do u prefer big city or small town?

[Boricha]

Big city. I lived way out in the countryside as a kid and hated it. Now I'm in the suburbs of a city and it's way better. I'd like to move closer to the city center at some point.

[Ghostpanther]

As a raw number? Sure. But when it gets to things like percentages?

Probably by next year I'm planning on stepping back to someplace around maybe 2 million, and that would be less than a tenth of where I am now. Just going to see Cupcake (my surgeon) is two hours, one way, on the subway, and about another 20 minutes by car.

Years ago, I lived in a "small town" ... it only had 4 million people. Two million, sounds like such luxury right now. I haven't lived in a place that small for 20 years, and that was a resort. People apologized for the lack of amenities.

In relative terms, I do see your point. But in how I would actually feel if I lived in China in a 1 million pop city? The same way I do here about living in large populated cities of 1 million people.

I would assume ( you live there and I do not, so you should know more about the country ) China also has many rural sparsely populated cities and areas? Like the western part of the country and close to the Tibetan border? That is where I would want to live. Of course it depends on if you can afford to. But the same is true for here in the US.

[Lochton]

which do u prefer? big city or small town?

i think i prefer big city...

Small town, hands down. Prefered by the sea or forrest.

[smityx]

Or a big town. Not a city but not a one stop light town either. Has a urban area but go 20 minutes in any direction and your in gods country.

[Themius]

Small town, hands down. Prefered by the sea or forrest.

Why small towns.

[Collegeguy]

People tend to be more friendly in a small town. When I drive in a city I don't have random people waving at me, but I do in a small town.

I have lived in multiple cities and small towns, have you?

Maybe that depends on the area, but likely the minority.

I grew up in a small town and people are more likely to steal from you or fight you than wave. That's what happens when a small town's only source of a income is Wal Mart and poverty is so prevalent. People are just miserable, desperate, psychotic in most cases.

The only redeemable benefit of a small town is the women spread like butter.

Sure, maybe your small town has a better standard of living, but I am pretty confident that the stats say poverty nationwide is higher in a small town.

[PC2]

Hard call. Rural areas have less sound pollution and more natural hotspots that are good for hiking. But big cities like SF or Manhatten have all the modern services and cultural events. I'd rather have a house in both places and not have to choose one exclusively.

[shadowmouse]

I would assume ( you live there and I do not, so you should know more about the country ) China also has many rural sparsely populated cities and areas?

That's something of an advantage to the population being clustered into large, urban areas. It means that once one gets out of the city, there are plenty of places that match your description. The downside, however, is that those areas are still being modernized -- with the problems you'd expect.

An old student is trying to get me to retire in her town, which may have as few as 250,000. It is a hub for tourists who want to visit Hulunbuir, one of Inner Mongolia's famous grasslands.




Gansu is one of the less developed provinces that you may not be familiar with, but it will give you everything from this:


To this:


It is hard not to spam a chain of pictures, but you get the idea. Grab Google, pick any province, and you'll find a ton of images.

You don't even have to go very far outside of Beijing to start getting into areas like this:


Although that's a picture of the Ming Tombs, the background is fairly typical of the hills around Beijing. I could hop on the subway and get out to that area with little more difficulty than going to work.

But in how I would actually feel if I lived in China in a 1 million pop city? The same way I do here about living in large populated cities of 1 million people.

You might be surprised. Much of the growth of cities here has involved blocks of apartments. In between and around those complexes you'll find loads of restaurants and shops to support them. For me, at least, it is fairly easy to overlook the size of Beijing and see the much narrower slice that is my district. With the sprawl of McMansions in the US, and a near absolute need to drive all over, I found it much more of a headache.

[Freighter]

City. Anything smaller than Daegu and I wouldn't like it much, I think.

[igualitarist]

Small town close to a big city.

[dwightyo39]

I don't mind attending events in large cities, but would never want to live in one.

[I Push Buttons]

A small town, though preferably one with decent internet options. My dad lives in a small town and I would be miserable in that particular town because there is only one ISP in the area and their internet plans are from the stone age, the best one is like a 10mbit connection for $80 a month or something disgusting like that.

I grew up in downtown Cincinnati and I never particularly liked living there... Pretty much the only positive was the convenience getting around, I could go a block from my house to the bus stop and get on a bus and go anywhere in the city. The biggest issue, at least in my area, was noise, like traffic, horns, sirens all day every day... Plus lots of people seemed to have complete disregard for everyone else around; it could be 3am and there would still be people driving down the street blasting bass boosted music loud enough to shake my entire house, large groups of teenagers just randomly wandering around making noise, etc.

And I dislike living in the suburbs primarily due to inconvenience. NOTHING is within walking distance, there is no public transportation; doing literally anything other than sitting in the house requires driving somewhere. I do very much enjoy the peace and quiet here, though.

[Kellhound]

Cities aren’t always crowded with traffic.

