“On a Tour of All the Cities”

WHILE on earth Christ Jesus “set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom.” (Matthew 9:35) Those desiring to follow in his footsteps were likewise called upon to preach in the cities of the world. There they would encounter the problems common to cities and be forced to cope with them.

A historical tour of cities presents a picture of the ups and downs of thousands of years of human existence, the joys and the heartaches of human endeavors to achieve happiness. A candid look at cities impresses upon us the fact that the entire human race is but a single family, faced with common problems. There should be no room today for nationalistic pride or racial prejudice.

Sad to say, many people do not know much about cities, not even their location. When U.S. university students were asked in the mid-1980’s to locate certain cities, some of them put Dublin (Ireland) in the United States and Lima (Peru) in Italy.

A test carried out a few years earlier at another university revealed that almost half of the students were unable to locate London on a world map. Some put it in Iceland, others in Continental Europe. The professor conducting the test lamented that 42 percent of the students “lost” London completely. Even more embarrassing, 8 percent “lost” the American city where the test was being conducted!

But Americans are evidently not the only ones who are weak in geographical knowledge. At the end of the 1980’s, a test of students in ten nations showed that the Swedes do best and the Americans score sixth. The Academy of Sciences of the former Soviet Union found that 13 percent of the Soviet students surveyed were unable to locate even their own country on a world map. Academy member Vladimir Andriyenkov said with embarrassment: “The results are unbelievable.”

What about you? How good is your knowledge of geography in general and of cities in particular? How about testing yourself by means of the quiz on page 10? You can learn some interesting facts by “Taking a Closer Look at Cities.”

In the next issue of Awake!, we will take a closer look at five cities. They are a special kind of city that for thousands of years was completely unknown. But by the turn of the century, it is estimated, there will be at least 20 of them. Over half of them will be in Asia. What type of city might it be?

[Box on page 10, 11]

Can You Identify the City?

Match the following descriptions with the proper city.

1. The highest capital city in the world.

2. The largest city in the world’s most populous country.

3. Its official though seldom used name consists of 27 words, the first part of which is similar in meaning to that of Los Angeles; it lies in the heart of a rice-​growing region. It has over 400 Buddhist temples.

4. It has a population density that​—with the exception of four other cities—​is twice as high as any other city in the world.

5. It lost almost a quarter million citizens in a 1976 disaster.

6. Center of its nation’s textile region, this city played a major role in the industrial revolution.

7. Once viewed as one of Europe’s filthiest cities, today it is world famous for the scented liquid bearing its name.

8. Nearly 60 languages are spoken in this Asian port city. It was the capital of its country from 1833 to 1912.

9. A made-​to-​order capital, long in planning, it became reality in 1960.

10. Situated at the end of a 60-​mile-​long [100 km] fjord, in area it is one of the largest cities in the world.

11. Almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1755, it has the lowest cost of living of any capital city within the European Community.

12. It was officially formed by 1873, when communities on opposite sides of the Danube River joined hands as well as names.

13. Portuguese explorers mistook the entrance of its bay for the mouth of a river, thus giving it the name it now bears.

14. Founded in 1788 as a prison colony, it is one of the southernmost cities of its size in the world.

15. With strong religious roots, this city became well-​known for an unusual political tea party.

16. In 1850, King Kamehameha III declared it capital of his kingdom; its name means “Protected Bay,” and its year-​round temperate climate makes it a tourist’s delight.

17. Sometimes called the windy city, it was once almost destroyed by fire; today it boasts the tallest building in the world.

18. Before 1966, it went by the name Léopoldville.

19. As old as one of Greece’s most illustrious rulers, this city is remembered by Bible students as the place where a famous Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures was made.

20. Its rapid growth resulted from the discovery of gold nearby, and it is unique in that it is the only city of its size in the world not located on a coast or a lakeshore or a river.

Alexandria, Egypt

Bangkok, Thailand

Boston, U.S.A.

Brasília, Brazil

Budapest, Hungary

Calcutta, India

Chicago, U.S.A.

Cologne, Germany

Hong Kong

Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Kinshasa, Zaire

La Paz, Bolivia

Lisbon, Portugal

Manchester, England

Oslo, Norway

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Shanghai, China

Sydney, Australia

Tangshan, China

[Box on page 11, 12]

Answers:

1. La Paz, located between 10,650 [3,250 m] and 13,250 feet [4,100 m] above sea level, was founded by the Spanish in 1548.

