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Very quickly, ive being to Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul several times each, every time ive set foot in Hong Kong its being opressively polluted, which kind of takes the shine off the city as far as I am concerned. Id put it last among the three for that reason alone.
Tokyo remains at the top of my list of must see cities.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 03-25-2013 at 05:48 AM..
Very interesting, how did NYC feel a lot larger? I would think they would feel similar in size. Tokyo has more people and a pretty large metro. Are you talking about the downtown area? I think at least half of Manhattan has that 'downtown' feel and NYC has one of the largest de-facto CBD's (central business district) in the world, if not the largest. NYC is more diverse of course and has that 'world in a city' feel - go from Harlem, to the Upper East Side, to Chinatown, they're completely different.
NYC (I lived there for 2 1/2 years) and lived in Japan for 5 1/2 years.
NYC felt bigger because there are 100s and 100s of very different, very distinct neighborhoods that are completely different worlds. Want to visit Poland? Go to Greenpoint in Brooklyn NYC, and all the books and people and shops and sign letterings are all in Polish. Want to visit India? There is a very large neighborhood in Queens where absolutely everything is all Indian. Want to go to Korea? There are several very large neighborhoods where everything is in Korean. Ft. Lee, Flushing, etc. It's all Korean. Than you stroll around Manhattan, and SoHo and Chinatown and Upper East Side are all nothing alike whatsoever, and they are only 3 of maybe 40 different neighborhoods throughout Manhattan.
But, when I visit TOKYO. Well, there's Shinjuku...than there is Shibuya (which looks a lot like Shinjuku)...than there is Ikebukuro (which looks an awfully similar to Shinjuku and Shibuya). Of course there are a few very different and unique neighborhoods like Harajuku. Ueno isn't bad either, but it's fairly quick to walk through. But, generally, wherever you go in Tokyo, it more or less looks and feels more or less the same. Very homogenous, the same shops, mostly predominately Japanese people everywhere you go. There is Roppongi, which will have non-Japanese people around. But it's not really a neighborhood. It's basically just a place to drink overcharged drinks and such. Maybe interesting for a night or two of drinking, but would have little daytime interest whatsoever.
I'm not completely discrediting Tokyo though. It is an enormous city with a lot of people. But, much of that city looks fairly similar. It's all predominately Japanese too. That is amazing if a person has never been to Japan, and wants to experience Japan. It's an absolutely amazing amazing place.
But, when you visit NYC, you can also visit neighborhoods that represent almost every country on Planet Earth, and than in addition to that, you have Manhattan as well.
IAlso compared to American cities, there shouldn't be an inch of worry on safety in either of the two Asian cities, they are by FAR more safer in every sort of away than our average American cities and much more organized to fighting crime in an efficient manner.
Food is one area where in my opinion, Singapore handedly takes it over Hong Kong without it being close. Not to say you cant have good food in Hong Kong but my experience is that you have to pay more to get better foods whereas in Singapore you can get an all out delicious (and diverse selection) of means for an appropriate price and there's less of a "hit or miss" factor to dining in Singapore.
Safety/Violence. Actually all four cities are extremely safe compared to the US - Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo. The United States is just a violent society, which is largely absent throughout the majority of Asia.
Food. I strongly agree with you on Singapore having the best food. That also applies to Singapore having much significant more options than Seoul or Tokyo as well. That's not to say that Hong Kong and Tokyo don't have a lot to offer wtih restaurants and such. But Singapore just has immensily more. It helps that Singapore is a mix of cultures - all the different cuisines of China and India combined with western and Malaysian and southeast asian cuisines. When you get up to somewhere like Seoul, it's 99.9% Korean food, with the ocassional non-Korean food. Tokyo and Hong Kong are better than Seoul with the restaurant options, but nowhere near Singapore, in my opinion.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
NYC (I lived there for 2 1/2 years) and lived in Japan for 5 1/2 years.
NYC felt bigger because there are 100s and 100s of very different, very distinct neighborhoods that are completely different worlds. Want to visit Poland? Go to Greenpoint in Brooklyn NYC, and all the books and people and shops and sign letterings are all in Polish. Want to visit India? There is a very large neighborhood in Queens where absolutely everything is all Indian. Want to go to Korea? There are several very large neighborhoods where everything is in Korean. Ft. Lee, Flushing, etc. It's all Korean. Than you stroll around Manhattan, and SoHo and Chinatown and Upper East Side are all nothing alike whatsoever, and they are only 3 of maybe 40 different neighborhoods throughout Manhattan.
