Tianjin

When Britain made South Africa a country by force, each of the preceding countries bar Natal (which got cash) was given a Capital. SA has three Capitals... Pretoria is where the Executive sits, Bloemfontein where the Judiciary sits, and Parliament is in Cape Town. Pretoria and Johannesburg are not the same city... but you wouldn't know it on the 60km drive. In China, Beijing is the Capital but just 130km away is Tianjin - also one of the biggest cities in the world with over 15 million people. In 1856, officials suspected a ship was engaged in piracy and dealing opium. They boarded and arrested 12 men. In response the British and French sent gunboats. The resulting "Opium Wars" allowed Britain to continue trading, but according to their rules rather than those of local authorities. Along with opening up to trade, the city also has numerous European style buildings in the concession areas. Architectural reminders of their rule in the form of Churches and Villas.

Church of Our Lady's Victory - 1869

Chengdu

Two thousand years of Imperial Rule ended in China in 1912. A lightly held Republic was established, but that descended into Civil War as "The People" had different views of how to govern. A common foreign enemy in the form of Japan brought temporary alignment before the Civil War resumed after the second World War. Part of the Cold War, in 1949, the Government of the Republic was forced to Taiwan and the Communist Party established the People's Republic. Chengdu is unique as a major settlement that mostly maintained its name through these periods. It means "becoming a Capital". I like that. Cities are the closest thing physical places have to people with limited lives. They may still be there, but like growing children, you have to love them while letting go of each moment as they fundamentally become something else. King Tai said a settlement needed "one year to become a town, two to become a city, and three to become a metropolis". Today Chengdu is home to 14-18 million people depending on your definition of its borders. It is still becoming.

1949 Troops entering Chengdu

ending the Chinese Civil War

Guangzhou

Guangzhou has a 2,200 year history as a Silk Road port. What we think of as "The Age of Discovery" is analogous to an undergraduate University student discovering a philosopher or book they like, and thinking no one else has (literally) every read it. Cities and Ports are always evolving. Domestic (Chinese) migrants from other provinces make up about 40% of Guangzhou's 14-25 million strong population (depending on where you mark the city's edge). Until the Opium Wars forced the opening of other points, it was a single point of entry for most foreign traders. "Canton" derived from Cantão, which was a muddling Portuguese pronunciation of Guangdong (The Province which Guangzhou is the Capital of). Muslim conquests sacked and held the city for a century from 758. Following that, foreign trade came in an out of favour depending on the Emperor. Legal Trade was often restricted to tribute delegations. Eventually, around the 17th century, when the Portuguese became regulars, they were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself. Trade increased under the Canton System as the city gradually became a centre of Global Trade. 

City Montage

Dip Out

I am not sure if I am a Town Donkey or a Country Donkey. Categories are more useful questions than answers. I like being able to dip in and out of intensity, and calm. Skye is an island up at the top of Scotland. A place of calm. To dip out. But now it is known as a place to escape, and Skye (ha)s a limit. Venice is a place of intensity famous for its hustle and bustle, but now also struggling with so many people coming to see Venice that it isn't really Ve(ry)nice. Sometimes we destroy the things we love. We need to create some buffers to hold the things, places, people, and moments, we love. To let it be without packing in as much as we possibly can. To allow gaps and spaces. To breathe in, and out. Deeply.

Town Mouse v Country Mouse

Aesops's Fables

Beijing

The borders of countries are tidal. What divides and rules us depends on the whims of the times, and the songs we happen to be singing. Cities tend to be renamed, swell, and shrink... but they don't move. The people do. Beijing was conquered in 1215 by the Mongol Empire. By 1240, the turn had come for Kievan Rus, and they were readying to destroy Vienna when the Khan died in 1241. They still returned to flatten Baghdad in 1258, at the time the world's centre of learning. Beijing was rebuilt between 1264 and 1293. It was called Bei (Northern) Jing (Capital) in 1403, with the Forbidden City constructed as the Imperial Residence. Beijing has remained the political centre of China for most of the last eight centuries. It now hosts the most Fortune 500 companies, and the world's four largest financial institutions. Very much connected to the rest of the world, as it has been for thousands of years.

