason since they're keeping hte current one open. I think Chongqing may eventually build a new one too but given the lack of land area I wouldn't be surprised if they closed hte current one and reclaimed (esp since the subway lines are already there). I think the OP actually didn't do much justice to Chongqing other than he liked it but not much time was given to the city, it's importance, economy, and ect. So I encourage the OP to do a film jsut on Chongqing, or perhaps each city, separately now. And I agree with the UN population numbers - surprise, I also lived in Nagoya JP and agree with you assessment there as well (although I prob wouldn't count 9m people in the city, more like metro). Chongqing def has 14+ million in the city ( you feel it) and Chengdu about 8.
@@rchilde1 I'm surprised you got a bustling fast paced city vibe from CQ! I lived there for three years, visited CD three times, and I found them very similar. They really benefit from being far away from BeiShanGuang and under less scrutiny from the national govt. Both places are very relaxed and have awesome QoL
Chongqing is a really cool place. You're right, it is incredibly hilly, but it's still dense. So a building might have a "ground floor" on the 1st floor and the 20th. But a big part of the population is that despite being classified as one "city", it's the size of Austria. If you only counted the built up area, it would be much lower on the list.
Its actually not lower on the list, in the video it was mentioned according to the UN numbers as a population of about 14 million, this is pretty much accurate. So the spot on the list is correct, however if you were to make the list based on city limits it would be in the top 5 if not 1. The UN list is quite accurate with the exception of Seoul, which is listed as 9 million when in reality its closer to 22 million.
That list takes it into account. The city is listed as having 14 million, which is right, counting the central urban area - the municipality (the size of Austria) is the one that's often miscounted, as it has 32 million people. The metro of the central city is 17 million.
Cities in China are often located in a mountainous area and it's because China has 4 times America's population in a country the size of America but with far less flat land than America
It’s funny because if this video was made in 2019 then Wuhan would have been on the list.
😭
This is cool and I think non-Western cities in general don't get talked about enough in urbanist circles. On the one hand I do get there's language barrier issues, differences in economic level of development, and differences in political structure. But cities outside North America/Western Europe do some neat things and no cities match the public transit that East Asian cities have except maybe Moscow. Everybody loves Dutch cities of course but there's good and interesting things, as well as familiar challenges, in parts of the world that most anglo-phone folks don't think much about!
A lot of Middle Eastern and African cities like Alexandria, Giza, Dakar, Yaounde, Douala, Porto Novo, Kumasi, Freetown, Izmir, Antalya, Konya, Sana'a, Amman, Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers are not well known
Well of course western cities are more talked about in the west then Chinese cities. And urban planning is done in a way different way in the west then in china so you really can’t compare the 2.
If thats what you think go cry about it in private instead of complaining
Boohoo
Dutch cities are generally great to live in, but small compared to those in other countries. The biggest city Amsterdam, doesn't even have a million people (unless you count the greater area and then its still just 1.3).
Chennaite here. Surprised you didn't talk about the metro system here. The city is undergoing a major metro rail network overhaul. 2 lines are already opened and operational since a few years, and 1 more line is under construction. Two more lines have been identified with all tests and studies done and are about to begin construction. Altogether spanning all across the city. The city also has a large bus transit network, covering all corners of the city and outside too.
Local train network is the best
Same here.
3 lines under construction
Can't imagine life with out metro nowadays
His pronounciation of Tamil Nadu was physically painful. Good video tho
I took lots of Asian history classes in college, so I knew most of the Asian cities. Very surprised you didn't know about Xi'an. It was the original capitol & cultural heartland of China, until they decided to move it to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty.
I am sorry but you may have glossed over some very important part of Chinese history. Xi'an's importance has gradually declined from 700AD (due to wars and desertification) and ceased to be capital of China from 900AD onwards. Ming moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in around 1400AD. There was a massive 500+ years gap. The real trend is not from one city to another, but the shift of power dynamic from Western to Eastern China, and from Yellow River region to Yangtze River region.
In fact -- up till nowadays -- the cultural and economic heartland of China is its eastern region (e.g. cities like Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou), and that shift gradually happened during 700 AD to 1200 AD as Northern China was, from time to time, destroyed by various wars and natural disasters.
Also, Beijing has NEVER been the cultural and economic center of China, as its prestige mainly stems from political and military reasons (it stood in midway between Northern China and nomadic territories).
Who asked?
blog on
@@LeZylox based
They also make some damn good noodles
China and India are an universe inself, each one is their own "Americas" in terms of population. Imagine New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Lima and Bogota in the same country, same flag, sometimes even the same region, and only one of them is the capital.
I think they're overlooked at times because it's so difficult to grasp just how huge India's and China's populations are. Both of their populations are bigger than the "first world" western countries' (EU + associates, US, Can, Aus and NZ are around 930 million). Even if you include the "first world" countries in Asia that are western aligned; Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, that's only 200 million more and still not close enough to China's and India's 1.4 people each. Like you say, they are their own universes. And on top of that, China's population is still only 62% urbanized, in comparison developed countries has around 80+% urbanization rate, which means hundreds of millions of Chinese will keep moving into cities. India is even further behind with only 35% urbanization rate.
