My boyfriend is from Chongqing and some people in my family are conservative white people. I facepalm every time a new relative asks him where he is from, and he answers, truthfully, with the most stereotypical-sounding city in China. (Also, he tried dog meat at a festival one time when he was twelve, and now that's firmly cemented in my family's heads as another stereotype.)
Culturaly biased people are so annoying. It's a fact that all cultures are hugely different. Nobody can deny it, they can just be buffoons about it. (No offense intended to your family, I'm sorry if you get offended.)
My father was once going on a business trip to China and I asked him to what city. He answered with Chonqing, and I genuinely believed he was trying to make some racist joke until I looked it up
Not really, chongqing comes directly from the pinyin for the city's name in mMandarin, where qing is pronounced more like tsing. Chungking does not accurately reflect the way the city's name is pronounced in Mandarin
Can you also include a hint next to each answer box of what country the city is in? Or continent since at least one of these answers is a city AND a country?
Surprised Beijing isn't on the list. I was there a few months ago and at the rate they are constructing, they wont be off for long. Also, I am not even kidding when I say China will probably encompass the entire list at some point in the future, assuming this quiz includes high rise apartment complexes.
Building height regulations are very strict in Beijing, given the proximity to government buildings. Any skyscraper too close to President Xi's estate could be a potential sniper's nest.
I'm really surprised by this. I lived in downtown Moscow for 4 years and I didn't think there were that many skyscrapers at all. And yet here they are. I guess there aren't really that many large buildings in the world. Interesting.
I was just at Moscow City last night where according to Wikipedia they have the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th tallest buildings in Europe. Though... next to Dubai or Hong Kong or New York still not super impressive.
for those that don't know "Moscow City" is not the city but a small cluster of buildings in a planned commercial/business/financial/high-end shopping district.
I gave up on trying more Chinese cities when Beijing was not on the list. Well, except for Tianjin, which I might never learn the correct spelling of...
Only missed Shenyang and Miami. By my count Melbourne also has 35 completed buildings of 150m or more (plus 4 more topped out and 11 currently under construction) - same as Moscow.
My memory of Sao Paulo is flying into the domestic airport and seeing 20-30 story apartment buildings as far as the eye can see. Massive population and density, but all of those buildings are too short to count for a quiz like this.
Anyone familiar enough with Panama City to comment on why they have so many skyscrapers? I'm just surprised that they are the only city south of Houston/Miami in this hemisphere that makes the list, given that the population is about a half million.
A quick search points to several factors; 1) Panama is more seismically stable than its central American neighbors, 2) the Panama canal is an economic engine enriching the country, and 3) (controversially), the country is a haven for laundering drug money.
Not just drug money, money in general from many of the world's multinationals, celebs and 'respected' institutions -the Panama Papers scandal showed even the Queen stashed her cash there. It's another version of Switzerland/ Luxembourg/ Netherlands/ Monaco/ Cayman Islands/ Ireland/ Singapore -the world's parasites.
Considering the "city proper" qualification, I'm surprised Melbourne is on there. The way Australian cities are set up, "the city" itself is rather small, within a large metropolitan area. Cross a block and you're in another town.
Wuhan has so many skyscrapers, then how did the Coronavirus take so long to get out of China, when it has so may tall buildings full of people to clear out first?
A virus doesn't work methodically, it just takes one person to travel out by plane, train or automobile to spread it further -Wuhan airport alone flies out to 53 other countries. No brainer there, which is how an isolated farmstead in Kansas spread it to the rest of the world in the 1918 Spanish Flu. Also Wuhan (and Indian cities) had the world's strictest lockdowns, so it didn't work through the whole population anyway.
