Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 449 Ranking among the World's Top Ten Cities

The third largest city in the Chu State was Davao Prefecture, the traditional core city in the south. The city's population grew from 1871 at the end of 61.77 to 1882 at the end of 97.59, showing a significant average growth of more than 11% in 50 years.

Davao City is an industrial center city in the south, the capital of the Tongzhou Islands, and the first large city planned by King Zheng Guohui of Chu. His mark is left everywhere.

What is the global level of a city population of 97.59?
According to the statistical ranking of major cities in the world at the end of 1882, Davao's urban construction ranked 12th in the world.

The 11th largest city in the world is Moscow. Starting from the 14th century, the city of Moscow, located on both sides of the Moscow River, gradually developed around the Kremlin.

It was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow from 1340 to 1547. In 1713, Peter I renamed the Grand Duchy of Moscow the Russian Tsardom, and the capital was moved to Saint Petersburg.

At the end of 1882, Moscow had a total urban population of 98.92, only slightly ahead of Davao and ranking 11th among the world's major cities.

At the end of 1882, the tenth largest city in the world was the capital of China, with a total population of approximately 10 million.
This has been the imperial city of Northern China since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. As the capital of China, it has a history of 550 years. The whole city is solemn and magnificent, and it is still the political, economic and military center of the north.

However, as the Qing Dynasty entered the final years of its rule, the officialdom was filled with corruption, decadence and bribery from top to bottom. The city's development was not satisfactory and it had long lost its vigorous vitality.

The city that can be most compared to an industrial city like Davao is Birmingham, the ninth largest city in the world.

The ancient city of Birmingham has undergone 1400 years of development, during which time it grew from a small Anglo-Saxon village in the 7th century to a large city on the edge of the Forest of Arden on the edge of early Mercia.

By the 18th century, Birmingham had experienced a surge in growth, emerging at the forefront of global developments in science, technology, medicine, philosophy and natural history, and with the deepening of steam industrialization, the city was developing rapidly.

At the end of 1882, Birmingham's statistical population was 107.1 million, only 10% more than Davao. One is a long-established industrial development center, and the other is an emerging southern industrial center, both with strong development potential.

The eighth largest city in the world is Manchester in the United Kingdom, which is also a typical industrial city that began its amazing expansion in the early 19th century.

In the Victorian era, Manchester was a driving force behind Britain's steam industrial revolution and a pioneer of free trade. As industrial rivals in the United States, Chu and Germany developed, Manchester still had oil in the tank and was able to rumble forward.

Davao's development goals have gone beyond domestic cities, and it has set its sights on becoming one of the top ten international cities, with a strong desire to make the leap.

As the birthplace of King Zheng Guohui of Chu and the first important core city he conquered, Davao holds an extraordinary position in the heart of King Zheng Guohui of Chu, and he has always paid close attention to its development.

Deputy Prime Minister Zheng Shouxin has been serving as the Governor of Tongzhou. He has used his independent position in the government to obtain many large industrial development projects, large urban construction investments and important infrastructure construction projects for Davao Province.

He made every effort to promote the development of this large southern city and made important contributions to it.

There is no need to mention Davao's industrial strength. It is a metropolis with a relatively complete range of industries in Chu, numerous factories and mines, and the development of heavy and light industries.

Of course, it inevitably caused serious environmental pollution.

There are many chimneys along the coast of Jinsha Industrial Zone, spewing thick black smoke day and night. Although water mist dust reduction measures have been vigorously promoted in recent years, industrial pollution is still serious.

The river water turns black and the air environment deteriorates. These are the pains brought about by industrial development.

Fortunately, when the industrial zone was first located, it was set up on the edge of Jinsha Bay, where there were no mountains blocking the way and it was an open plain area.

The strong and warm southeast monsoon from the western Pacific and the frequent rains during the rainy season can significantly eliminate haze pollution and bring fresh and moist air.

Compared to cold industrial cities like Manchester and London, which are located in the heart of an Atlantic island, Davao has great geographical advantages and a stronger self-cleaning environment.

