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A Chinese person who was here in the US as a foreign student once commented to me that he was so surprised that the United States was like the country side. He

A Chinese person who was here in the US as a foreign student once commented to me that he was so surprised that the United States was like the country side. He didn’t realize how rural the country was. This was at UCLA which is in LA which is the second biggest city in the US.

leereeves 6mo ago
Presumably referring to population density? People like the low density in California.
klodolph 6mo ago
People are also surprised how rural much of China is.
- jimbob45 6mo ago
  https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/origin.png https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/origin.png Posting the map in case anyone hasn’t seen it.
  - monocasa 6mo ago
    To be fair, six percent is still 84 million people.
  - 10xDev 6mo ago
    Russia, US, Australia, Canada are all like this. Probably many more. The world is a very small place when you look at where most people actually live.
phainopepla2 6mo ago
West LA isn't like a Chinese city, but no one in their right mind would call UCLA rural
testing22321 6mo ago
When friends visited NYC and we drove around a bit they said “it’s like everything is half finished”
- cucumber3732842 6mo ago
  Did he ask about all the bricked up windows in London? You get what you incentivize.
- titanomachy 6mo ago
  Is that just because of the scaffolding on everything? IIRC that's due to some legal or tax bullshit.
HerbManic 6mo ago
I get the same thing here is Australia. There is a lot of space with little going on. I mean we have the Nullarbor plain. The name literally means 'No Trees', and it is very fitting. If you ever end up there... I hope you don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain