Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliNative
Well, if you take the island as a whole, Belfast of course w/ Dublin #1. But for Rep. Ireland (south) is it Cork? Galway? Limerick? Somewhere else?
In Scotland--is Edinburgh or Glasgow #1? Glasgow is bigger but Edinburgh is the capitol and probably has the most inluence.
Italy- I would say Milan, but Naples defenders might disagree.
France--Lyon or Marseilles? Probably Lyon.
Australia--I do believe Melbourne might be closing the gap with Sydney, but still Sydney by a nose.
China is more complicated. Is Beijing #1 or is it Shanghai?
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I'd say Cork is #2 for ROI.
Edinburgh is more influential and its the capital of Scotland but Glasgow is the major city in Scotland I'd say, just like Toronto is the main city in Ontario even though Ottowa is the capital of the whole of Canada.
In Italy definitely Milan>Naples, Milan is richer than Rome and bigger than Naples plus a lot richer, its where the main stock market for the country is based etc
For France I'd go for Lyon over Marseille with the others some way behind on size even though some might be richer than Marseille.
For Australia both Sydney and Melbourne are ahead of Canberra by some distance even though Canberra is the capital, the two biggest cities there are pretty evenly matched.
China is big enough to have two #1 cities!
In the UK it's usually a competition between Birmingham and Manchester, the urban areas are pretty even in terms of population or economy although looking at city boundaries only then Birmingham is double the population because the boundaries of Manchester are much more tightly drawn. Glasgow would come just behind those two for size but none of the three have the political influence of Edinburgh.
Germany is probably the most tricky case, you've got Berlin, Rhein-Ruhr, Frankfurt and Munich all with their own niches of importance for one reason or another, maybe Hamburg is a bit behind those. I think Berlin is the only capital in the EU which is poorer than the national average. Obviously there are unique historical reasons for that, Germany is relatively young as a unified country and Berlin lost a lot of power/influence/economy after WWII when it was split with half behind the iron curtain and the other half isolated.
Plus also:
Japan has an obvious second city in Osaka, much larger than anywhere else outside Tokyo.
In Spain Barcelona might well be more known and visited internationally than Madrid even though it's quite a lot smaller.
India is a toss up between Delhi and Mumbai I guess for #1.
In Turkey Istanbul seems the definite #1 although Ankara is the capital.
Brazil has an odd situation with Brasilia as capital but low profile internationally, Sao Paulo being very dominant domestically but Rio de Janeiro being the most recognised city internationally.