So far, there have been no large-scale pollution-related casualties, but sporadic health incidents continue to occur. Many people in the Jinsha Industrial Zone have died from diarrhea after drinking dirty water, or have become ill due to serious pollution. This can be regarded as a warning from environmental development.

Due to the limitations of the industrial development level of the time, these are unavoidable additional damages.

for more than ten years
The size of Davao City has more than tripled. The city is connected by wide and flat roads, and the sewage facilities are of high quality, with strong drainage capacity during the rainy season.

The city is full of tall buildings and palaces, reflecting the extraordinary grandeur of a world-class metropolis everywhere. The professional level of urban planning, traffic management and hydrological construction of the University of Davao here is very high and can reach world-class level.

If Davao is the industrial center of the South, then Batangas is the industrial center of the North, with a more complete range of factories, more in number, larger in scale, and stronger development potential.

Batangas was the second largest city in Chu State. Its urban population grew from 1871 in 68.85 to 1882 by the end of 139.11. It was not only the second largest city in Chu State, but also the sixth largest city in the world, higher than St. Petersburg, which ranked seventh.

Batangas, a typical industrial city, just like Manchester in the UK, relies on its first-mover advantage in industry to stand out among the cities of the world and take center stage.

Well known
The development of industry has a strong urban agglomeration effect. Typical industrial cities can easily grow larger and stronger, thus surpassing a number of traditional political and economic centers and occupying a high position in the world city rankings.

Beijing, Tokyo, Moscow and St. Petersburg are all typical agricultural social cities with small industrial components and low industrial development levels. Most of the existing industrial enterprises are small and scattered, making it difficult to form economies of scale.

It has grown and developed step by step simply by relying on its important position as a core city in the country for thousands of years and the accumulation of profound cultural heritage.

The development history of Batangas is more similar to that of emerging industrial cities such as Manchester and Birmingham in the UK and Chicago in the United States. They have grown rapidly like a rocket thanks to the in-depth development of large-scale industrialization.

The situation in Ba Dayan is similar to that in the Jinsha Industrial Zone. The coastal areas are dotted with dense chimneys, winding railway lines stretch in all directions like blood vessels, and ships gather at the ports in the bay, presenting a prosperous scene.

Arriving here, the sky is shrouded in a persistent smog, and breathing in the air tinged with the smell of fly ash makes the sky seem darker. Even the strong sunlight from Nanyang cannot penetrate the increasingly dense gray-black smog, as the factory chimneys here are simply too numerous, consuming tens of thousands of tons of coal daily.

Large enterprises such as coke plants, steel mills, copper smelters, and petroleum refineries burn coal day and night. The leaked steam drifts in the factory area, making a hissing sound, and pipes entangled like snakes are everywhere, which makes people's scalps numb.

This was the scene of heavy industry development at the end of the 19th century: bustling, heavily polluting, yet vibrant. Huge workshops consumed massive amounts of resources every day and produced countless materials.

There are dozens of shipyards lined up along the bay, with workers like ants, making clanging sounds day and night, welding sparks flying, and steel anchor rods more than a foot long are like hedgehogs, which can drive people with trypophobia crazy.

This place represents the strong industrial development of the Chu State, and is also a place frequently visited by King Zheng Guohui of Chu and the kingdom's top leaders. Every move here attracts the attention of the kingdom's top rulers.

The Chu State has developed to the current stage of deep industrialization and has formed a strong attraction for regional Chinese capital. Under the guidance of royal capital and government funds, it has quickly invested in related industrial fields.

For example, the emerging agricultural machinery industry, automobile industry, etc. are in a rapid development stage and have absorbed a large number of non-agricultural population into employment.

Many specific matters no longer require the personal promotion of King Zheng Guohui of Chu. The entire society follows a strong development inertia, gathering scientific and technological achievements, cultivating scientific and technological talents, and developing emerging technology industries, just like a rumbling train speeding along, which cannot be stopped at all.

The social environment and policies are conducive to the comprehensive development of industry and commerce, creating a relatively fair atmosphere and reasonable tax policies, all of which support the in-depth development of industry.

