When I went for a walk outside in Mt Waverley I could sometimes walk for 15-20 minutes with out seeing another person. Or at most only a person here or there. When I walk outside my door here in Novosibirsk I see 10 people instantly. This is a very crowded place. Everyone lives in high rise buildings. Peoples' concept of space is very different to my own.
I grew up with a back yard. But I have also lived in small town Saskatchewan and felt even more open space around me. So it is little wonder that we are both feeling a little claustrophobia in our lives in Russia. Couple that with the fact that our apartment is very small.
I looked up some statistics. The statistics don't tell the story well enough but they still give a strong indication that Novosibirsk is indeed a more heavily populated place than I am used to.
Population density by square kilometre:
Saskatoon: 1326
Melbourne: 1500
Novosibirsk: 3143
New York: 10194
Moscow: 10275
I would have expected the number in Novosibirsk to be a lot higher. But then I have never lived in the most populated part of Melbourne and I expect Mt Waverley would be a lot lower than 1500.
Enjoy the air you breathe. I am thinking of subscribing to a weekly dose of something fresh. Anyone know of a good supplier?
If you are wondering where the snow has gone, so are we. The temperature has been back up to 7 or 8 during the last week. A lot of that weather has been overcast and wet. But today they sun was out all day. Praise God! It was glorious. We couldn't resist a walk in our urban oasis, "Birch Coppice." The above photo was taken from inside this little forest which is a bit more bare without its leaves now. Winter should be coming soon, but the next week is still forecast to be an average maximum of +5. Still, I'm not complaining.
5 comments:
Hey Pasha I know the feeling. Shanghai is at 16,364/sq mi. When we have our peace in our hearts though, the crowds aren't so daunting.
Thanks Brad. Yes you are right, and that is what we seek more than anything. Still, the noise, obnoxious people, little room to move and realising that this is life, can be overwhelming at times. But I do appreciate your understanding.
Translation: Shanghai population density is 2747 per sq kilometre. That's almost identical to Novosibirsk. Wow, I didn't realise it was as crowded as China here!
Actually when you convert a sq mi to sq km it comes out at roughly 2.5. This puts Shanghai at 6545/sq km. Perhaps our conversion calculaters are different. Either way a crowd is a crowd. In China as in Novo' I'm sure being pushy is a matter of survival, and you just haven't lived until you've had some little granny heaving against you to get to the front of the line.
PS. the density I found was for the urban area as opposed to the municipality which includes a lot of surrounding industrial and agricultural area. Some of the districts are actually above this number of course and some well below.
Hi Brad,
Yes the density of 2747 is for the municipality. As is the density for Novosibirsk. Shanghai sure does sound crowded though. My problem is that I just can't think of these kind of crowds as normal long term living conditions for us. We are in this city for a time and we will be moving to some where less populated.
Do you have any plans to return to Shanghai?
Thanks for your comments and keeping up with my blog. I have been keeping up with yours too.
God Bless.
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