According to the Mercer 2006 study on quality of living for expatriates, AsiaPundit’s current home is the most livable city in China Mainland China. Although it falls far behind his former home of Singapore.:
Singapore overtakes Tokyo as the top Asian city, moving into 34th position. Despite Singapore’s gain, Japan remains the strongest Asian country with the next eight Asian cities based there. Hong Kong (68th) breaks that run, and China’s top city is Shanghai (103rd), falling one place. In India, the top cities are Mumbai and New Delhi (both 150th). Indian city rankings are improving slowly due to India’s improving political relationships with other countries. Also, local authorities in India are feeling pressure from multinationals who want to locate there to improve quality of living standards.
The survey ranks standards of living based on measures including personal safety and security, health issues, cleanliness and pollution, and transportation - all areas that AP will admit are much better in the Lion City.
For that matter, Singapore should beat most (if not all) of the cities in the top-10 were those the only measures (easily trumping number three Vancouver on cleanliness, transportation and security).
That said, Shanghai’s skyline easily trumps Singapore’s.:
The city claims the third best skyline in the world, while Singapore comes in sixth. However, Shanghai once again is rightfully beaten by Hong Kong.
(Via IZ)
Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, hong kong, northeast asia, singapore, southeast asia
April 11th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Having been to Shanghai and lived in Singapore, I have to agree that Shanghai has a nicer skyline and overall massiveness to it. Food is delicious and cheap in Shanghai too, maybe more so than Singapore. That said though, Singapore has a wider variety of good eats. It’s interesting how Singapore is ranked highly by expats… perhaps it goes to show how well Singapore treats foreign talent?
April 11th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
I’ve been treated rather well in both cities. Rather than saying one beats the other, I’d prefer to say that both kick Beijing’s arse.
On the skyline, Singapore would probably beat Shanghai if the rankings were adjusted for the number of days per year that the Shanghai skyline is blotted out by smog. That applies to Guangzhou and other Chinese cities as well.
April 12th, 2006 at 10:19 am
I’ll trade you a Singapore or a Shanghai for a Haining.