This combined with the rise of Africa, climate change and an increasing demand of natural resources (and car industries shifting from high demand of oil to high demand of lithium (the lithium triangle shared between Chile, Bolivia and Argentina could make those countries big players on the world stage if no new batteries that uses something other than lithium enters the stage)) will make the 21st century a really interesting time period to live in.
@@floobe which may push towards human to be a space faring civilization.
It's baffling to think that China and India both have more people than every other continent other than the one they're in.
Im always flabbergasted trying to comprehend the amount of people in both, but India is still mostly rural so I suppose that's totally different.
To add some more trivia: Nanjing was the capital of many Chinese dynasties and regimes (it was last the capital under the ROC). Nan-Jing literally means "southern capital," while Bei-Jing means "northern capital" (incidentally Tokyo means "eastern capital").
Nanjing was also known (minorly) for naturally colorful river rocks (Yuhua stones), but that's pretty much gone by now.
Nanjing and Chongqing are two of China's legendary "three furnaces," known for their summer heat. (The other is Wuhan.)
@@Blaqjaqshellaq Can attest, the rain in Wuhan doesn't quite rain, it just mists such that you walk into it. Incredibly hot and humid in the summer, and in winter the chilled humidity goes straight to the bones. It can be a very rough city to live in for outsiders.
Nanjing and Chongqing are also both two former Chinese capitals.
Xi'an was called western capital in some dynasties.
Did you mean Peking (north), Nanking (south), and Tongking (east)
Puebla is similar in size to Denver and Santo Domingo, and is not some small provincial hub close to Mexico City. And its not some unplanned mess, its a pretty meaty, grand and urban city. La Plata in Argentina is another classic example. Brazil had too many cities like this, it's not just Rio, Sao and the "provinces".
Brasilia is a great example.
Belo Horizonte, Brazilian 3rd most populated metro area (5.5 million inh.) is relatively unknown. Ditto for Porto Alegre (Southern Brazil, 4 million people), twice the size of Montevideo, Uruguayan capital.
Wow I am actually current residing in Chongqing! Chongqing is by far my favorite city in China outside of Shanghai. The city itself is so physically 3-dimensional from the seemingly minimum 30+ story building requirements and the hills and mountains that the city is built on. Chongqing is also the only city in China that doesn’t have exclusive bike/scooter lanes because the city is so mountainous that bikes and electric scooters aren’t going to cut it. I assume this put extra pressure to design such impressive metro system. The main part of the city is divided into three parts by two large rivers (lesson known Jialong River to the north and Yangtze River to the south) running west to east. The best thing about the bridges that span these rivers is that they are all walkable! Most large bridges in China don’t include pedestrian lanes (e.g. none in Shanghai do). Chongqing also has a seemingly laissez faire approach to zoning a building. Within many residential buildings are entire floors that are a hotel, other floors that are a different hotel, floors with restaurants, barber shops, eyeglasses stores, and basically most businesses you could think of. Last thing I love about chongqing is that lots of national parks are just a bus or high speed train ride away. Lots and lots of gorgeous mountains, rivers, and other geological formations out here. And some of the most beautiful flora and fauna too. I know it’s not everyone’s top travel destination in China (not that anyone can come to China right now anyways 😂) but if you ever find yourself in China for an extended period of time, Chongqing is a great city to visit!
Sounds awesome! What made you move there, and do you find there's any issues with culture clashes or language barriers?
@@alastairzotos well I’m usually based in Shanghai but I came out here in March before the big lockdowns all began (best decision of my life). I speak Mandarin Chinese which most everyone under 50 speaks, although the local dialect is so similar to Mandarin that I can still understand and communicate just fine. There’s not really an expat community out here because there’s very few international schools, which is essentially the only source of foreigners ever since the “double reduction” policy closed English training schools nationwide. Cities like Shanghai and Beijing are still much more accommodating to foreigners, but Chongqing really is an amazing city too!
I too resided there and near there for a while and couldn't agree more with you.
@@kwamesmith3214 you got vx?
Nagoya is in the perfect place if you want to visit Japan, specifically Kansai, but can’t find available accommodations in Osaka or Kyoto. With the Japan rail pass, you can easily hop on and only need to sit on a train for 45 minutes. That’s not to say there’s nothing to see there, there’s Nagoya castle, the Toyota museum, and the humble Osu Kanon district. There’s also Sekigahara, the site of the last big battle of medieval Japan, if you want to hike in rural Japan, all just a local jr ride away
And you got a great amusement park Nagashima Spa Land, I spent 2,5 days in the city. You don't really need longer than that yueah. But in Osaka you'll find much cheaper hotel options especially in the neighborhood near tsutenkaku
also kenichiro nishihara is based there! lmao
@@timokho20 It also has its own legoland, the only one in Japan, for anyone interested
Latín América is a good example. We tend to think of countries like Colombia and Argentina as having like 5 or 6 mayor cities with the rest being provincial hubs. There is definitely a Global Divide issue, some Latin American mid sized cities have more of a urban feel compared to US cities but have a less influential global economy, while other Latin American cities are similarly big but never managed to build a truly urban feel.