Beijing

Kinshasa

King Leopold II is a strong contender for the person responsible for committing the most evil acts in human history. The Congo was his personal property after the 'Scramble for Africa'. He used a Mercenary Army to extract vast sums which were redirected to construction projects in Belgium, becoming known as 'The Builder King'. Consensus is that these buildings cost about 10 million Congolese lives. Leopoldville was renamed Kinshasa in 1966, after a village that was in the area. Today Kinshasa has an urban population of around 12 million people. It is the largest French speaking city, recently surpassing Paris. It is on the banks of the second longest river in Africa (after the Nile). On the other side of the river is Brazzaville, which is the capital its neighbouring country. The second closest capitals after Rome and the Vatican City.

Leopoldville 1884

Mumbai

Some people get Microwave Ovens as wedding gifts. Bombaim means good little Bay in Portuguese. In 1661, Charles II of England was given the seven islands of Bombay, when he married the daughter of the King of Portugal. The indigenous people of the islands were the Koli. Places became the personal property of Monarchs. Never mind who lived there. The King leased the islands (which then had a population of around 10,000 people) to the East India Company. Major roads, railways, and reclamation projects transformed Bombay into a significant port on the Arabian Sea. Economic and Educational development lead to the City becoming a central point in the Indian Independence Movement. In 1995, the City was renamed Mumbai. Mumbadevi is the patron goddess of the Koli people. It is now one of the top ten centres of global financial flows, generating more than 6% of India's GDP. The business opportunities attract migrants from all over India (more Continent than Country with a population of 1.3 Billion) making Mumbai a melting pot like many Global Cities around the world. It now has a population of between 12 and 21 million people, depending on the boundaries you believe in.

Mumba Devi Temple

Shanghai

Four Cities in China have the same rank as Provinces - Tianjin, Beijing, Chongqing, and Shanghai. Shanghai has a population of about 24 million people, roughly the same as Australia. The City was one of five treaty ports forced to open to foreign trade after the British victory over China in the first Opium War. European tastes for silk, porcelain, and tea caused one-sided trade imbalances. Chinese Officials weren't keen to even the scales with Opium. Gunboats forced the issue. The City then flourished as a centre of commerce. It has now become a showpiece for the booming Chinese Economy. Shang means upon, and Hai, means sea. Ports have for a long time being where the best and worst of us clash.

Pudong, Shanghai (2010)

A reclaimed swampland

Singapore

When 'Greece' fell to Rome, it wasn't an Empire but a bunch of independent city-states who did things differently. The Greek peninsula first came under Roman rule after the fall of Corinth in 146 BC. Roman culture was heavily influenced by the Greeks. Western Rome fell to the Barbarian tribes of the North in 476. Like the Greeks, the Germanic people were part of independent tribes rather than an Empire. In the year 800, King Charlemagne (of the Franks - a collection of Germanic people) revived the Imperial idea and started the Holy Roman Empire. Barbarian culture was heavily influenced by the Romans. Singapore is one of the few modern City States. Ironically, so is the Vatican City. Singapore was a colonial trading post of the British East India Company, and later part of the British Raj. In 1963, it federated with other former British territories to form Malaysia. Ideological difference saw it become a separate sovereign nation in 1965. The country took commerce, finance, and transport by the scruff of the neck and today has the 3rd highest GDP per capita of any sovereign nation (not based on natural resources).