2. “Shanghai” means “On the Sea,” and along with being one of the world’s largest seaports, it is China’s center of higher education and scientific research.

3. The first part of the official name of Bangkok is Krung Thep, which means “City of Angels”; in Spanish, “Los Angeles” means “the angels.” While Bangkok has developed its freeways, most of its famous canals have been filled in to make roads.

4. Hong Kong, with 248,000 people per square mile [96,000 per sq km], is followed by Lagos, Nigeria (143,000) [55,000]; Dacca, Bangladesh (138,000) [53,000]; Djakarta, Indonesia (130,000) [50,000]; and Bombay, India (127,000) [49,000].

5. In 1976, China was hit by one of the worst earthquakes in modern history, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. Tangshan was almost leveled; at least 240,000 people were killed.

6. Manchester, located some 150 miles [240 km] north of London, became an industrial center so rapidly that between 1821 and 1831, its population grew by 45 percent.

7. At the start of the 19th century, Cologne was reputedly one of the three dirtiest cities in the world​—Calcutta, Constantinople, and Cologne—​for which reason French soldiers stationed there “covered their faces in handkerchiefs soaked in Eau de Cologne to keep at bay the smell of urine that permeated the city.”​—Kölner Stadt-​Anzeiger.

8. Calcutta is India’s third largest city and was replaced as the capital by New Delhi.

9. Proposed in 1789 and embodied in the 1891 Constitution, the idea of having a capital in the interior of Brazil became reality in 1960 with Brasília. Its construction from scratch offered a rare opportunity to carry to completion “an orderly total-​city design in terms of physical layout, architecture, and human habitation.”​—Encyclopædia Britannica.

10. Oslo, capital of Norway, occupies an area of 175 square miles [453 sq km], much of which is wooded hills and lakes.

11. Churches were packed on the morning of November 1, 1755, in celebration of All Saints’ Day, when Lisbon was devastated by one of the strongest earthquakes on record, one that killed some 30,000 people.

12. In 1873 the town of Pest, on the eastern side of the Danube River, and Buda, along with Óbuda and Margaret Island, on the western side, officially united to become Budapest, one of Europe’s more attractive cities, once known as Queen of the Danube.

13. The Portuguese words for “river” and for “January”​—the explorers arrived on January 1, 1502—​were combined to create the name Rio de Janeiro.

14. In January 1788 about 750 convicts arrived from Britain as the basis for a prison colony; today Sydney is Australia’s oldest and largest city.

15. For nearly three centuries, few cities influenced life in the United States more than did Boston, founded by Puritans who fled Europe because of religious persecution. In 1773 its citizens helped provoke the American Revolution when, disguised as Indians, they dumped three shiploads of tea into Boston harbor to protest the paying of taxes to Britain without benefit of representation.

16. Originally a base for sandalwood traders and whalers, occupied in turn by Russians, British, and French, Honolulu was returned to King Kamehameha III. In 1850 he declared it the capital of his kingdom. Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1900 and gained statehood in 1959.

17. Some call Chicago the typical U.S. city, presenting the country at its best and worst. The central part of the city was wiped out by fire in 1871 when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow supposedly kicked over a lighted lamp in a barn. Some 250 people died, and 90,000 were left homeless. Chicago’s Sears Tower, at 1,454 feet [443 m], is the tallest building in the world.

18. In 1960, Léopoldville, named after Belgian king Leopold II, became capital of the Republic of the Congo after the demise of the Belgian Congo. In 1971 the country’s name was changed to Zaire; in 1966 the capital city was renamed Kinshasa.

19. Alexandria derived its name from that of Alexander the Great, who ordered it built in 332 B.C.E. Less than a hundred years later, resident Jews​—probably during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.E.)​—began translating the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek to produce the Septuagint.

20. Johannesburg, not located on a coast, a lake, or a river, owes its big-​city status to the discovery of gold in 1886. It grew from a population of 2,000 in 1887 to 120,000 by 1899 and has over 1.7 million today.

[Map on page 8, 9]

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[Picture on page 8]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

[Picture on page 9]

Bangkok, Thailand

[Credit Line]

Tourism Authority of Thailand

[Pictures on page 10]

Left: Sydney, Australia

Below: La Paz, Bolivia

[Picture on page 11]

Shanghai, China

[Pictures on page 12]

Left: Honolulu, Hawaii

Right: Hong Kong