In general, Latin American countries have a very large city and those that follow are much smaller (not so different from the rest of the world). The exception to this would be Brazil, but indeed several countries have large cities, such as Colombia, which has Bogota, medellin, cartagena, cali and barranquilla, mexico that has mexico city, monterey, guadalajara, puebla and queretaro
Bogotá is one of them that’s a walkable city pub transport is a miss there tho tbh but transmilenio isn’t terrible
imo large cities in Latin America (like Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Santiago) have an amazing urban feel to them. But it's true that Latin American mid sized cities are far exceeding the urban feel of similarly sized American cities (like Rosario, Valparaiso, Queretaro, Guadalajara, Cartagena, Porto Alegre, Salvador) but some are also just as disappointing as American cities (like Tijuana, Brasilia, La Serena)
@R. Mariano yeah or places like Savannah and Charleston which are absolute gems of midsized cities in the US, often overlooked for not so nice cities like Atlanta, Dallas etc
Language barrier do exists. As a Chinese, Those East Asian cities in this video, no matter Nagoya, Chongqing, Nanjing and more, is very familiar to me. Many of them were famous big cities since thousands years ago.
Yup being from Malaysia none of these are cities I’ve not heard of, but yes it would depend on which part of the world are you in
@@darryldeed same for someone like me from Singapore. I’ve also been to quite a few cities on this list myself.
@TacticalMoonstone nope, the west used to romanize Chongqing to Chungking, which I'm sure you've heard of.
Shall do the stereotypical Chennai person online thing and point out, tiny bit unfair on the description for Chennai. Glossed over its history but, at least from a city-planning/urbanism/transit perspective, it deserves more. Great commuter train network, incredibly well connected bus system, two existing lines and three under construction metro lines being built, plus some focus on building a more sustainable, car-free city
came here for this comment.
No mention of its amazing history
@@pulkitgera8509 Yeah. But I've been whining about people missing out Madras's great history for years now (I got online in 1995, been complaining about Madras history being overlooked since 2003) it's gotten a tad tiring for me too :)
Talking about the population of Chinese cities is kinda tricky because "cities" in China are extremely large jurisdictions with municipal boundaries spreading far beyond their metro areas (in China, counties are subordinate to cities, and "cities" can cover thousands of square miles of area). Chongqing, in particular, is probably the biggest exemplar of this issue. It is a "directly administered municipality", which puts it equivalent to a province in administrative hierarchy and covers an area larger than Austria, but a large portion of its some 33,000,000 residents live in far-flung rural areas of the "city".
Also, Chengdu is generally considered to be in southwestern China, not central (which would be where Wuhan is).
American cities are similar tho. With metro New York being the size of Belgium, and metro LA being the size of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg combined.
@@jamescoulson7729 American cities have the opposite problem in that their metro areas are split into a number of independent municipalities separate from the city proper. NYC proper covers about 300 square miles of land with a metro area that covers around 3,500 square miles. In contrast, Chongqing proper has an area of a little under 32,000 square miles, but the urban/metro area is only around 2,100 square miles (and it's not clear if that number includes urbanized areas that would be considered separate satellite cities in a non-Chinese context).
@Abhinav Madahar The issue as regards Chongqing, specifically, is that the city proper includes enormous amounts of rural land that wouldn't properly be considered as part of a "metropolitan area", anyway. It would be like the US city of Wichita's municipal borders including all of the State of Kansas. Nearly none of the Chongqing jurisdiction's area is inhabited on the basis of land-area.
Similar in Sweden, sort of. Stockholm Region is way larger than the actual city, but there's also many municipalities within. I honestly don't know which is the higher level of governance.
@@jamescoulson7729 bro what? The Benelux is way bigger then the LA metropol and there are more people in the Benelux then in the greater LA area.
Chongqing is by far the coolest place I've ever lived. Dirt cheap rent, unbelievable transit and architecture, great food, amazing people. Everyone should go if you get the chance.
It's also about 90 minutes away from Chengdu by train, which is an equally wonderful place.
As a Chennaiite, I think that you didn't cover the city enough - the great transit, beaches and neighbourhoods. And it is also a major cultural centre apart from the movies - for instance, it has a month-long Music and Dance festival that is visited by tons of people from India/outside India It's not just a big boring industrial city.
I also think there are lots more of great pictures/videos that would do more justice to the city than what you used.
PS: Don't get me wrong on the criticism - I love your videos, just that this one did Chennai a disservice.
How can you know Ahmedabad but not Shenzhen, Chongqing, Nanjing, Xi'an, and Chennai? Shenzhen, Nanjing, and Xi'an are especially recognizable
Yeah man he's biased towards China, Even I know Nanjing, Xian & Shenzhen but I know that very few people know Ahmedabad 👍
I've been to all these cities aside from Luanda, I need to bump that up in priority.
Chongqing is truly mind-blowing! The downtown is so dense, it can barely be described. You can't use a map here because there are two levels of street navigation: the street level and the building-to-building level as many edifices have walkways half way up between them. Outside of downtown the city expands endlessly, and seems to be nothing but tall apartments.
I need to shout out Chennai, that city has a really cool vibe with an interesting restaurant culture and market districts. It's also very colorful, the citizens love to paint everything bright colors and the temples feature symphonies of hues. The areas around Chennai are crammed full of ancient temples and towns, one of the most culturally rich regions I've been to.
Glad you liked Chennai!
重庆 Chongqing is literally so awesome. SO much good food, SO much cool culture, it's amazing. 贵阳 Guiyang and 成都 Chengdu are cool too.