But, when I visit TOKYO. Well, there's Shinjuku...than there is Shibuya (which looks a lot like Shinjuku)...than there is Ikebukuro (which looks an awfully similar to Shinjuku and Shibuya). Of course there are a few very different and unique neighborhoods like Harajuku. Ueno isn't bad either, but it's fairly quick to walk through. But, generally, wherever you go in Tokyo, it more or less looks and feels more or less the same. Very homogenous, the same shops, mostly predominately Japanese people everywhere you go. There is Roppongi, which will have non-Japanese people around. But it's not really a neighborhood. It's basically just a place to drink overcharged drinks and such. Maybe interesting for a night or two of drinking, but would have little daytime interest whatsoever.
I'm not completely discrediting Tokyo though. It is an enormous city with a lot of people. But, much of that city looks fairly similar. It's all predominately Japanese too. That is amazing if a person has never been to Japan, and wants to experience Japan. It's an absolutely amazing amazing place.
But, when you visit NYC, you can also visit neighborhoods that represent almost every country on Planet Earth, and than in addition to that, you have Manhattan as well.
Yes diversity can make a place seem to pack more in it, but of course many generic and homogeneous cities are very vast and sprawling, so I'd still think Tokyo would feel similarly huge to NYC. I think the 'size of the downtown' or CBD or equivalent often has more of an effect of how big a city feels than the metropolitan area, especially for tourists who mainly stick to this central area. I've heard Tokyo doesn't have one major single core, but different cores (one financial district, one main entertainment district.etc). In this sense NYC is the same, although Midtown fulfils all those functions too. I think Tokyo is just a generic city, too. Seoul too, i'm guessing. Since it was destroyed several times a lot of the building stock in Tokyo is very new, while NYC still has a lot of architecture ranging from Victorian, to Gothic to post-modern/futurist. NYC truly is a unique city. I've not been to London or Tokyo, but I feel that NYC is probably still the most impressive city on the planet.
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Originally Posted by valentro
I haven't been to either Seoul or Tokyo yet but I'll refrain from talking about them until I have experience to compare them.
I have been to Hong Kong and Singapore before.
Singapore has the more updated infrastructure and surprisingly I found Hong Kong to be gritty, not overwhelmingly so but it had that, where as Singapore both looks and feels much more well kept and updated. Singapore also has one of the largest red light districts I've encountered and there's more diversity to it's nightlife I would imagine, I wasn't old enough for nightlife options in Hong Kong back in 2006 but would imagine it's pretty good but from seeing the places from the outside and seeing the crowds it generates, I would say Singapore probably felt more bustling in this regard. Although I could be wrong.
I visited HK in 2006 as well, and in some ways found parts of it were more reminiscent of Singapore than I thought, but overall fairly different city. There is more grit in HK - for instance really dirty looking flats, a bit more chaotic looking. Singapore isn't known for it's redlight district but go to Geylang or Katong at night and you'll see many escorts/prostitutes, especially from countries like Vietnam and China. Nightlife in both cities is pretty slick, I mean if you like clubbing or upscale bars it should satisfy, but I find Singapore at least lacks a certain grit to it in terms of things like live music etc. Chinatown, Little India, Bugis and Katong though have that sort of rustic feel.
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Transportation in either is a non-issue, both are from my experience worlds ahead of majority of what we have in the United States, by the systems themselves I would say only really New York compares to them. Metro, the EL, and the T in Washington, Chicago, and Boston in comparison to Hong Kong and Singapore have more gap and under-served areas and generally these are the three runners up to New York in the United States.
Yes both HK and Singapore are denser than any American city, so it's easier to service them. It's easy to get almost anywhere in Singapore with public transport.
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Also compared to American cities, there shouldn't be an inch of worry on safety in either of the two Asian cities, they are by FAR more safer in every sort of away than our average American cities and much more organized to fighting crime in an efficient manner.
Yep, never felt unsafe in either city.
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Food is one area where in my opinion, Singapore handedly takes it over Hong Kong without it being close. Not to say you cant have good food in Hong Kong but my experience is that you have to pay more to get better foods whereas in Singapore you can get an all out delicious (and diverse selection) of means for an appropriate price and there's less of a "hit or miss" factor to dining in Singapore.
I'm biased but I prefer Singapore/Malaysian food to Cantonese in general. I find it's more diverse, I like how it's spicier, there are just an endless array of different hawker foods, and it's not hard to find delicious and still cheapish food. Even for Western food Singapore seems to be better or at least better value for money. I just remember being in HK going into a steakhouse. They were charging $80 for a steak! My mother and I promptly exited.
