This video is sponsored by Curiosity Stream.
This city is one of the 15 largest
in the world by population.
And fun fact,
it has the world's busiest monorail system
which is part of its metro network.
More on that later.
This city would be the largest in Europe if it was there,
but it's only the third most populous in its own country.
I'm talking about Chongqing,
probably the largest city you've never heard of
or if you've heard of it,
you probably don't know much about it.
I don't think I'm going out
on a limb by saying that the people
in my audience know more
about Buenos Aires and Istanbul.
There is no catchy TMBG song about Chongqing,
but I would definitely listen to it if they put one out.
If the Johns are watching this channel, make it happen.
This video is meant to highlight some
of the lesser known big cities on our planet
and learn some things we may not know about them.
We'll start with the 10th largest
and work our way back up to Chongqing,
Spoiler alert:
there'll be lots of other Chinese cities on list too,
including number 10.
That city's actually slightly more populous than Hong Kong.
Let's learn more after the bike bell.
(bell ringing)
Before I reveal the list,
let me tell you where it comes from.
I used the United Nations 2018 population estimates
to create the list of most populous cities.
It's not a perfect list, but it's not bad.
It's just as good as anything else.
And then I went down the list
and simply chose the cities
that I didn't really know much about.
Now, I've heard of all these cities on this list,
but I couldn't really tell you a thing about them.
So this was a fun exercise for me to learn more
about global cities,
and I hope it's fun for you too.
So let's talk about Xi'an, number 10 on the list.
For one thing, I didn't know that Xi'an was home
to the Terracotta Army,
a UNESCO World Heritage site.
These figures were built after the first emperor of China
Qin Shi Huang, so he'd have an army in the afterlife.
There are an estimated 8,000 figures there,
and no they don't count
toward the 7.4 million residents of Xi'an.
Xi'an's history doesn't stop there,
as it is the eastern end
of the main branch of the Silk Road,
a trading route that transported Chinese silk
and other products across Central Asia to the Middle East
from the second century BCE to the 15th century.
But what about the city now?
This is going to be a theme with these Chinese cities,
but I can't help but focus on its metro system.
In 2010, Xi'an had no functioning metro system.
Today it has eight lines,
188 stations and 258 kilometers of lines.
That's more length and about the same number of passengers
as the Paris Metro,
and they built it in 12 years.
That's incredible.
Our ninth city you've never heard of
has no metro system at all,
though maybe we should check back in 12 years.
It's Luanda, the largest and capital city
of the African nation of Angola.
Luanda doesn't have the star power
of a Cairo, Cape Town, or Lagos,
but that's in part,
because it's been growing so fast recently.
Angola only achieved independence from Portugal
in 1975 and emerged from Civil War in 2002.
Relative political stability and significant investment
from oil and diamond interests have fueled Luanda's rise.
And what a rise it's been.
According to the UN,
only the African cities of Cairo and Lagos have more people.
Luanda has a striking waterfront,
with a long slender peninsula forming the barrier
between Luanda Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
There are beaches, a waterfront promenade,
and some excellent views of the skyline.
Beyond the city center,
informal urban settlements stretch inland
and continue to be built
as migrants move to Lawanda for the economic opportunities.
But we need to leave Africa and return to China,
for the eighth largest city you've never heard of, Nanjing.
Maybe you've heard the name,
but do you know anything about it or where it is?
It's up-river from Shanghai,
sort of in the shadow of its larger and more famous cousin.
Like Xi'an, it's known for a wonder found
in civilization games, the Porcelain Tower.
It was constructed by the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century
and destroyed in 1854, so you can't visit it today.
In the game Civ V, the wonder was useful
for players hoping to achieve a science victory,
which makes sense as Nanjing is known,
even today as a city of knowledge.
It's home to many well-known
and highly regarded universities,
like Nanjing University and Southeast University.
It has the highest ratio
of college students to general population in China.
Nanjing sounds a lot like the Boston of China
with all of its universities and students.
Nanjing's metro system is ancient by Chinese standards,
with the first line being built in 2005.
All of that time has allowed the metro to expand
to the 7th longest system in the world.
It carries over 3 million passengers a day.
One of the cities that beats Nanjing
on metro system length is our next city, Chengdu
This city in central China has a metro system
with an astounding 518 kilometers of length.
That's like adding New York
and Stockholm's metro system together.
And unsurprisingly, the city has built the metro system
at a breakneck pace.
It's first line opened in 2010.
Chengdu needs a metro system,
as it's been growing rapidly with no signs of slowing down.
There are several massive development projects
in various stages around Chengdu.
One example is Tianfu New Area,
a 1500-square kilometer development
featuring a second airport for the city,
the largest building in the world by floor area,
almost three times the size of the Pentagon,
and importantly, a new Legoland.