True, most are passable at 2AM.....

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Why small towns.

Less traffic, usually less violent crime, better community events (in my experience), less stress, less people.

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I like where I am, city under 50,000 in a county of less than 100,000, outside a major urban area.

[Daedius]

I absolutely hate cities, prefer the open countryside. So between the two options; small town.

[Lochton]

Why small towns.

Calmer. More accessable, easier navigational, many times cheaper, few but more solid options of shopping, more affordable and usually better educational wise (primary school / high school).

[Daedius]

To give you an idea how remote we are, this is a view from my wife's favorite spot in our house.

That's one big sink...

[cface]

Small Town, mine is about 7000, it's great here. Seen more and more people move here from the bigger cities to settle down more. As long as I can take 1-2 holidays a year and just get my big city cravings out of the way. There is also this very safe feeling here as immigrants are actually very well integrated, and I haven't read or heard about anyone getting robbed here.

[Themius]

True, most are passable at 2AM.....

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Less traffic, usually less violent crime, better community events (in my experience), less stress, less people.

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I like where I am, city under 50,000 in a county of less than 100,000, outside a major urban area.

Nyc has less crime than many towns. It’s crime rate is literally below average for all city towns villages in the country. So less crimes by sheer number probably but I wouldn’t be so certain when we speak of per capita. Some small towns are twice as worse as NYC.

It also depends where you consider the city. For instance I live in New Jersey close to New York it is an urban area traffic isn’t terrible mainly the problem has been construction after years of doing no construction.

Would you consider jersey to be a city or just nyc? I guess it is the entire metropolitan area.

Generally there is only traffic from 830-930 and 430-630.

[Ghostpanther]

That's something of an advantage to the population being clustered into large, urban areas. It means that once one gets out of the city, there are plenty of places that match your description. The downside, however, is that those areas are still being modernized -- with the problems you'd expect.

An old student is trying to get me to retire in her town, which may have as few as 250,000. It is a hub for tourists who want to visit Hulunbuir, one of Inner Mongolia's famous grasslands.


Gansu is one of the less developed provinces that you may not be familiar with, but it will give you everything from this:


To this:


It is hard not to spam a chain of pictures, but you get the idea. Grab Google, pick any province, and you'll find a ton of images.

You don't even have to go very far outside of Beijing to start getting into areas like this:


Although that's a picture of the Ming Tombs, the background is fairly typical of the hills around Beijing. I could hop on the subway and get out to that area with little more difficulty than going to work.



You might be surprised. Much of the growth of cities here has involved blocks of apartments. In between and around those complexes you'll find loads of restaurants and shops to support them. For me, at least, it is fairly easy to overlook the size of Beijing and see the much narrower slice that is my district. With the sprawl of McMansions in the US, and a near absolute need to drive all over, I found it much more of a headache.

Thanks for the images! That one place, really have rainbow colored mountains !!!? Anyway, those are the type of rural areas I would much prefer to live in.

And no, I do not think I would be surprised. Some people do not like crowds. They prefer less people to be around and more peace and quiet.

[Themius]

Calmer. More accessable, easier navigational, many times cheaper, few but more solid options of shopping, more affordable and usually better educational wise (primary school / high school).

Honestly sounds like idealism.

Calmer - Perhaps, though my main issue with small towns is if you do not fit in, it is anything but clam and the smaller the town the more chatty the patty.

More accesable - Pardon me? How exactly?

Easier navigational - What?! Pardon me? How exactly? In the case of New York, how is a massive literal rectangle grid hard to navigate over a town?

Many times cheaper - often true for living and dying there, not true if you need to work away from the town in a city centre. The cost of travel and maintenance of that travel can negate any savings. At least that's the case for here, if you move to the smaller towns in Jersey but still work in the main employment hub the cost of travel is such that it is just cheaper to live near or in the employment hub.

Few but more solid options of shopping - just what the fuck does this mean? Are you telling me cities don't have "solid options"? Whenever I go to a small town I find it a struggle to find what I am after as their few options aren't solid especially for a person who is just a little worldly. I'd have to travel to multiple small towns that are enclaves are specific ethnicities if I wanted to shop. My few months spent in a small town were ridiculous, there were no latin people I couldn't fucking cook proper meals! The ranges of spices were lacking, types of meat were lacking. It was just not working.

Usually better educational - Hm... the best schools in New York are actually in the city, in the 5 boroughs. Schools in the small towns end up being quite good, or alright, or meh... and you end up going private.

The only town I would give any serious thought of moving to is Montclair, as it is a diverse town and is close to the city. There are about 38k people but frankly I don't know what that means.

I have lived in towns with 60k people that you probably would consider cities because it was very densely packed. Hudson county has a way of breaking up into a bunch of small towns.







And this is the university in the town



Rather nice "small town" to me that is still close to everything and is itself very diverse so I shouldn't run into issues trying to find things.