World Class City- Toronto or Hong Kong?

I think in many ways Toronto and Hong Kong are similar cities. Both have finance as their primary industries, have efficient transportation systems, and a relatively low crime rate. Which city do you think is more world class and why?

Cultural aspects - theatre, shows, plays, musical concerts, outdoor community theatre, symphony, etc.

Toronto - World class

HK - Very little choice - eg broadway shows are short run mostly, musical concerts don't have the proper venue to be held in and most of the big acts play Macau rather than HK, but the Cantopop scene is better than TO


Sports

Toronto - fields galore, skating rinks, cycling paths, mtn biking trails, abundant free tennis courts; spectator sports galore - professional basketball, baseball, hockey, football, soccer, Masters Cup tennis, horseracing, moto gran prix

HK - concrete football pitches, private clubs for cricket, limited grass fields, next to zero bike trails, tennis courts must be booked and paid for in advance - the only spectator sporting events revolve around horse racing, one rugby tourney, one cricket tourney, one international golf event, one badminton 6 star event and one tennis event - non-British sports need not apply


Transportation

TO - rush hour traffic jams, efficient subway, street car and bus, but covers too little of city so cars are required, taxis too expensive

HK - world class MTR, abundant cheap taxis, all-encompassing bus and minibus network, even has ferry network


Schools

TO - very good public school system, abundant higher level education, research university and vocational colleges

HK - local school system has inherent problems , private schools can be expensive, abundant universities but fewer vocational colleges


Shopping

TO - extensive mall network but limited choice of goods

HK - world class


Health care

TO - universal, much better old age facilities

HK - generally fine, but has more "first class" retreat hospitals, old age facilities are a joke unless you have $$$


Environment

- no comparison


Housing

- no comparison


Language

TO - English and French but you can get by on Cantonese alone as the community is so big

HK - Cantonese and Mandarin, but you can get by on English alone


Final tally - TO is more world class (I have lived in each city for more than 10 years)

I haven't lived in Toronto, only visited there for a month each year either in summer or winter.


I don't find the transportation in Toronto to be world class. Also, the crime rate is quite high, with violent crimes against children increasing. And yes, Toronto has the wonderful walking and jogging paths, but you can't run through Mount Pleasant cemetary and surrounding parks alone, while no one raises an eyebrow at you if you say you run alone around Hong Kong Island. So in those two regards, i don't find toronto and hong kong similar at all. While the pollution in Hong Kong is appalling, the safety we experience here is wonderful.


Toronto does have Hong Kong beat with cultural and sporting events.


Multicultural - Toronto has the highest Chinese population of any city in Canada. There is also a high Italian, Filipino, Middle Eastern and growing Hispanic population. Hong Kong is v. multicultural also.


They're both great cities, but Hong Kong has the Octopus card. in my opinion, that makes it the superior world city!

As a person who works as a theatre critic of sorts in Hong Kong I think our cultural scene has developed quite a bit in the past few years. 5 years ago we had very little now we have a lot of diversity in our scene.


I think it's a little unfair to compare Toronto to HK as one is western and one is eastern. It's more fair to compare HK to Singapore or to KL. We have similar cultural issues and businesses.

The prospect of winter in Toronto would be enough for me to live almost anywhere else, frankly.