Chengdu was aiming to be one
of the most green cities in the world.
The city's goal is to be a city within a park.
All residents should be within 300 meters of a green space.
They're also hoping to conserve land outside the city
as a habitat for pandas, native to the region
and a symbol of the city, province, and nation.
They're calling this their Park City concept,
and if it works,
it could overturn the idea of Chinese cities
as economic engines that push sustainability to the side,
in favor of boundless growth.
Chengdu is still growing, though,
and it already has four ring roads,
though most of the new development
is happening around the third.
I must applaud their transportation engineers
for some perfectly circular rings though.
Now, we're leaving China,
but not Asia for our next city, located in Japan.
Nagoya doesn't have the same notoriety
as Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka,
but Nagoya's got a lot to be proud of.
It's one of the main stations
of the Chuo Shinkansen high-speed rail
that connects Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka.
And Nagoya's train station is one
of the largest in the world by floor area.
It's also the tallest in the world,
as it consists of twin 50-story buildings.
Passengers who stop in Nagoya will see a major industrial
and trading center for Japan.
Major industries include aerospace, automotive,
and ship building.
Its port is the busiest and largest in Japan
and 11% of all of Japan's trade value passes through Nagoya.
For example, Toyota's cars are exported through the port.
Most importantly,
the Port of Nagoya has two adorable mascots.
Nagoya's history is less cute than Potan and Mitan,
but more interesting.
Tokugawa Ieyasu moved the capital
of Owari province from the city of Kiyosu in 1610
which led to the restoration of Nagoya Castle.
The city became a major industrial hub
during the Meiji restoration,
but suffered a major setback during World War II
as US air raids destroyed significant parts of the city
including important aircraft production facilities.
Sadly, the fire bombings also destroyed a quarter
of the city, including most of Nagoya Castle.
The castle and the city were repaired and rebuilt quickly
and the city of Nagoya is planning a full-scale rebuild
of the castle in the coming years.
You might never have heard of our next city
if you've been in a coma since 1996.
Until then, his name was Madras, but the state government
of Tamil Nadu changed it to Chennai.
The effort was a continuation
of Indian geographic names changing
to reject the legacy of British colonial rule.
Actually, both Chennai and Madras
have pre-colonial origins though,
but either way, Chennai is what they call it today.
There's a theme in these less-famous cities
that they tend to be big industrial cities,
and maybe aren't the finance and cultural powerhouses
that some of the better known cities are.
This theme holds true in Chennai.
The city's home to
about 40% of India's automobile production, for example.
Now, that's not to say that Chennai isn't a cultural hub.
It's home to Callywood,
the center of the Tamil film industry
that produces nearly 200 films per year.
Like most of the cities on the list,
Chennai is growing rapidly
and its urban planning goals
aim to minimize the drawbacks of that growth.
The city is beginning the planning process
for a new master plan.
Officials have already identified priorities,
like making the region slum-free by 2031,
expanding the metro system,
identifying the site for a new airport,
and making the city more resilient
to natural disasters like floods.
Most of Chennai's growth is happening on the urban fringe
and the preservation of open-space is also a concern.
Okay, you might have heard of Shenzhen,
but it's another city on this list
clearly overshadowed by another.
In this case, the shadow's being cast by Hong Kong,
Shenzhen's neighbor immediately to the south.
And 40 years ago,
there'd be no reason to have heard of Shenzhen,
as it was a backwater border town
of about 300,000 people.
But if you've heard of Shenzhen today,
it's because of the Shenzhen's special economic zone,
established in 1980.
Zones like this exempt business interest
from the planned economy of the rest of China
and allow the local economy to engage in market capitalism.
This makes SEZ an attractive place
for foreign and domestic headquarters
and can create a lot of economic growth quickly.
China has many more SEZs now,
but Shenzhen was one of the first four
and arguably the most successful.
Its economic output is now higher than Hong Kong's
and third in China,
only behind Shanghai and Beijing.
It's known as the Silicon Valley of China
and is home to companies like DJI, Huawei,
and the mobile phone company, OnePlus.
Shenzhen's success is due
in part to its location near Hong Kong,
which gave it a strong early trading partner.
But Shenzhen's port is one of the busiest in the world
and its ability to export the fruits
of its economy to the world has helped it grow.
Despite its focus on high tech and exports,
Shenzhen is growing as a tourist destination as well.
It has beaches, tall buildings, and theme parks.
Notably Legoland Shenzhen is scheduled to open in 2024
and will be the largest such park in the world.
We can't leave a Chinese city
without discussing its metro system.
It opened in 2004
and today it's the eighth longest in the world,
just behind Nanjing.
Its annual ridership numbers are double Nanjing's, however,
and are higher than New York City's and Hong Kong's.
