To be horrified at how many cities I’d never heard of?

[CruCru]

I’ve just read a thing about how mega cities account for over half of greenhouse emissions. This is awful - but I am also horrified that I’ve never heard of so many of these places. Handan, Suzhou, Dalian, Tianjin - all really big cities and I’d never heard of them. I have heard of Wuhan but only because of Coronavirus.

Am I surprisingly ignorant or have you also not heard of these places?

Never heard of them. I don’t imagine the inhabitants of those cities have heard of the city I live in either.
Can’t know everything, doesn’t make you ignorant

I knew when I read your thread title that it would be about that article. I hadn't heard of most of them either. I cannot imagine how grim some of them must be

I know people that have been to Dalian!

Nope. Never heard of any of those.

It might make you feel better if you watch last night’s episode of university challenge where a group of supposedly intelligent students showed such a woeful grasp of British geography I bet their teachers were crying with shame

I hadn’t heard of Ely until last week

@2tired2bewitty

It might make you feel better if you watch last night’s episode of university challenge where a group of supposedly intelligent students showed such a woeful grasp of British geography I bet their teachers were crying with shame

My DH has worked with uni educated people who've not known where Brussels or Jersey are!

Not long ago, I met someone who thought Lewes was in Scotland.

That would be understandable if she thought it was Lewis, but she lives in Brighton, just 7 miles from Lewes. I was tempted to ask her how long she thought the bus or train took to get from Brighton to Lewes, but decided that it would be a bit unkind.

Depends on how old you are. I don't expect people over 60, say, know these cities - as someone said upthread, they were not really "mega" at the time. But everyone under 40... yes, eh, knowing top 20-30 largest cities in the world is quite basic knowledge, no?

I do but I've been to three of the four cities mentioned. I wouldn't think it unusual if people haven't heard of them though.

@forinborin

Depends on how old you are. I don't expect people over 60, say, know these cities - as someone said upthread, they were not really "mega" at the time. But everyone under 40... yes, eh, knowing top 20-30 largest cities in the world is quite basic knowledge, no?

Half the cities OP listed aren’t in the top 30, so I suppose she’s all right? Dalian is number 65. I doubt most people can name all 65 cities before it. Honestly, a lot of people, even under 40, can’t get through the top 10, as it is changing frequently and they may not need it in everyday life. If you travel, yes. If you need it for business, yes. If you’re interested and you read about it, yes. But if you’re not in one of those categories, it’s possible you just don’t know. And let’s say you do want to know the top 20. You have to make sure your source is very current. In 2015, Moscow was #15. Now it’s #24.

I doubt most people can name all 65 cities before it.
Oh come on, I used top 20 as an example, not some list to be religiously followed. I will give you Dalian , but to have never heard of Tianjin? A city much older and much bigger than London?

Well, there’s shitloads of Chinese people and they’ve all gotta live somewhere! Just because a city is old and has a lot of people in it doesn’t mean it has global significance, especially in a country with such a bloody enormous population. A Chinese city could have millions of people living there but really just be the China equivalent of say, Wolverhampton. If someone who isn’t British or living here was asked to name British cities I doubt they would get far beyond London, maybe Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff. It goes both ways.

I haven't heard of any of them, as a pp said we can't be expected to know everything though - a lot of towns near me people will probably have never heard of before if they're not from round here!
As for Lewes in a pp, I would have struggled to place where that was as well as I'm not from down south.

@Gh0stontoast

I know people that have been to Dalian!

Dalian the industrial city in Northeast China or Dalyan the popular Turkish tourist resort?

DSIL is from Seoul and was very excited to visit Chester recently, he said he had never been to a pretty little English village before.
I think mega cities are actually a good idea, building upwards not outwards leaves more countryside free for agriculture and wildlife.

@forinborin

Depends on how old you are. I don't expect people over 60, say, know these cities - as someone said upthread, they were not really "mega" at the time. But everyone under 40... yes, eh, knowing top 20-30 largest cities in the world is quite basic knowledge, no?

Why would it be age based? Do you think people should learn a rote list of the largest cities in school and then never learn anything afterwards?!

Up until my 30s I assumed Dunkirk was in Scotland . Luckily I have never voiced this in RL

@Northernsoullover to be fair it does sound like it belongs in Scotland lol

I remember in my first job meeting a man from Uttoxeter and thinking he’d made up the name. Turns out I grew up about an hour’s drive from Uttoxeter. Took me 22 years to hear the word.

I had a job managing tenders for big Asian Development Bank/World Bank funded jobs in China. I would regularly go home to dh (this was 20 years ago) and say "this city has 20 million people and I've never heard of it!" it was eye-opening. I worked on proposals for all of the cities in the OP but had never heard of any of them before I read the RFP.

No, never heard of them either. I doubt if many Chinese people have heard of Portsmouth or Plymouth or Wolverhampton.

Also watched university challenge where Glasgow students were asked to identify English cities from a map. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t know the answers but that they were so wildly out. And Glasgow is only about 500 miles from any of them!

bet their teachers were crying with shame

I think mega cities are actually a good idea, building upwards not outwards leaves more countryside free for agriculture and wildlife.

God, would you want to live in one of those high rises though?

I've probably "heard" of them but wouldn't be able to recall them if asked. Had never heard of Wuhan until last year.

I live in Australia and have a lot of friends from China and I’ve often not heard of where they’re from - and they’re often like “oh it’s only 15 million people, not exactly a major city” and I go
But then they’ve often not heard of Bristol or Brighton, both of which I’ve lived in, so it’s not like it’s only me who doesn’t know every city.
Plus I’ve flown around the world so many times and love geography and my son and I often look up the places we’ve flown over but there is still so much more to know! In some ways it fills me with an existential dread that there is so much I don’t know.