Nicholas? Nicholas Crane is a writer, geographer and cartographer. He was awarded "Mungo? It was awarded by the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland for its outstanding contribution to geographical knowledge. Parker Prize won the Ness Prize of the Royal Geographical Society for its work in popularizing geographical knowledge and understanding Britain. .
He has published a series of well-received documentaries such as Map Man, Small Town, Britannia and The Coast on BBC 2, and served as the president of the Royal Geographical Society from 2065 438+05 to 2065 438+08.
Chapter III Cities: the Source of Human Wisdom (Excerpt)
Babu Bangui escaped from his home in rural Bihar and embarked on a journey to Mumbai. In Mumbai, he spent the night on the sidewalk and lined up in front of the public toilet with a big handbag containing poems. Babu Bangui appeared on page 5 10 of Suhotu Mehta's best-selling book "The Biggest City: Lost and Found in Mumbai", which described "India's largest, fastest-paced and richest city"-Mumbai is an "island of hope" ... At the same time, Mumbai is one of the most congested cities in Asia. The sidewalks are crowded with cars, street vendors and street sleepers. In this block of less than one square mile, there are factories, leather factories, bakeries and sweatshops called zopadpattis. With a population of about 654.38 million, Dharavi is the most densely populated urban area in the world. Meta asked, "You have two mango trees next to the brick house in the country, and you can see the hills in the east. Why did you leave your hometown and come here? "
For millions of people, life outside the city has become unsustainable. Poverty in rural areas, shortage of educational, medical and recreational resources, lack of opportunities, and environmental crises such as drought and floods have forced people to leave their fields and families, while the city itself has attracted people: it promises to provide better housing, employment, opportunities and services-a higher quality of life. There are some factors behind these push and pull: the improvement of traffic and communication conditions makes it easier for people to understand the opportunities in the city, and the Internet, radio and television are also spreading the information of urban employment. Changes in the city also make it more attractive to rural immigrants. As Bob Dylan sang, "I am heading for the city, and this road is not far away".
Most people on this planet find themselves at a loss, and Babu Bangui is one of them. Cities are usually densely populated, highly mobile and interrelated, but the increase in population, mobility and interoperability forces people to leave their geographical environment and become a decisive part of the world system.
The following figures are unbelievable. In the first few centuries of this mild interglacial period, 2 million people walked on the earth. After thousands of years of hunting and foraging, when agriculture in Europe developed, the population of the earth has increased to about 654.38+08 million. At that time, there was already a city in the land of the new moon. By the year 1000, the world population had increased to 295 million. Kaifeng in the Yellow River valley and Baghdad in the Euphrates River valley have about 1 10,000 residents. The population size of European cities such as Paris and London is 1/50, which is dwarfed. It is generally believed that by 1 100, there will be no less than five cities with a population of one million in China. 1800, the world population increased to 890 million; 1900 years, this figure reached1600 million. Everything changed in the 20th century: 1950, the world population was 2.5 billion, and in 2000 it reached 6 1 100 million. When I wrote this book, the world population was 7.6 billion. In the process of human development from hunter-gatherers to urban commuters, the world population has increased by 4000 times.
The population is determined by the speed of urban development. From 65438 to 0950, two thirds of the world's population lived in rural areas. Today, 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas; By 2050, this number will increase to 70%. At the same time of digital growth, there are spectacular "megacities"-metropolises with more than 6.5438+million residents. 1950, there were only two megacities in the world, new york and Tokyo. According to the prediction of the United Nations, by 2030, there will be 4 1 megacities, and there will be 662 cities with a population of over one million. With the rapid development of China, many cities have gathered to form urban agglomerations or metropolitan areas. In the Yangtze River Delta region, the total GDP of Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Ningbo and Changzhou is equivalent to that of Italy. At present, the other two metropolitan areas have spread all over the Pearl River Delta region and around Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.
Seen from the night sky, the city is the most obvious geographical feature on the earth. Metropolitan areas along the Atlantic Ocean from Boston and new york to Philadelphia and Baltimore look like lava flows. Chicago and its surrounding cities have eclipsed the green Northern Lights in the distance. Under the magnification of the camera lens, Denver became a fiery barbecue net, and Tokyo became a blue-green amoeba-this color was the result of Tokyo mercury vapor lamp irradiation. Europe has become a burning garden.