I did my bachelor's degree in the city of Nanjing two years ago and it was at that time I realized how underrated some Chinese cities are. I am definitely planning to go back there and explore other cities included in this video's list (Chengdu, Guangzhou, Chongqing) . China has many things to offer and you wouldn't regret visiting it at all!
Luanda is now one of the most expensive cities in the world for expats.
5:46 I wanted to point out after I saw the earlier release on Curiosity Stream that many of the innermost ring roads in Chinese cities are the location of the former city walls. Knocking the obsolete walls down in favor of roads was a major undertaking that's worth looking into. The innermost ring road is actually not highlighted on that map of Sichuan, though visible, but it and the first three highlighted rings were almost definitely walls. The outermost road is likely the only one that's a new modern path.
Ring roads built in place of city walls are common in Europe too: the word "boulevard" is related to "bulwark"!
woah that’s something I realized while looking on google maps, really interesting I wish there was google street view for Chinese cities
@JimboNetics Baidu maps should have street view if you want to take a look at stuff, I'm not sure if there's an English option but it's simple enough to navigate that it shouldn't take too much fumbling around to figure out either way.
happy to see my fascination/admiration for Chinese rail isnt as niche as i thought. I had always been amazed at the sheer amount of High Speed Rail that they have managed to build over the past 20 years, so it doesnt really come as a surprise that theyve been doing the same thing at scale within their cities as well.
You've gotta respect the honesty of this guy. "Yeah I don't actually have any in-depth knowledge of these places. I just did a quick Google search which you could have easily done yourself."
Chongqing is another relatively new city by Chinese standards. It's only been around since the 1700s. For a long time it was totally eclipsed as a small settlement by neighboring and very ancient Chengdu. But then it got a huge boost when the Republic of China made Chongqing its capital city during the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and 1940s, after Nanjing had fallen. Lots of refugees flooded into this new capital city during these years, which turned Chongqing from a small non-entity city into one of the most important in China. And apparently that continues to this day.
3:44 In Age of Empires 3 Asian Dynasties DLC, the Porcelain Tower is one of the Wonders you have to build to age up for China. As a bonus, it gives some crates after the age up, and passively gives you a slow amount of ressources you want, whether it's food, wood, coins or all 3. Of course, getting the wonder destroyed makes you lose that passive bonus.
Xi'an, Nanjing and Chongqing have all served as China's capital in the past. Nanjing was Chiang Kai-shek's capital until the Japanese invasion forced the Nationalists to flee upriver to Chongqing, which suffered a bombing campaign at the same time as the London blitz, and on a similar scale. (I did my Ph.D. on Chongqing in its treaty port days.)
Nanjing has suffered more than its share of misfortune. The rebel Taiping regime made the city its headquarters between 1851 and 1864, and at one point after an unsuccessful counter-rebellion blood literally flowed through the streets! And of course, the Japanese takeover was accompanied by the Nanjing Massacre, with widespread murder and rape.
Many cities in China are like that. Wuhan as well has its own famous battles in WW2 and the Taiping rebellion. It was also a major home of the early Communist movement and the HQ of the Wang Jingwei leftist KMT during the KMT split.
The big cities are all like this. They are big because they occupy key areas, and naturally they are magnets for big affairs.
Great concept! Most people know nothing about my city Calgary, even though it's the 3rd largest in Canada after Toronto and Montreal. Vancouver has a large urban area but the actual city's population is about half that of Calgary.
Depends on what you think of as Vancouver. Vancouver municipality is 115 km², much smaller than Calgary's 800+ km². But Metro Vancouver (which includes the surrounding burbs) has about 2.5 million people.
Honestly, counting the whole agglomeration makes way more sense than just the city proper limits.
To be honest i hear about Calgary more often than i do Edmonton, despite it being only slightly smaller than Calgary and the capital of Alberta
@Sheldon Pon Your comment isn't accurate. The city of Ottawa has a greater population than Washington DC but when you consider the metropolitan population of Ottawa (around 1.2 million) vs. Washington DC (over 6 million) it quickly becomes clear which is the larger city. Toronto's claim of being bigger than Chicago is equally suspect. Toronto metropolitan population is 6.5 million vs. Chicago 9.5 million. Technicalities aside, Chicago is bigger than Toronto. Furthermore this video is considering metropolitan (aglomerate) city sizes.
Calgary is Canada's fourth or fifth largest city...well behind Vancouver and probably Ottawa too.
Chongqin is also known as the "bridge capitol" and also reffered to City in the mountains normally. Went there now 2 times and its an insane city, Chongqin is nearly as big as Austria and is home ti 32~m people. Cant wait to go back to China once it opens up again. Their nightclub scenes are also insane.
I've stayed in Nagoya (na-go-yuh) and been there twice. Very busy city. The subway system is great and the city is one of the few in Japan that is awake late.
Dude, thank you SOO much for literally just putting probably in the title! It annoys me so much when people write "10 things you didn't know about..." and you know half the stuff. It's like, bruh, you don't know who I am, stop assuming stuff about me and go back to your little man cave. But thank you SOOO much for not doing that!!