1825 - Singapore Free Port

München

Munich (München) is the largest city in the German state of Bavaria (third biggest in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg). It is a city founded "near the Monks" of a Benedictine monastery. Catholic Munich was a stronghold in the Counter-Reformation. The Reformation started in 1517 and while the core motivation was theological (sale of indulgences, reliance on scripture etc.), it was an opportunity for power bases to grow with rising nationalism. Around the same time in 1530, Henry VIII made England's church independent for other reasons. The Counter-Reformation was the fight back, and part of the Thirty-Year War (1618-1648). Ferdinand II wanted to restore Catholicism as the only religion in the Empire. The Protestants called on the support of King Gustav of Sweden - leader of the most powerful army in Europe at the time. Between 25-40% of the population of most German states were killed in this period. Directly through killed soldiers, and indirectly through famine, disease, and destroyed livelihoods. Ferdinand II lost (dying during the war), and though Bavaria was independent at the end of the war, his son Ferdinand III was the last Emperor to have any real power over the Holy Roman Empire. The unification of Germany only happened in 1871.

Holy Roman Empire (962-1806)

Bloody War

Peace of Westphalia

Cairo

Cairo, which now has a population of 9.5 million, has long been an important global city. It managed to avoid Europe's late middle ages stagnation, but being a key trade city, got hit by the Black Death more than 50 times between 1348 and 1517. This reduced the population to between 150,000 and 300,000. Then a new route around the Cape of Good Hope was opened which allowed spice traders to avoid the city. When the Ottoman Empire took control, Cairo became second fiddle to Constantinople/Istanbul. Napoleon arrived in 1798 and the population was still just 300,000. The joint British/Ottoman forces defeated the French in 1801. Although the British left, immense debt was built up in the public works to build modern Egypt. This was used as a pretext for British invasion in 1882. By the end of the 19th century, just 5% of the population were European, but they held most of the top Government positions. World Wars, Cold War, Energy Crises and rising Nationalism came next. Being an important city is volatile.

Cairo Citadel

Moscow

Moscow is the largest city entirely on the European continent. It has 13.2 million people in the city limits, and 17.8 million in the urban area. One of the nicknames for Moscow is the 'Third Rome'. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Grand Duchy of Moscow started to see itself as defenders of the Orthodox Faith. This was central to Byzantine identity to distinguish themselves from the Barbarians, from the North-West and from the East, who had overthrown the previous Empires. Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople declared himself Kayser-i-Rum, "Caesar of Rome". Ferdinand and Isabella who built up the Spanish Empire, bought the titles and imperial rights from the heir of the last Byzantine Emperor. The Barbarians became the Emperors. The Emperors became the Barbarians. And repeat.

Moscow

Istanbul

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul was once known as Constantinople and Byzantium. Its commercial and historical centres, and two thirds of its population, are on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait (which separates Europe and Asia, there, a little further North you have make up other play play divisions). Istanbul is the world's 7th largest city proper. It was founded in around 660 BCE as Byzantion, and reestablished as the Imperial Capital of Rome by Constantine (the first Roman Emperor to claim conversion to Christianity) in 330 CE. It stayed the Capital of the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the West, and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire when it was conquered in 1453. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants have come to the city in search of a better life.

Istanbul

Manchester

For a relatively small island, the United Kingdom has a lot of flavour. People can tell from accents which city others come from even though these cities are neighbours. While language pulls us together, people clearly value signals of where they are local. Manchester is the second largest city in the UK. It's unplanned urbanisation was on the back of a textile boom which lead it to become the world's first industrialised city. Before industrialisation, most of us would have been 'different but rural'. The underlying sounds of our lives would have rhymed. Cities bumped up the extremes. Wealth and poverty. Boom and bust. The cities population peaked in 1931 at 766,311 (530,300 now, with 2.7 million in Greater Manchester). Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing 1961 and 1983. Creative destruction, or just destruction, depending on whether you landed on your feet. In times of change, local is something you can cling to.