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Also someone mentioned Singapore feels the smallest of the four, while I haven't been to Seoul or Tokyo to comment, I'm sure it does in comparison to those hypercities. SIJORI is a conurbation of 9 million and more people, Johor Bahru, which is a great alternative for cheaper shopping than Singapore, is right across the water similarly to the way New Jersey is from Manhattan and it adds an addition 2.5 million or so people to Singapore's area. All in all, while it may feel like the "smaller" of the four, coming from America where only arguably three cities feel it's size or larger, there shouldn't be any worries on the size front.
In terms of physical size Singapore feels bigger than HK because it is bigger, while HK is more cramped. HK's CBD actually doesn't feel nearly as big as NY's, even though the skyline is as big. The city is interspersed with a lot of forested land because of the hills, while Singapore is mostly flat. Much of S'pore is forested/reserves though.
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As for neighborhoods, I remember one upscale residential area on the island called Happy Valley in Hong Kong, amazing highrises but over the top real estate prices in my opinion. Hong Kong has a great set of neighborhoods but in my opinion Singapore's are more varied with more in my opinion options that cater to a larger "global" crowd specifically more Southeast Asians than that of Hong Kong's. Holland Village, Little India, Chinatown are all prime ex-patriot areas in Singapore and each bring some global flavor into Singapore. Hong Kong in comparison is more of a unified post-British, modern-Chinese set of neighborhoods.
Singapore is indeed a diverse country. Little India is still mostly full of Indians, for instance, and there's a lot of authentic Indian culture there. HK wins on the scenery count: they've got some of the most scenic nabes in the world, but Singapore probably does have more eclectic districts.
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After Las Vegas, Seoul is number one on places I want to see next in the world, Tokyo right after. I consider myself a very tech savvy and modern person and the idea of the world's fastest and largest internet services, full service electronics, LCD's and LED's, lights, and eccentricity fascinate me about both South Korea and Japan to the point where I'd also very much like to see Busan, Osaka, and Nagoya when I go out to see Seoul or Tokyo. I'm looking for ways to move to either Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Busan, Kuala Lumpur, or Nagoya soon but first need to visit some of those places and see them in person. I'm excited.
Personally Seoul has never interested me greatly, but I'd still be interested in checking it out. Vegas is well, what I expected, so I can't say I was too disappointed or thrilled. I've seen it, and that's enough for me. Yes it's always good to visit a place you're interested in settling - and preferably spend a fair amount of time, if you have that luxury, possibly living with a friend or something so you can get some idea of what life is like there.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
Safety/Violence. Actually all four cities are extremely safe compared to the US - Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo. The United States is just a violent society, which is largely absent throughout the majority of Asia.
Food. I strongly agree with you on Singapore having the best food. That also applies to Singapore having much significant more options than Seoul or Tokyo as well. That's not to say that Hong Kong and Tokyo don't have a lot to offer wtih restaurants and such. But Singapore just has immensily more. It helps that Singapore is a mix of cultures - all the different cuisines of China and India combined with western and Malaysian and southeast asian cuisines. When you get up to somewhere like Seoul, it's 99.9% Korean food, with the ocassional non-Korean food. Tokyo and Hong Kong are better than Seoul with the restaurant options, but nowhere near Singapore, in my opinion.
I like Korean and Japanese food but it just doesn't seem as diverse as Malayan hawker food. Singapore is truly where Asia comes together, with influences from South Asia, SE Asia and East Asia.
Personally, I found Seoul to be the hardest to navigate, of the four. The traffic congestion in Seoul seems to be 24/7 and not just relegated to rush hour and you have to plan around it. The weather is Seoul (in winter, especially) is also pretty brutal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Cream Man
What do you think makes Seoul the least appealing of the four?
Personally, I found Seoul to be the hardest to navigate, of the four. The traffic congestion in Seoul seems to be 24/7 and not just relegated to rush hour and you have to plan around it. The weather is Seoul (in winter, especially) is also pretty brutal.
Oh ok. I can see why Seoul would be the hardest to navigate, in Hong Kong and Singapore English is spoken often.
Not to sound like an Internet traveler but I'm considering visiting Seoul and Singapore because I have seen Tokyo and Hong Kong. I toured Seoul on google maps and their was not much variation of the neighborhoods, everything looked the same.
Thanks for the response, I enjoy your post.
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