City Life

Sabaidee!

Welcome to the Lao and Asian Culture Blog. The first post today is on City Life! Page 79 of your textbook. This blog is to provide pictures and basic descriptions for you to look at while reading your textbook.

So let’s begin!

·         SAME-SAME BUT DIFFERENT

Cities are different all over the world. No two cities are the same. Vientiane is a city but it is very different from Tokyo, a city in Japan.

So what makes a city? Here are some things (not all)

•     Its HUGE compared to every town and village in the country.
•     It can have millions of people!
•    It is where you find Government buildings such as Ministry of Health, Education etc.
•   A business district – Lots of banks, international companies.

What cities in general look like?

1)      Tall modern buildings

Melbourne

2)      Traffic

China

3)      Advertisements

Vientiane 

Tokyo 

Why are there so many people in the city??? 

1)      Healthcare – hospitals , clinics means that death rate is lower than in villages (less people die = more people around)

2)      Rural-Urban Migration (people from villages move to cities for a better life)

3)      MONEY (Cities is where money is, so if you want to earn more money, have a better education         etc. you move to cities)

·         Is it really better than villages?    

      1)      Cities aren’t perfect. You will find the rich and poor have very different lifestyles. While you will have the beautiful scenery, modern buildings and shops you will also find slums.

Slums can be worse than living in villages where there is at least clean air and nature. Here in slums people are squeezed together in cram, dirty, shacks. Places like Mexico have flavelas (slums) that are just horrible to live in.

Mexico (flavela)  

Vang Vieng, Laos

2)      Pollution can be terrible as in China. This affects your health so even with hospitals....... 

 

China

3)      People also may live by a water source (sea/river). Some people live in shacks and sampans            (boats). This can be dangerous especially during the monsoon (wet) season and for places like Hong Kong the cyclone season (typhoon).....: 

  

Vientiane 

But you also find the rich having beautiful houses with Yachts rather than small unsafe boats.

NOW let's discuss transportation :)

·         Transport in Cities

Just like buildings and houses transport is different too. No longer do we use bullock carts in cities but rather cars and motorbikes. But it is not like villages cannot be modern! We have motorbikes in villages too just less of them. Also some places are very modern and will have tractors etc. It’s just that in cities they might be more normal cars and taxis versus tuk tuks. For instance there are less tuk tuks in Vientiane than in Luang Prabang town.

Tractor

Bullock cart in India

We live in a time where most countries are modern to some level. Some more than others. Just like cities are different, for instance cities like Tokyo is all about tall buildings with bright lights while others such as Vientiane are not as crowded/bright or have skyscrapers. You can’t claim one is better than the other just because of the height of buildings!

Rome

Here are some interesting forms of transport in Asia: 

1)      Jinrikisha (Rickshaw) 

Long time ago it was just a box that people sat in and 2 or more men will lift it and carry you to your destination. Then wheels were added so one person rather than two could pull it. Then they added horses, bicycles, motorbikes! Lots of countries have their own versions. India, Indonesia. Think Tuk-Tuk!

Japan in the past

 In some countries, they are still used but not as a daily transport but for tourists! For example, in Hong Kong and Singapore its just a novelty for tourists. [Novelty = new/original and fascinating/interesting].

Modern day London

2) Filipino Jeepney

After the war, the Americans (USA) soldiers left behind many jeeps. The locals of Phillipines were very creative and they decorated them and used them. They are like you busses/tuk-tuk.

Phillipines

3)       Boats -various types

In Thailand, we have the floating markets. Motorboats covered with canvas acts as homes as shops in klongs (canals) of Bangkok.

                                                                       Bangkok

In Vietnam, similar to Thailand and other South East Asian countries we have sampans that are covered as they also act as houses.

·         Why do some cities use rickshaws as daily transport while others is for tourist only? 

     1)      There are developed (rich, very modern) countries and developing (poor, less modern) countries.

     2)      This leads to the cities having very different things. The richer countries will have less slums (no flavelas) while the poorer will have lots of them.

     3)      Lack of money means more cheaper transport like rickshaw and tuk tuk is needed while  richer countries can just use normal cars. 

Tokyo

Vietnam

So city life is very different from villages and even amongst cities they all differ in looks, population, and size etcetera. Don’t forget that cities aren’t all rich there can be slums and not so nice parts to cities. Additionally, this is something to think about on your own – do you think cities are friendly? 

Cheers!

Celestyn