Jeez, as an America, it's downright embarrassing to hear how fast those metro systems were built. It took nyc 10 years to open 3 stations on 2nd Ave lol
The USA has to deal with personal property rights and environmental studies among others. In China, the government can do whatever they want whenever and wherever they want. Those mom and pop stores and restaurants that make NYC so special wouldn't stand a chance in other countries if they were in the way of development.....and it's not just the transit systems, it's all those "economic zones" and massive infrastructure projects. You won't hear anything about the negatives because all information in and out of some of these countries is completely censored.
There are mom and pops and street stalls in most Chinese cities and Chinese residential neighbourhoods are dominated by residential apartment buildings from low to super high rise and are actually mostly mixed use residential and commercial. Public transportation is frequent and easy to get, unlike in most American cities. Rates of violent and property crimes are significantly lower. These are facts and objectively goods things about urban living, regardless of the fact that they do not have "freedom".
The governments of China have with regards to City done whatever they want largely to make cities well run... Having democracy or dictatorship does not necessitate that governance will be competent. The most competently run state bureaucracies in the United States are actually those that are not democratic and are highly hierarchical in nature: that is the United States Armed Forces.
I’ve heard of Luanda… mainly because I’m a geography nerd and I’ve memorized my world capitals. I also know Chengdu because my airport has flights there. Heard of Nagoya and Chennai too. There are also a lot of flights to Shenzhen and Guangzhou from where I live.
I used to live near Nagoya, it is one of the best cities in Japan. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend going! Definitely check out Sakae and Osukannon!
Except for that all night clubs I visited seemed to close at midnight 😂😂
Spent three years living in Chengdu, and spent a considerable amount of time in Chongqing. Also spent some time in Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and several other Chinese cities.
I think Chennai's culture is defined more by other things than Movies (Religion, Tradition, Food, etc.). 😊
you are a fool, what about Lagos Nigeria 🇳🇬, over 21m people
@@patrickpedro6458, wdym? I am not talking about the population here at all or comparing any cities against each other.
Really wishe a channel like this talked about big cities in Brazil other than São Paulo Rio, or Brazilia and Manaus if they're feeling fancy. Fortaleza and Salvador are massive cities with much more than just tourism, Belo Horizonte is a massive part of the economic trifecta it forms with SP and RJ, and there's also the massive underdiscussed cities in the south of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Curitiba is at best known as footnote in the history, while Porto Alegre, a city with a metropolitan population of Rome, doesn't get discussed at all. The last 2 are also fascinating because they show actual subtropical climate, getting pretty unique vegetation and geography because of it.
There's so much more to Brazil than 2 really big cities
In Sao Paulo State alone, the following cities have populations in excess of 400,000 people, not including those that are within the Sao Paulo City Metropolitan Area:
Sorocaba, Campinas, Franca, Taubate, Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Ribeirao Preto, Presidents Prudente, Marilia, Santos.
I lived in Guangzhou for 2.5 years, and I've got extended family outside Nagoya, so it was GREAT to see them get some love here!
Fun fact: "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" isn't a TMBG original. It was first released in 1953 by a Canadian quartet named "The Four Lads."
And even earlier than that as Puttin' On The Ritz by Irving Berlin :)))
Just proof it is not the size of the city that matters when it comes to making a city interesting it is Culture, Geography, and other factors that make a city appealing. Like every year Japan releases its most charming Prefectures and Cities and Hakodate and Sapporo usually top the list, and they are not very large, but everyone in Japan knows them
Then it is not culture and geography. Is how they are selled as commodities, so that the city is re-created to be appealing for tourist.
@@santiagopalacio7875 culture has to exist first in most cases, it's not easy to sell a overpopulated, bare, grimy industrial city as a destination for the majority of tourists, i sure am not interested, i'm sure many mayors have tried in vain.
@@quitlife9279 but of course. Barcelona is the clear example of that ( and one that i know very much). Before its reconversion to a Mass Tourist city, that the 92s games were the zenit, Barcelona was one of the best spanish cultural cities. The commons made It a city of art and of architecture. You could find local asemblies in games, bars and book clubs all over the inner city that gave Life to the city. That made Barcelona attractive to the outside. That started the commodification of Barcelona, and look at how It is now. A shallow pit of consumerism, massive tourism, and all the things that made Barcelona actually great, have dissapeared.
Thanks for such a great video. As someone who is currently living in China, please allow me to add some corrections and comments to your video:
1. Xi'An is a fascinating city and you absolutely should visit it. In addition to the Terracota Warriors, it's also renowned for being home to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Hui Street (some of the best street food in China is found here) and the fantastic Mt. Hua is only a 20 minute high speed rail ride away if you want to escape the city scenery.
2. You can actually visit Najing's Porcelain Tower, as they rebuilt a replica of it in 2015. Not only that, but some large pieces of the original porcelain tower can still be viewed in the Nanjing Museum today. I also highly reccommend visiting Nanjing, as it has a vast amount of history from both ancient and modern China. The Nanjing Massacre Museum, the old headquarters of the GuoMinDang (which also houses the throne of the TaiPing Rebellion), and the former mansion of Chiang Kai-shek's wife are just a couple of the fascinating historical sights around Nanjing. The food is amazing, too!
3. Guangzhou is my favorite city in all of China. Best food in China, and has some wonderful historical sites, too. You should know however that the Guangzhou-Foshan metro link is not the only one in China that goes between two major cities; Shanghai and Suzhou also have connected metro lines.