Manchester Montage

Lagos

One way of looking at the current political tensions is a shift from Left-Right, to Local-Global or Rural-Urban. The first was an ideological conflict. The new way doesn't need to be. It is easy to forget how dramatically the world has changed in the last couple of hundred years. Industrialisation, urbanisation, travel, and massive reductions in child mortality have put the rules we live by under tension. The metropolitan area of Lagos has a population of about 21 million people. The largest city on a continent that has been turned upside down. Cities are a natural place to go to try get on your feet. The population of Lagos increases every year by about 275,000 people per year. Rural areas lend themselves to conservatism. A place to retreat to what you know. Where we feel comfortable. Cities force edgy change where we discover what we don't know. Today's Lagos, like today's Dhaka, Tokyo or Jakarta is where we go to be part of the change.

Karachi

Now one of the 10 biggest cities in the world, the area surrounding Karachi has been inhabited for millennia. It only became a fortified settlement, and the seeds of a city proper, in 1729. The growth was spurred by becoming a major seaport connected to an extensive railway network. At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the population was still 'only' around 400,000. It became the primary destination of Muslim immigrants from India in the 50s and 60s. Pakistan has not had a census since 1998 (at which time less than 10 million lived in Karachi), but the population is estimated to be anywhere between 15 and 24 million people. An estimated 45,000 new migrants settle in the city every month. It is a melting pot of people from all over Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Seoul

Seoul

In the middle

The Seoul Capital Area is home to almost half of the 50 million strong population of South Korea. Seoul was transformed by the 'Miracle on the Han River'. This is the name give to the period following the Korean War (1950-53) which witnessed rapid reconstruction and development much like West Germany following World War II (Miracle on the Rhine). From 1910-45, Korea had been a colony of the Japanese Empire. After the World War, Korea was split in two as part of the Cold War with both governments claiming to be the legitimate government. The Korean War pitted the China backed North against the United States backed South. Seoul changed hands a number of times. An armistice was signed in 1953, but the two Koreas are still technically at war. Despite this difficult history, the city has thrived, and is ranked first by PWC's 'cities of opportunity' report, as the world's most wired. 95% of South Korean households have broadband connection.

South Korea (GDP per person)

Jakarta

Jakarta

The greater metropolitan area of Jakarta is also known as Jabodetabek. This megacity is home to over 30 million people, and combines Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi. The city was established in the fourth century. The Kingdom of Sunda (669 -1579) grew with the engine of this important trading port. Later it was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies. Like the British East India Company, European colonisation started out as a competitive, nationalistic, commercial endeavour (Mercantilism). Japan's World War II occupation (1942) dismantled much of the colonial state, and after Japan's defeat, Indonesian independence was declared in 1945. As an economic magnate, Jakarta attracts migrants with a 1961 census showing only 51% of the population born in the city. The Betawi people (native Jakartans) are a creole group formed by the various immigrant groups (Indonesian, Chinese, Arab, European) and make up just over a quarter of the population.

Delhi

Delhi Map

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) is both a city, and a union territory of India. Almost 17 million people live there, and the urban area which extends beyond the NCT is home to over 26 million people. Delhi is home to an estimated 23,000 US$ millionaires, but half of the population live in slum areas with inadequate provision of basic services. Reading that reminds me of the challenges facing Cape Town. I love the idea of 'sister cities'. At city level - politics becomes less abstract given the obvious contrasts, and real world implementation challenges. Delhi is sister city to New York, London, Moscow, Ulaanbataar, Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Seoul and Fukuoka. The bigger things get, the more abstract they get. When it comes down to conversation, and listening, we can start to taste the common ingredients.

Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is one of the world's most populated (17 million in Greater Dhaka area), and most densely populated (28,410 per square kilometre), cities. Once its nickname was the 'Venice of the East' because it was home to so many Eurasian merchant groups. The British East India Company took control of the city from the Nawab of Bengal. Under the system of Mercantilism trade was seen as a form of National warfare with winners and losers. Dhaka got plugged into Britain's imperial networks. The colonial tax, and restriction on trade in the interest of British manufacturers, led to the city's decline. By 1824, Dhaka was described as 'the city of magnificent ruins'. After the city mutinied in 1857, rule was passed from the company to the British government. In 1971, it became the capital of an independent Bangladesh.

Sights of Dhaka