The overall urban construction of Badayan presents a gloomy tone. Even though there are wide roads, tall coconut trees and brightly blooming bushes, and some high-rise buildings and palaces are lined up one after another, it still cannot change people's impression of this industrial city.

There are obvious marks of fly ash on the tall coconut trees, in the green belts of roads, on the roofs of urban houses, and even on the clothes of residents walking in the city.

The native residents of the Chu State liked to wear light-colored clothes, such as moon-white padded jackets, white double-breasted Tang shirts, silk gowns embroidered in thousands of colors, or refreshing and breathable light-colored linen clothes.

These clothes are easily contaminated by the fly ash that is everywhere in the air, making them look dirty and old.

After a day outside, the sweat leaves black streaks, which makes the local residents of Badan miserable, but they can do nothing about it.

Compared to these little troubles, making money is more important.

The largest city in the Chu State was undoubtedly the capital Manila. The city's population grew from 1871 in 91.27 to 1882 by the end of 188.61, more than doubling in 11 years.

As a result, the city's size increased by 2.7 times, with new towns developing in the surrounding areas. Dozens of thoroughfares leading to various places are like a spider web, and the world's earliest urban overpass appeared to ease traffic.

In this world's fourth-largest city, new tram lines are opened every month, and the mileage is constantly increasing, showing a momentum of explosive development.

Manila has established a tram factory and is able to produce trams in large quantities, but the core components still need to be imported from Europe as domestic technology is not yet up to standard.

But this was already rare, as Manila was one of the first metropolises in the world to operate urban power plants, trams, telephones, long-distance telegraphs, and kerosene streetlights.

It has also opened urban tunnels, large river-crossing bridges, urban overpasses, roundabout traffic and high-standard urban road construction, which has been set as an example worldwide.

Every year, many administrative officials, experts and scholars from Europe come to Manila to hold international conferences to discuss topics such as urban planning, traffic management and metropolitan operations. In this field, Manila is already ahead of the world.

As the capital of the Chu State, Manila has never lacked major projects and emerging industries. For example, the recently booming automobile industry, the tram manufacturing industry, internal combustion engines, steam engines, etc., all first took root and flourished in Manila.

This is where the largest and richest amount of money in the country gathers, and it has also attracted foreign investment from Britain, France, the United States and other countries. The metropolis is developing rapidly, and you can see scaffolding and large construction sites. It is a booming metropolis.

The resources it possesses are unmatched by any other city in the country.

Chicago, the fifth largest city in the world, was only a medium-sized city with a population of 1870 in 29.9. However, it developed rapidly and had a population of 1882 million in 128.36, only 10 more than Manila.

world-wide
The city of Chicago is developing very rapidly, surpassing many strong competitors and ancient capitals along the way, and is closely following Manila, with the potential to surpass it.

This also shows the strong strength of the United States, an emerging industrialized power, which is not inferior even to the largest capital of the Chu State.

Among the world's top three megacities, the United States also has New York, which ranks second. Its population reached 1882 million in 317.39, demonstrating the profound strength of American urban development and putting it far ahead of Manila.

The world's largest city is London, whose population has historically exceeded 500 million, reaching 509.22 million.

The third largest city was Paris, with a population of 269 million during the same period.

As expected of the world powers such as Britain and France, these internationally ranked metropolises are not simply a gathering place of population, but a high concentration of capital, science, politics, economy and humanities, representing the world's highest achievements in civilization development.

Understand from this perspective
However, the development of the Chu metropolis still has many shortcomings. It has a short history and a shallow foundation. Its influence and radiation on the culture, economy, politics and military of the surrounding areas are not strong enough and need to be improved.

It was based on such considerations that the State of Chu actively applied in the past two years and obtained the qualification to host the 1888 Manila World Exposition. This was a major move to expand the city's influence and help push Manila into the position of a regional economic and political center.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu planned a visit in 1884 with the following purpose: firstly, to attend the London World's Fair; secondly, to attend the Berlin Conference; and thirdly, to make friends with European royal families and promote the next Manila World's Fair.

Even good wine needs no bush, so of course we have to take good care of our own capital.

(End of this chapter)