Ashgabat vs Chongqing

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Ashgabat (Turkmen: Aşgabat; Ашгабат, pronounced [ɑʃʁɑˈbɑt], Persian: عشق آباد‎; Russian: Ашхабад), formerly named Poltoratsk (Russian: Полтора́цк, IPA: [pəltɐˈratsk]) between 1919 and 1927, is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It is situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range in Central Asia. It is also near the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The city was founded in 1881 on the basis of an Ahal Teke tribal village, and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924.

Much of the city was destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake but has since been extensively rebuilt under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov’s "White City" urban renewal project, resulting in monumental projects sheathed in costly white marble. The Soviet-era Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west. Since 2019, the city has been recognized as having one of the highest costs of living in the world largely due to Turkmenistan's inflation and import issues.

Source: Wikipedia

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Chongqing (Sichuanese pronunciation: [tsʰoŋ˨˩tɕʰin˨˩˦], Standard Mandarin pronunciation: [ʈʂʰʊ̌ŋ.tɕʰîŋ] (listen), UK: , US: ,), alternately romanized as Chungking, is a megacity in southwest China. Administratively, it is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of central government of the People's Republic of China (the other three are Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin), and the only such municipality located far away from the coast. The municipality of Chongqing, which is around the size of Austria, includes the city of Chongqing and various non-connected cities. As the Chongqing municipality government directly administers the city of Chongqing, as well as rural counties, and other cities not connected to the city of Chongqing, Chongqing municipality can technically claim to be the largest city proper in the world, even though this is due to a classification technicality and not because it is actually the world's largest urban area. This title belongs to the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Pearl River Delta agglomeration. Chongqing was a municipality during the Republic of China (ROC) administration, within the Sichuan Province. It served as its wartime capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), being one of the world's anti-fascist command centers. The current municipality was separated from Sichuan province on 14 March 1997 to help develop the central and western parts of China.

The Chongqing administrative municipality has a population of over 30 million. The city of Chongqing, comprising 9 urban and suburban districts, has a population of 8,750,000 as of 2018. According to the 2010 census, Chongqing is the most populous Chinese municipality, and also the largest direct-controlled municipality in China, containing 26 districts, eight counties, and four autonomous counties. The official abbreviation of the city, "Yú" (渝), was approved by the State Council on 18 April 1997. This abbreviation is derived from the old name of a part of the Jialing River that runs through Chongqing and feeds into the Yangtze River. Chongqing has a significant history and culture. Being one of China's National Central Cities, it serves as the economic centre of the Sichuan Basin and the upstream Yangtze. It is a major manufacturing centre and transportation hub; a July 2012 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit described it as one of China's "13 emerging megalopolises". Chongqing is ranked as a Beta global city. Chongqing is also one of the top 100 science cities in the world by scientific research as tracked by the Nature Index according to the Nature Index 2020 Science Cities and home to several notable universities, including Chongqing University and Southwest University.

Source: Wikipedia