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Comment by stronglikedan | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how that looks per capita. I'd wager very similar between China and the US.

Looks like their cities are 10x bigger on average than US cities, that's amazing.

That means that if you go out for a walk you would be 10 times more likely to run into a friendly stranger who wants to chat.

this is exactly it. cities are bigger and denser. the higher population density means that you have to go out of your way to not run into someone or do something that is not common for chinese to do, like walking around in streets where there are no restaurants or shops.

So you're saying, for instance, if you go for a walk in Manhattan, you'll be more likely to talk to strangers?

I've never lived in Manhattan, but I have visited there many times, I would definitely say that walking the sidewalks and parks there, it's mostly anonymous, with less stranger conversation that say the US suburbs.

HN is a really interesting comments site. Maybe this is true of most internet comments sites. I'm not sure because this is the only place on the web were I have ever made comments. But it seems like there is a large demographic that just wants to disagree.

Before you start making comparisons, I'd recommend actually going to China and seeing.

If you just want to look at wikipedia, this is a fairly typical modern Chinese city:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing

Yes, very dense, and I can't speak to the public place usage by a broad segment of the population there. But there is no city in the US like this, or any other modern Chinese city.

In general I find the public places in the US to be largely abandoned.

Another related aspect: there are not many publicly visible homeless in China:

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202606/1363620.shtml

Making public parks and other places more attractive...

i have only spent a day or so in manhattan but i have lived more than a year in some US suburbs and i don't have the same experience. i have also lived in china for more than a decade, so i believe i am qualified to make that comparison. when i said you have to go out of your way to avoid meeting people i was speaking from personal experience. something i have actually done as i was seeking new routes for my daily walk in a chinese city.

and as european i can also tell you that i am most certainly more likely to talk to someone in manhattan than i would in a european city for example.

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