China

I woke up this morning thinking about how little I know about China compared to Europe. I’ve never visited either location, and I don’t personally know any relatives in either location. But I know (or imagine I know) so much more about Europe. It seems crazy that there is so much going on in China and I’m totally ignorant.

For example, look at these lists of primary cities in Europe vs China.

First, Europe:

Istanbul, Moscow, London, St. Petersburg, Ankara, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Kiev, and Paris.  The only one of those that I didn’t “grow up knowing” is Ankara.

Now here’s the amazing thing.  There are huge, enormous cities in China that I’ve never heard of. They’re much bigger than the European cities.

In Europe, the only two cities that are above 10 million people are Istanbul and Moscow. In China, there are at least 10 cities that have over 10 million people.

Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Harbin, Wuhan, Suzhou…these cities ALL have over 10 million people! I cannot pronounce them, I cannot spell them, I certainly could not place them on a map.

Here’s a bunch more, all with population over 7 million people.

Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xi’an, Nanjing, Chongqing, Changsha, Hong Kong, Fuzhou, Foshan…Ok, I’ve heard of Hong Kong.

For contrast, the US doesn’t have ANY cities over 10 million people.

So yes, if you count metro areas, then the US has two; New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas are both over 10 million people; New York at about 20 million and LA at about 13 million.

But look at China’s top metro areas!

44 million people…35 million people…30 million people…21 million people.

Ok, enough data.  My point is, why don’t I have at least a vague familiarity with these places?

In the US, we all have some knowledge of Paris, right? Or at least we think we do. Paris seems familiar to us. I’ve never been there and I don’t speak the language, yet I imagine I have some sense of what parts of the city probably look like. I can guess roughly what types of food I could find there. I know a little bit about the beliefs and concerns of the people who live there. I could talk about some of the differences between London and Paris and New York. But what would I know about differences between Guangzhou and Shanghai?