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?

I’ve heard of them and know exactly where they are, but I lived in China for 12 years.

Me and dh went to Suzhou some years ago on a tour of China. Its a couple of hours train ride from shanghai and is famous for its silk production. Geography lesson of the day over.

I'm not at all surprised.
I have no 'need' to know about megacities in China, nor much interest, so unless I heard the name a lot I doubt I'd remember.

Plus I've seen Richard Osman's House of Games where celebrities have to identify places on a map, and some of them don't know where Spain is.

People have their own areas of interest and knowledge. DH is pretty hopeless on Geography but knows a lot about aeroplanes & space. My knowledge of popular culture (music, sport, celebrities) is woeful. But in contrast with around 50% of MN, I know and can apply BODMAS.

Do you think most people around the world know of Leeds and Newcastle? Probably not. People always think of London when they think of the UK.

A couple of years ago I had 2 young (24/5) women from one of China’s megacities to stay for a couple of weeks. It was their first trip outside China and they were utterly fascinated by things I just take for granted. The first time they saw a horse they literally jumped for joy and screamed because they had never seen one other than on film. They were enthralled by the birds and the fruit trees in our garden because they had always lived in high rise apartments with no access to gardens or even parks. It was utterly fascinating talking to them. Their lives and experiences were so very different and in ways that I had just not considered. Sunset was remarkable because they said in a city it was not something they could see.

Never heard of any of them but why would I? Chinese geography is not of much interest to be honest.

I'd heard of all except Handan - possibly because it's not the provincial capital of Hebei (which is Shijiazhuang)

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?

MH ageism rearing its ugly head yet again.

I'm mid 60s and have a better geographical knowledge than the younger people I work with. One, a geography graduate, asked if Surrey is north or south of the Thames. We are in an adjacent county to Surrey and she's lived in it all her life.

I’ve heard of Suzhou and Dalian but not the other two and I also had not heard of Wuhan before the pandemic. I sometimes do geography quizzes on jetpunk, sporcle etc and the country ones are easy but cities are really hard, even naming the capital of every country is surprisingly difficult.

@lidoshuffle

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?

MH ageism rearing its ugly head yet again.

I'm mid 60s and have a better geographical knowledge than the younger people I work with. One, a geography graduate, asked if Surrey is north or south of the Thames. We are in an adjacent county to Surrey and she's lived in it all her life.

There is a difference in knowing stable local geography and keeping up with rapidly changing global geography of rapid industrialisation and little other global interest.

I know my degree is 20 years out of date and my mental list of global megacities has fallen behind contemporary changes. The key bit is that I have that awareness I know the trends I needs to read up on for when it matters.

That's having been to China about a decade ago, passing through Shenzen after entering via Hong Kong and travelling relatively "near" Wuhan along the Yangtzee through the Three Gorges, and stopping in tiny insignificant cities like Datong, only the size of Birmingham and being pretty much closed for major upgrading.

That doesn't change the fact that my A-level Geography is out-of-date. I would expect a 20 year old of similar academic background to me to be more up-to-date.

@lidoshuffle

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?

MH ageism rearing its ugly head yet again.

I'm mid 60s and have a better geographical knowledge than the younger people I work with. One, a geography graduate, asked if Surrey is north or south of the Thames. We are in an adjacent county to Surrey and she's lived in it all her life.

To be fair, a bit of Surrey is on the other side of the river. Just a bit mind.

There are a lot of cities in the world and unless you are a Geography geek it's hard to know of every one.

I've known some Brits who hadn't heard of towns 30 miles down the road, so I wouldn't worry too much!

People over 60 do work full time, read the papers, keep up with current affairs, do courses, travel. We're not all sitting on our sofas watching Countdown.

Hey, I'm over 60 and have heard of all of them! But they are far from being the biggest cities.

I have sky and there used to be an international weather channel the music was v relaxing and it was a great way to learn the names of many cities. I don't think they broadcast it now but I used to really enjoy it! Saddo lol.

According to WIki, there are a few Dunkirks in the UK - but not in Scotland.

Dunkirk, Cambridgeshire, a location in the United Kingdom
Dunkirk, Cheshire, see National Cycle Route 56
Dunkirk, Gloucestershire
Dunkirk, Kent, a village between Faversham and Canterbury
Dunkirk, Norfolk, a location in the United Kingdom
Dunkirk, Nottingham
Dunkirk, Staffordshire, a location in the United Kingdom
Dunkirk, Wiltshire

It's a good point about spellings (and names changing (not just for China but for India too). If you read an old atlas you'd see Peking, Bombay, Calcutta for example.

I like the Sporcle quizzes on the top 100 cities in each country - I can get close to 100 for the UK and Germany but only about 30 for France (although their biggest towns are much smaller than the ones in Germany and the UK and I have really no idea where some of them are) and similar for Italy and Spain.

I assumed that thinking Dunkirk is in Scotland is due to confusing with places like Dundee and Falkirk.

I'll admit to not knowing the top ten China's largest cities, but my geographical knowledge is a lot better than some.

The show Pointless is good for illustrating how little some people know, such as only a minority knowing that Cologne is in Germany for example.

I'd heard of Tianjin but not the others.

I also used to think Dunkirk was Scotland, I assume getting it mixed up/associated with Dunblane?

I’ve been to Dalian! It was a building site and the air wasn’t v pleasant 😬. Though to be fair was nicer (cleaner) than some cities in other countries I’ve been to.

I bought a little game to play with the teen DC last year- Mapominoes. It's great. I'm shocking compared to them and I'm very, very well travelled. I blame peri-menopause brain when I lose really badly . It's great if some want to check it out.

Another favourite we've had for years is Maps of the World. It gives you map references and capital cities and it's brilliant. I'm also shocking at the flags, not bad at the counties/ cities. DC1 is ridiculously good at the flags, much to everyone's annoyance!

Both good fun if you fancy the knowledge. I'm waiting for a UK version of counties because I'm truly, truly crap at those (Scottish).

As a PP said, the Chinese cities have grown exponentially. When I was growing up in Hong Kong in the '70s there was a town of about 30,000 just over the border, called Sham Chun. Now it's a megacity of almost 20 million and its name is Shenzhen.

It still is called that @groovergirl depending on what language you speak (although Cantonese romanisation has now changed).

Shenzhen is Mandarin, and Shamchun is the Cantonese pronunciation of the same characters. The choice to change which language was used for the English name is probably quite political.