What’s the largest city you’ve visited

[IluvATX]

What’s The largest city anyone has visited or lived in? Just curious... Mine would be México city, NYC, LA, Lima, Peru, then Chicago? Planning a trip to China/southwest Asia. Obviously Chinese cities take the cake, but what about other places? Also why didn’t you choose smaller cities in your travels.

[Steely Dan]

Largest city I've visited: NYC

Largest city I've lived in: Chicago

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Largest city I've visited: NYC

Largest city I've lived in: Chicago

Ditto.

[pj3000]

Largest visited: Mexico City or São Paulo... not sure which is larger, guess it depends on boundaries

Largest in which I’ve lived: New York

[SFBruin]

Largest Metro Area: Tokyo
Largest City Proper: Shanghai
City that felt the largest: New York

[RumbleFish]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Largest Metro Area: Tokyo
Largest City Proper: Shanghai
City that felt the largest: New York

I find this hard to believe

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by RumbleFish

I find this hard to believe

I agree, the biggest city in terms of the way it felt to me was Tokyo.

It had the extreme density of new York but sprawled horizon to Horizon like LA

Basically the LA basin with Brooklyn Density throughout, it was intense.

Beijing and Hong Kong didn't come close and neither does New York because NYC feels like it ends but Tokyo does not.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Obadno

I agree, the biggest city in terms of the way it felt to me was Tokyo.

It had the extreme density of new York but sprawled horizon to Horizon like LA

Basically the LA basin with Brooklyn Density throughout, it was intense.

Beijing and Hong Kong didn't come close and neither does New York because NYC feels like it ends but Tokyo does not.

Tokyo is bigger, but as a person who lives in NYC I can say that Tokyo's maximum density does not match New York's. People who don't live in hyper-dense cities may not be able to tell the difference, but I certainly can.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Tokyo is bigger, but as a person who lives in NYC I can say that Tokyo's maximum density does not match New York's. People who don't live in hyper-dense cities may not be able to tell the difference, but I certainly can.

Im not talking about maximum density, what makes Tokyo feel unbelievably massive is the same thing you get in LA it just never ends. Buildings in Tokyo arent especially tall or big, I think the tallest buildings are somewhere about 60 or 70 floors.

But there is this sort of Brooklyn level density that just goes on and on and it never ends, it gives you a crushing feeling. New york ends, there are physical barriers and you can find yourself in an average suburban or even rural environment from the very heart of the city in a relatively short period of time. Not so in Tokyo.

Example:

This is roughly 24 miles from the center of Tokyo

https://goo.gl/maps/q2FVDvPANVmzfbQK8

Here is 24 miles from Midtown

https://goo.gl/maps/hzV33G2pBA1FZUqMA

[JManc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Tokyo is bigger, but as a person who lives in NYC I can say that Tokyo's maximum density does not match New York's. People who don't live in hyper-dense cities may not be able to tell the difference, but I certainly can.

My impression of New York/ Tokyo was the complete opposite, Tokyo seemed much much bigger and more extreme than New York. Japanese also cram into tinier living spaces than Americans, even New Yorkers

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Tokyo is bigger, but as a person who lives in NYC I can say that Tokyo's maximum density does not match New York's. People who don't live in hyper-dense cities may not be able to tell the difference, but I certainly can.

Tokyo is the biggest city on earth, and feels it. But yeah, Tokyo isn't very dense.

I always find it odd when people talk about Tokyo's supposed density, and wonder if they've been there. It's a moderate density city, but over a massive geography.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by RumbleFish

I find this hard to believe

I'm not sure I'd agree, but I can see where he's coming from. It really depends on how one experiences each city.

You really get a sense of Tokyo's scale when you're seeing its endless urbanity pass by from the window of a high speed train, but there are few specific areas where that same feeling is palpable. It has some extreme points of activity (Shibuya Crossing > Times Square), but they drop off pretty quickly. Given its size, it can be quite orderly and serene.

Tokyo's vastness is expressed more in its sheer number of such areas than it is in the feeling of overbearing urbanity in any one of them. There's no particular area that has the same level of concentrated urbanity as Manhattan does - few places in the world do have such a high level of built density over such a large area.

We also all have our own biases that inform how we perceive things like the feeling of "bigness" of a place as well. Like for me, chunky old brick buildings = city. And New York has a lot of those. It wouldn't feel as big as it does if all those old tenements were replaced by towers in the park of equivalent density, for example. And for some, unfamiliarity or foreignness can make a place feel impenetrable and large. For others, it's the presence of things like skyscrapers or infrastructure. For some its density, while for others its endless sprawl that does it. There are many features of cities that convey a different sense of scale to different people.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I'm not sure I'd agree, but I can see where he's coming from. It really depends on how one experiences each city.

You really get a sense of Tokyo's scale when you're seeing its endless urbanity pass by from the window of a high speed train, but there are few specific areas where that same feeling is palpable. It has some extreme points of activity (Shibuya Crossing > Times Square), but they drop off pretty quickly. Given its size, it can be quite orderly and serene.

Tokyo's vastness is expressed more in its sheer number of such areas than it is in the feeling of overbearing urbanity in any one of them. There's no particular area that has the same level of concentrated urbanity as Manhattan does - few places in the world do have such a high level of built density over such a large area.

We also all have our own biases that inform how we perceive things like the feeling of "bigness" of a place as well. Like for me, chunky old brick buildings = city. And New York has a lot of those. It wouldn't feel as big as it does if all those old tenements were replaced by towers in the park of equivalent density, for example. And for some, unfamiliarity or foreignness can make a place feel impenetrable and large. For others, it's the presence of things like skyscrapers or infrastructure. For some its density, while for others its endless sprawl that does it. There are many features of cities that convey a different sense of scale to different people.

Excellent post! We do experience cities differently. I mean, sure, if someone said Little Rock felt bigger than NYC, we could objectively be like...NO. I could see someone thinking NYC felt bigger based on some aspects(some you mentioned) that I don't weigh as high...

[The Chemist]

Largest city I've lived in: Shanghai
Largest city I've visited: Jakarta

[Dariusb]

Los Angeles

[JManc]

Largest city visited: Tokyo
Largest city lived in: Houston

[Jarrod]

Largest city visited: Los Angeles
Largest city lived: Calgary

[Buckeye Native 001]

Visited: Los Angeles (will be replaced by NYC in October)
Lived In: Phoenix

I lived in Orange County for five years but it's hard for me to count that as part of Los Angeles.

[Razor]

visited: NYC
Lived: Toronto (metro)

[tayser]

Visited? Noo York. (although that'll change soon, going to Tokyo soon).
Lived? Melbawn.