In short, China is a fantastic country, and yes, the metro systems here are very impressive. As long as I'm not in a major hurry, I love riding the metro to save money.
I only knew about the Chinese cities because some Brazillian football players were in the Chinese Super League. As Brazillian, I learned about Luanda because some friends worked in civil construction.
It's really interesting that Shenzhen is considered a Mandarin-speaking city when all cities within Guangdong province were traditionally majority Cantonese speaking. Due to massive internal migration from the last 10 or so years, it shifted from majority Cantonese to majority Mandarin. You'll only really find Cantonese speakers at traditional markets. My mother's family were among the first to move to Shenzhen when it was planned to be an SEZ, and my grandfather helped to recruit people to move there, he also was the architect of some of the older skyscrapers that still remain.
Shenzhen natives are Hakka. Not all of Guangdong is Cantonese-speaking.
Always great content. Thank you. What is the electronic/ blinking decor behind your right shoulder? Perhaps an illuminated transit line??
The migration to Luanda has more to do with the effects of the war. Due to the destruction of much farmland by the Portuguese, as well as the destruction caused by the group unita, many Angolans who relied on subsistence farming had to leave the countryside into Luanda to find a job in service and other such fields. Luanda became a financial engine in the region as a consequence of the migration, not the other way around
You could spend days exploring Nagoya station without ever going outside. Not only is the station building itself a massive mall, it's also connected to several other big shopping complexes via inter-building and underground passages that stretch all the way to the next subway stop.
I have been to 3 of those cities, Chengdu, Xi'an and Nagoya! Nagoya was probably my least favourite city in Japan, unfortunately its automotive manufacturing makes it very car-centric, something that was not the case in most other Japanese cities. Xi'an is also pretty well known in the tech industry as there is a lot of outsourcing of development and testing moving there.
I agree, I've been to Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Nagoya on the list (lived in Nagoya and Chengdu for a time). By far my most favorite city on the list is Chongqing and least would be Nagoya. When I was in Japan, I couldn't wait to get away to Osaka or (to a lesser extent) Tokyo for my big city fix.
Him: Cities you've never heard of
Me, a Chinese: You underestimate my knlowledge
I'm sitting here watching this video from one of the "leading" cities in the west being incredibly jealous of Chinese public transport infrastructure. It's at the same time so ridiculous and incredibly obvious that it would be a great investment for a city
Heard of all of these cities, could have told you a thing or two about all but one, and even visited six of them.....but even when the title failed me, I still very much enjoyed this video! Quite a number of mindblowing facts. And it is kind of funny that when I visited some of these cities they didn't even have their metro system yet, but are now among the biggest.
Though it's been a while, I didn't realize Kinshasa was that heavily populated and kind of fascinated by the urban layout with most of those cities in China. Love those shipping ports too. Not sure why, but I find the logistics of it very interesting.
Xian (silk road), Nanjing (former capital + WW2), Tianjin (Beijing events of 1900), Shenzhen (Chinese Silicon Valley) and Guangzhou (only port open to foreign commerce in the 18th century) are pretty famous I would say. More than say Kinshasa. But it’s true I know next to nothing about Chongqing.
10:09 71 million people in the Pearl River Delta region. To put that into perspective, if it were a country, it would rank 20th in the world in terms of population, behind Germany but ahead of France and the United Kingdom. And this is on a land area comparable to the Netherlands (who themselves have a population of 17 million, which is ALREADY enough to beat out every single US state including New Jersey and Rhode Island - the PRD region therefore has more than four times the average population density of those states). An area slightly larger than Maryland, but with the population of the ONE HUNDRED BIGGEST USA CITIES together.
And that's assuming we go with the 71 million people figure in the first place. Wikipedia claims the Pearl River Delta region has a population of 78 million.
For a bit of international relations: Many experts argue that the reason China is putting a squeeze on Hong Kong now, stripping it of free speech and political autonomy, is because Hong Kong is no longer as valuable economically as it once was. In 1997, Hong Kong was everything. But now, as the video states, Shenzen is larger. Beijing has little need to appease Hong Kong or not meddle with it at this point. It's essentially expendable. The situation is a shame.
Before, Hong Kong was the only notable financial center from which China could get foreign capital for its industries, but since Shanghai has risen in prominence as a competing financial center while being more tied to CCP ideologies, Hong Kong no longer has a monopoly on foreign access to China. In a few decades or so with the growth of the southern provinces and especially the cities, China will seek to unify the Pearl River Delta.
this would be domestic rather than international relations.
Tianjin is a relatively new city by Chinese standards. Its claim to fame was that it served as the port to the imperial capital of Beijing from the 1600s onwards. Before then it was an insignificant fishing village. It became a major focal point of European expansion during the colonial period in the 1800s and early 1900s as Tianjin was easily accessible by sea, making it easy for European gun boats and ships to land there. Thus European influence arrived first in Tianjin on its way to Beijing.
I think you should rename this video, either cities US people have never heard of (as African, European, Asian, and Aussie school kids will recognise most of them), or cities people don't know under their current name (as many Chinese cities were called something else outside China, until recently).
Maybe because I live in a country just a sea away from China, almost all of the cities seemed familiar for me...