Hundreds of millions of people come in and out of these cities. Rather than saying that the city is material, it is better to say that the city is humanized. The background of city existence is that human beings move long or short distances. Most of us are immigrants and participate in this chaotic urban migration. Danny Dowling, an anthropogeographer, once wrote, "From plate tectonics to climate system, to global economy and local culture, energy is the driving force for unifying everything".
258 million people (3.4% of the world's population) living outside national borders are one of the long-distance energy flows. After 2000, this number increased by an incredible 49%. Indian, Mexican, Russian, China and Bangladeshi are the world's largest immigrant exporting countries in turn, while the United States is the most popular destination for international immigrants, accepting 19% of global immigrants.
Most people leave their motherland to look for jobs, or because of persecution, natural disasters or wars, while the third category, asylum seekers, take to the streets to apply for international protection. In the chaotic world of international migration, cities are the main places to attract immigrants, and they are the "unconsumed earth"-the title Jupa Lahiri chose for his immigration story. Pranab Kaku walked into a story called Hell-Heaven written by Lahiri. He "just arrived in the United States, and the strange environment made him doubt everything, and even dare not believe very obvious things easily." It is this kind of questioning that keeps the city-and civilization-moving forward.
There are also a large number of people moving within the country. India has a large floating population, and the country has been unable to provide reliable data. It is estimated that the number of short-term "seasonal" immigrants (people who have left their permanent residence 1~6 months) is about 1 50,000 to1100 million. According to a rough estimate, the number of people permanently migrating in the country is about 400 million. Imagine that the United States and Britain have migrated for work, and the story of Babu Bangui will be staged on the sidewalks of every city: population explosion and poverty have led to mass migration.
In absolute terms, no country can match China's population mobility. 1949 after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), China adopted the Soviet-style development model. Since then, agricultural output has increased, which has promoted the rapid development of industrialization. The household registration system divides everyone into "urban" or "rural" accounts under the designated management unit, which leads to the rural labor force being tied to the land. From 65438 to 0955, China implemented collectivization of agriculture, restricting farmers from taking grain from their own land, and the grain restrictions were further tightened. By the mid-1980s, the economic reform extended from rural areas to cities, releasing a large number of agricultural laborers, who poured into cities and towns-industries needed them. Professor Chen Jinyong wrote in 20 12: "This great migration provided China with huge cheap labor and promoted the economic development of China." In the past 30 years, 200-250 million rural residents have left their rural homes and trudged to the eastern coastal areas of China. As far as population migration is concerned, this far exceeds the 50 million Europeans who migrated to North America between 1800 and the First World War. The rapid industrialization of China suddenly broke the balance between urban and rural areas. 1980, the proportion of rural population in China was about 80%, but in 20 12, this figure has dropped to 50%. By 2030, 70% of China's population will live in urban areas. Figure 3. 1 shows the urban residential areas that emerged with the urbanization of China.
These residential areas surround the earth with interconnected energy flows-they are the centers of the global network, and some of them have become "world cities". The reputation of "world city" is based on strong economic strength, neighboring developed areas, foreign capital inflow and political stability. The new winner of this game is not Beijing, new york or London, but Dubai. Dubai has become a popular destination for emerging tourism, and is also described as "the city of the future of the world" and "the center of the world". In recent years, the shopping center at the foot of Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, has become the place with the most tourists in the world. Dubai is the textile center of the world, and more than 90% of the population are immigrants. There are many Airbus A-380 s flying directly to major cities in the world in Dubai. In Connectivity: Describing the Global Network Revolution, Parag Connor described Dubai as "an experiment from feudalism to postmodernism". The population of Dubai has increased from 20,000 in 1930s to 3 million at present, and it is expected to reach 5 million in 2027. Connor wrote that this is "a new type of world city" ... It has a new identity and is the real center of the world. Its advantage lies not in its rich cultural heritage, but in its borderless cosmopolitanism and seamless global connection. "
This connectivity also applies to the distance between cities. There is no habitable place on earth that modern people can't reach, whether through four-wheel drive, boots and skis, or through drones and satellites. Although we don't live on the streets of cities, almost everyone needs cities to provide services, social systems, economic stability, security and governance that depend on society. The world is different from the original small role played by the cities that have risen from the fertile soil of Iraq-these cities mark the boundaries between urban and rural areas with reinforced walls. As early as 1987, Fernand Braudel, the recorder of civilization, once wrote, "The first victory of the West was, of course, the conquest of rural areas by cities and towns and the conquest of rural farmers' culture". Despite some contempt for rural culture, modern readers may think that this conquest is followed by colonization.