We're not going far for our next unknown city,
at least not geographically.
We're staying in the Pearl River Delta region,
home to 71 million people,
which is almost beyond comprehension.
Amazingly, the largest city in that region
isn't Hong Kong or Shenzhen,
but a city that's probably even less known than those two,
Guangzhou.
The city used to be referred to as Canton,
and even today, residents are known as Cantonese,
which is also the name of the language
spoken by half of all residents.
Mandarin is increasing in popularity
especially as Mandarin-speaking Shenzhen grows in influence.
But Guangzhou is still the hub of Cantonese culture.
Opera is one focal point of that culture,
and it's no surprise that Guangzhou
has a massive opera house.
It's one of the largest performance spaces in all of China,
and designed by the famed international architect,
Zaha Hadid.
Despite its massive size,
the building is meant to look like two pebbles
on the banks of the Pearl River.
Guangzhou's metro system is the third longest in the world
and the longest featured in this video,
only behind Shanghai and Beijing.
It's over three times as long as Hong Kong's
and carries slightly more passengers per year than Beijing.
The metro system is also unique,
because it's the only one in China
that goes between two major cities.
It connects Guangzhou to neighboring Foshan,
itself a massive city of 9 million people.
The shared metro line is symbolic
of the increasingly close ties between the two cities
and there's some who believe the two cities should merge
into one city with a shared administration,
though this has not yet happened.
We have come to our penultimate city,
and no surprise here, it's still in China.
It's the city of Tianjin,
which is another in-the-shadow city,
but this time it's in the shadow of Beijing.
It's actually between Beijing and the Bohai Sea,
one of the busiest waterways in the world.
It's so busy because all of Beijing shipping
goes through Tianjin and onto the wider world.
It's one of the top 10 busiest ports globally
and a major contributor to the local economy.
The economy is highly diversified
and notably home to airplane manufacturer, Airbus.
The local economy is also butchers
by a special economic zone,
similar to the one that built Shenzhen.
The result is the highest per capita GDP in China,
higher than Beijing and Shanghai.
Locals can even earn a living
censoring Chinese internet posts.
Tianjin is the censorship capital of China
as workers are cheaper than the nearby capital of Beijing
and censoring is a labor-intensive job.
Tianjin has the second oldest metro system in China,
with its first line opening in 1984.
It's squandered that advantage, however,
and its systemizes only 265 kilometers.
That's anemic by Chinese standards,
but still longer than Paris's or Singapore's,
so you know, it's all relative.
Ridership is also somewhat low by Chinese standards,
which means that it's only at the level
of a London or Madrid.
This brings us back to the largest city
you've never heard of: Chongqing.
When I introduced it back at the beginning of the video,
I did not do the requisite metro review,
so here it is:
Chongqing's 400 kilometers of lines
doesn't make it particularly impressive.
That's only good enough for 10th in the world,
but its system has some unique features.
Chongqing is a very hilly city
and its transit agency used monorails on two lines,
because they can handle steep grades and tight curves.
Line three is the busiest monorail line in the world,
with a peak daily ridership of 1 million people per day.
It's also the longest monorail line in the world.
Take that Disney World.
Chongqing is also building the tallest metro-only bridge
in the world
and one of the longest metro-only bridges in the world.
That's super impressive.
Now, this is only the tip of the iceberg
of large cities I know nothing about
and you probably don't know anything about either.
I continue this video with the trio of Chinese cities
in a video over on Nebula,
and if you're not interested in Chinese urbanism,
I might still have you covered.
I have eight other videos not available on YouTube
and I add a new one each month.
I also have 16 videos
with bonus content not available on YouTube
and in an entire 20-minute video on planning ancient Rome,
that might be one of my favorite videos of all time.
There are also tons of other exclusive videos on Nebula,
from RealLifeLore, Mustard, and more.
And maybe the best part is,
there aren't any ads on Nebula
and this gets even better,
because Nebula is bundled with Curiosity Stream.
Curiosity Stream is the source
for high-quality, engaging documentaries.
You'll love "The Cities of Tomorrow" series
that tackles topics like vertical farming,
smart cities, and the process of creating brand new cities.
It's a perfect series for someone interested in cities.
We have a deal where if you sign up to Curiosity Stream
using the link below or on-screen,
you get Nebula for free.
That's not a free trial,
but free as long as you're a Curiosity Stream member.
And they're running a special deal
where you can get the entire year for 26% off.
That's less than $15 a year
for Curiosity Stream and Nebula.
Signing up is a great way of supporting this channel,
as well as the dozens of other creators
who are working to to make Nebula a success,
and it's a really great deal too.
I know so many of my viewers have already done this
and I would really appreciate your support
if you haven't already.
So go click on the link on screen and get 26% off.