Wondered how Kinshasa and Ahmedabad was skipped since most won't even know that Kinshasa is the capital of the DRC and Ahmedabad is something which I don't know much about despite 10 years of living in India.
P.s. - just a nitpick, but Chennai is pronounced like "chen-nai" not "che-nai"
Vannakam.... Anyong Haseyo.
yep chennai is more popular. cities like dhaka lahore tehran bogota are less popular
I agree i thought he should have talked about ahemdabad
I'm surprised he skipped Lahore and Kinshasa.
To interpret the title somewhat differently, while people most likely have heard of Essen, Cologne, Dortmund etc. few people probably realize that they make up a continous metropolitan area that with a combined population of over 10 million people is one of the biggest "cities" in the world.
I don’t think most of people in the West know about the biggest Latin American cities except for Rio and Mexico City.
Great video, as always.
Like most I knew nothing about those cities, except one - Guangzhou. A famous footballer from my country played there for a few years and suddenly the media was filled with countless of articles about this city.
I had heard of Shenzen, due to the Strange Parts TH-cam channel (he used to live there).
But plenty of cities skipped in your list I had never heard of and know nothing about. Follow up video for the uncultured among us?
Interesting. I appreciate the attention paid to Chinese cities. Even if I may not want to emulate their governmental system, there’s still something to be learned from them.
Also on the topic of relatively unknown cities. I have found a number of times in my travels that I like the “2nd city” or another lesser known large city in a country or state better than the more well known one. I’m wondering if there are any common factors that influence the design and features of these cities. I think it would be a great topic.
I am really surprised to see most of these cities here at all honestly, though, I am a big geography nut and map guy, so... haha. But not knowing of Guangzhou? Or Shenzhen? REALLY?! Baffles me! Absolutely baffles me. I do not understand how those two would be some of the least known in China, let alone the world. Especially being so close to Hong Kong which the international community is obsessed with. It's also painfully close by to Macau, which was a former Portuguese colony, and is directly across the bay from Hong Kong - you literally will pass by, over and look directly at Macau flying in and out of Hong Kong. Wild to me.
Yeah I don't think Guangzhou or Shenzhen fit. While not as near famous as shanghai or beijing they are both tier 1 cities and have a lot more fame then the other chinese cities except wuhan.
@@guppy719 And Wuhan only because of the lab now. Without that whole debacle I think Wuhan would be essentially still unknown of by most people of the world. Ironic isn't that?
He means these are unknown to him.
The thing is, there are so many giant cities in China. Every time something internationally noteworthy happens in one of them, I'm like "oh, never heard of that city before, it's probably on the small side" and it turns out to have like 5 million people. Best example is Wuhan, which was obviously covered a lot when 2020 happened. A city many people have never heard about, and it's got 8 million people.
Due to Turkish citizens officially residing elsewhere but informally living in Istanbul, and millions of refugees, both of which are not counted in the official counts, Istanbul likely has a population of 19-20 million, I'd reckon most residents would estimate. Just wanted to append that about the initial portion of the video.
6:08
Nagoya Station (245m, 804ft) is not currently the tallest station in the world. It's Osaka-Abenobashi Station (300m, 984ft) which is known as Abeno Harukas.
Chinese cities are really something else. After living in one of the cities on this list, the only city in North America that really feels like a "big city" is New York. I get that L.A. and Mexico City have large populations, but they don't have the "Sky scrapers as far as the eye can see" thing going on. The bus ride from the outskirts to the new town in the city I lived in feels like traveling forward in time by at least a century.
What about Chicago.
@@marashdemnika5833 Chicago's downtown is nothing compared to a number of Chinese cities. As a Minnesotan, Chicago feels very familiar. It's like if St. Paul, Milwaukee, or Des Moines were much bigger. But when I first visited New York, my eyes popped out of my sockets. It's nothing like any other North American City. And the Pearl Delta Region makes NYC seem sleepy.
I've always wanted to visit Shenzhen, HK, and Congqing. Megacities have always been fascinating to me. As a kid I could never get over how tall the buildings were in NYC. Since leaving it is still interesting to me how small and spread out north American cities are
Would love to see a list of small, but impressive cities, if there is such a thing!
I bet it's in those German countries
Best youtube channel ever... I never thought I could be interested in cities and urban planning until I found this channel haha
The peppy, casual tone of censorship was ironic.
Yeah, he made it sound like an everyday job.
"Nanjing is a city you probably haven't heard of"
Thousands of Americans who studied WW2: "Nani?"
I think there was an oppurtunity to talk about more indian cities, like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, or Bangalore (I know that many may know about the latter, I think its justified to talk about the city when you're talking about cities like shezhen that appear on global news quite often).
Considering Nagoya is the center for car manufacturing, one of the leading exports of Japan, I feel like it is much more well known.
How could anyone not know about Nagoya? It's the eastern end of the Kintetsu Empire.
You have heard of Kintetsu, right?
Other well known cities have also made the list, for some reason. Guangzhou is famous for it's motion picture industry, which is shared with Hong Kong. Also Cantonese food.
Nanjing (formerly Nanking) is the former capitol of China. Very historically significant.
I'm pretty sure a vast majority of people don't know what Kintetsu is
I lived in China for one year back in 2015-2016. Best year of my life. I cant wait to go back to China
0:01 I'mma bet most of them are in China.