Cities always get agricultural products from their rural hinterland, but now they have touched the whole world. Braudel's clear artificial urban-rural boundaries have been blurred by global interdependence. People's new attitude towards green space further blurs the dividing line between urban and rural areas. "Village" has become dependent on the city, and at the same time, the city is re-recognizing its inner village.
Havana takes its miniature vegetable garden, or urban organic agriculture, as the demonstration protagonist: all kinds of boxes, boxes and oil drums cut from the middle are fixed on the roof or backyard, which are full of organic vegetables. Under the leadership of Mayor Sadiq Khan, London will soon become the first "national park city" in the world. The area of London is 1.572 square kilometers, of which 47% is "completely covered with green" and there are 1.400 wild species. A Starbucks opened in Yosemite National Park, USA, and a beaver in Stockholm, Sweden destroyed a tree. In many parts of the world, the boundaries between urban and rural areas are becoming increasingly blurred.
This is the scale, vitality and complexity of modern cities-cities have created new unknowns. In the past, people often thought that to lose ourselves, we had to go into the wilderness: plunge into the jungle, desert or mountains, or stay in the sea by boat. Now, however, the city provides a new kind of wilderness, which is unknowable and fascinating and will surprise some races. In many cases, it is often not drawn on the map. If you want to get lost, jump on the city bus or put on a pair of sports shoes. It may take time to find the direction. In big cities that lack historical landmarks or topographic landmarks, it will be slow to establish artistic conception maps. A new generation of explorers, cyclists and psychogeographers are redrawing the urban landscape map in a "different place" way.
In this developing urban maze, road signs are still the key to social cohesion. The surging crowds in the city continue to move along their own social riverbeds and pools.
Babu Bangui went from a small sidewalk where he lived, to the Surab public toilet, to the roadside restaurant where he ate, to the bookstore where he worked, and then to the special places that inspired his poetry: the address of the recently collapsed building, the alley where African drug dealers spent the night and traded behind the Flora fountain, and the slum of Santa Cruz with open sewers. Physical landmarks, whether primitive, fresh or old, are necessary signposts for the 3D (three-dimensional) artistic conception map possessed by sound and taste in our extremely omnipotent brain. Newcomers to the city must quickly build such maps, because they are living networks. City authorities often destroy or blur historical landmarks, and it is often too late when they realize that they have destroyed regional characteristics and social cohesion.
Hyderabad may have covered an area of 650 square kilometers, but the Char Minar minaret is still the soul of the city. Manhattan-Even though these capital letters look like skyscrapers. However, Central Park is the source of new york's quiet axis. Glacier boulders and glacial schists are scattered all over the park. Native American Lenny Lenape should be very familiar with these. They named the island Manhattan because there are precious pecan jungles there. In Mansi, Manaha? H-taan means "where we got the bow". Other cities are developing too fast to obtain unique landmarks and realize historical awe, so they may come up with some strange expedient measures: Eiffel Tower, Osman Avenue, brick-and-wood townhouses in cities, Thames Town embedded in China, etc. These are just "placeholders" until local buildings rebuild their confidence.
People's enthusiasm for urbanization is so strong that in many cases, the historical form and function of the city have been destroyed. At one time, the city was introduced to students as an obviously isolated and relatively static residential area, and it could be further neatly divided into multiple centers, regions, plates or regions. The central business district, middle-grade residential area and suburban industrial park projected by the academic lecture hall give people the impression that the internal boundary of the city is divided by the red line on the road. Of course, cities have never been so simple; However, the scale and speed of modern urbanization, as well as the expansion of various characteristic "zones", blur and aggravate the polarization and create a brand-new "human landscape".
The picture shows the stills of the documentary "English Town Story", from: BBC