European cities have zoning forbidding highrises due to heritage + viewpoints. i.e London with a similar population/ business demand as NYC, lumped with 14 'viewing corridors' that stretch across great swathes of the city, protecting 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites plus 3 cathedrals and 6 palaces. When a pensioner hacked away a bush on Parliament Hill, restoring a 300 year old vista to St Paul's Cathedral, he took out plans for 4 skyscapers 8 miles away. Likewise Paris crams its skyscrapers in La Defense, just outside the city boundary. Additionally London is the worlds biggest airhub with 6 international airports, including one within the city proper -thus heights reduced even on the outskirts. Instead the city's 32 skyscrapers are crammed into 7 pocket skylines, similar to La Defense. The final nail in the coffin is that they're unpopular in Europe, after postwar monstrosities. 500 highrises were demolished by the 90s in London alone (though since rebuilt due to the population soaring)
Most major European cities were built centuries ago, when they didn't have the technology to make skyscrapers. Skyscrapers are more common in new world countries and eastern countries with cities that have dense, large, or growing populations. Some European countries want to preserve the view of major structures, so their buildings are generally lower.
Are you kidding or have you not been to DC? There's nothing taller than the Washington Monument there. A few tall buildings on the other side of the Potomac but that's not technically in DC anymore.
how is sao paulo not in here, i don't mean any criticism though
edit: i looked it up on google and there are only 18 buildings over 150m in height, but how out of the tens of thousands of tall buildings in sao paulo, are there not more?
edit edit: that is because of planning laws prohibiting the construction of really tall buildings.
São Paulo has only 18 skycrapers (>150m) but has 40-50 thousand high rise buildings (>35 blocks), the most in the world. After the great fires on the Edifício Andraus (1972) and on the Edifício Joelma (1974), the city limited a lot in the construction of skyscrapers, although they are being built back. The highest skyscrapers of Brazil are being built in Balneário Camboriú, at Santa Catarina. Their skyscrapers reach more than 200 meters long, and it’s currently being built one of 500 meters, and the shadow caused by the buildings caused the enlargement of the main beach of ‘Balneário’. It’s worth to mention that Balneário is not a big city, nor the capital of its state, but the tourism, its limited size and the purchase of high invests has made Balneário Camboriú to be come the Brazilian Dubai. You can also find some modern skyscrapers in Goiânia, capital of Goiás.
Not so fun fact: The Edifício Joelma’s Fire was the second deadliest fire in a skyscraper ever.
I can't believe I missed Singapore - kind of easy to forget, as it's not "part of India" or "part of China", etc. Or am I just making an excuse for myself?
Panama City - not too obvious. Easy to gloss over when thinking "North America" because it almost isn't North America, geographically.
Yeah, I missed 8 of 28. Unhappy at only getting 2 points.
One could say that I make the following point out of sour grapes for having missed so many, but nevertheless I do think that the following is an important point to make.
This could have been, instead of 28 cities, 23 urban agglomerations, instead.
I definitely think of Guangzhou, Shenzen, and Hong Kong as being one giant agglomeration. So that could make it 2 less. And I did get all of those.
Beijing and Tianjin are right next to each other, so that could make it 1 less.
Lastly, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai are all fairly close to each other, so that could make another 2 less (2 that I didn't get - ha!)
edit: i looked it up on google and there are only 18 buildings over 150m in height, but how out of the tens of thousands of tall buildings in sao paulo, are there not more?
edit edit: that is because of planning laws prohibiting the construction of really tall buildings.
Not so fun fact: The Edifício Joelma’s Fire was the second deadliest fire in a skyscraper ever.
Panama City - not too obvious. Easy to gloss over when thinking "North America" because it almost isn't North America, geographically.
Yeah, I missed 8 of 28. Unhappy at only getting 2 points.
One could say that I make the following point out of sour grapes for having missed so many, but nevertheless I do think that the following is an important point to make.
This could have been, instead of 28 cities, 23 urban agglomerations, instead.
I definitely think of Guangzhou, Shenzen, and Hong Kong as being one giant agglomeration. So that could make it 2 less. And I did get all of those.
Beijing and Tianjin are right next to each other, so that could make it 1 less.
Lastly, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai are all fairly close to each other, so that could make another 2 less (2 that I didn't get - ha!)
2+1+2 = 5. 28-5 = 2 ???