0:13 That sounds like Chongqing.
1:34 Know that one. It has the Terracotta Army and is in its own valley near the desert.
2:36 No metro? Could be in India.
2:37 Oh. Know that one.
3:32 We know of the rape of Nanjing. It means "southern capital" in Chinese. Not too far from Shanghai.
3:46 Never heard of the wonder.
4:34 Heard that. Just west of Chongqing in its own flat plain.
5:55 Africa
5:56 Know that one. Between Tokyo and Osaka.
7:18 Is it Egypt's planned new capital?
7:23 First in India. Know that southern India city.
8:33 Is it Dongguan?
10:10 That's like the 3rd most famous Chinese city.
11:35 Hope it's not Beijing. Everybody knows that.
11:36 Just southeast and Beijing's port. I was close.
My school in Sweden had a few teachers and students visit from Bangalore due to a UN educational cooperation. Never having heard of Bangalore I didn't think it was such a remarkable city, until I looked it up and realized it had a population of 11,4 million which is larger than the entirety of Sweden. Sent me down an existential crisis.
I had an existential crisis when I learnt that Delhi had more people than all Nordic countries combined. You can even toss in a whole ass Estonia, which may or may not be Nordic, and still have less people than Delhi.
I'd say Shezhen and Chongqing are pretty well known, alongside with Nanjing. I mean like they have quite a presence. Guangzhou and Tianjin is also pretty well known if ur in the business world, since they're like massive ports for logistics.
And Xi'an is well known for its ancient history
I feel like it’s fascinating to learn about these undiscovered places. The ones we’re already familiar with (ex. Tokyo, Manila, Seoul, Jakarta, New York City, Dubai, etc) are deemed overrated. They’re very, very touristy, based on what I’ve observed. The lesser known cities should elevate their tourism somehow.
I’ve been to all the Chinese cities that you listed! I lived in china for 2 years and visited as many cities as I could. Of all the cities that you listed, I loved Nanjing the most, especially as I lived in Shanghai for a year.
4:43 If I saw this map as a tourist, I would just walk. 🙂
My music gets compared to TMBG all the time. I'll make the Chongqing song.
Don't forget to add a line stating Chongqing was once Chungking. Not as catchy as Istanbul from Constantinople unfortunately.
@@stevekluth9060 Wong Kar Wai’s “Chungking Express” is named for a building in Hong Kong called “Chunking Mansions” in English
Fun fact, Chongqing not only became the capital of China in WWII after the actual capital, Nanjing, was captured by Japanese, it was also the capital for the Korean government at the time.
This is a very common mistake made by people who aren't that familiar with Chinese, but the "zh" in "Shenzhen" is pronounced more like the English "j" sound, just like how you pronounced it in "Guangzhou". The closest English approximation of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation is probably "shun-jun", but "shen-jen" is probably more widely recognized.
For Chengdu, the rings circled aren't all the actual ring roads. 1st Ring Road is not in blue, and then your first two inner rings are 2nd ring Road, a two level city street + raised freeway with BRT transit. The next is 3rd ring Road which is also a freeway similar in style to most Texas freeways (4 lanes + 2-3 lane feeder roads). After there are two ring highways (a 3rd is under construction) which are both labeled on the map.
Chengdu is a great city for pedestrians, I lived there for about 5 years and loved it, wish the US has something remotely comparable.
Regarding Luanda @ 03:05 "... only the African cities of Cairo and Lagos have more people ..."
Also @ 10:09: Shows Kinshasa, An African city with more people than Luanda (but less than Cairo or Lagos)
People who work with portable generators or in the construction industry might know of Chongqing. It's where a lot of small engine manufacturers are headquartered such as Lifan and Loncin and the name Chongqing is often labeled on the engines.
The first emperor of China is pronounced more like “Chin-Shih-Huong”, just fyi. Other than that, great video!
Nagoya is also terra incognita for me. It was a castle town during the Tokugawa shogunate from 1600 to 1853. It became a large industrial center during the Meiji years and this is the city from where Toyota emerged.
i guess i’m biased because i’m an asian studies major, but i’m so shocked to see that people don’t know about these chinese cities lol as well as nagoya
talk about a USELESS degree!! 🤣🤣🤣😂😂
@@libertas-goddessofliberty5664 i’m planning on becoming a diplomat… how is that useless? do you even know what graduate school is? lmao
@@yyaksok5039 wow thats very cool. I'm curious actually, how do you plan to become a diplomat? Do you take some exams?
@@wecare838 yes, the exam is called the FSOT! and there are five different career tracks to choose from. it’s pretty competitive 🥲
@@yyaksok5039 Great. Best of luck!
I’m from Guangzhou and I’m so excited to see my birth city on the list! I actually think North American audience is generally pretty familiar with Guangzhou because nearly all early Chinese immigrants are from the Guangzhou/Canton region, and the Chinese cuisine North Americans are familiar with is Cantonese food, brought over by these early immigrants. Underrated city (by international standards) to visit, but I think it has some of the best persevered culture in China; the rest of China has their local culture toned down a lot from the revolution and rapid economic growth. Guangzhou is still so quirky and unique
他说的是不知名的大城市，不知名你还骄傲，我真服你