Maybe a good way to say “isolated” would be “farthest from the sea”, in which case “Urumqi (Wulumuqi) in Xinjiang, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Upper Autonomous Region, at a distance of about 1,500 miles to the nearest coastline.”
Remoted inhabited island - Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. “The nearest inhabited land is the island of St. Helena, 1,315 nautical miles away.” There’s a two-page article on it on the next page.
Source: One worn copy of The Guinness Book of World Records, 1998 Edition.
Perhaps a city should be defined as any contiguous series/grid of square miles with at least 100 people in each. Pick a number; this deals with all the silliness of borders. Of course, it’s almost impossible to calculate.
In the U.S. a metropolitian area is one with 100,000 or more. IMHO a metropolitian area would be equal to a city. Less than 100,000 then would be a town.
quote:
Originally posted by dutchboy208
My money is on Vladivostok.
My first post:
included Vladivostok and several other Siberian cities.
Well, as I said before I live in the town of Reading and we do have a bishop, but he only controls a district in the bishopric of Oxford. I think at one time the efintion of city might of included a town with an Abbey and Reading does have an Abbey, but one which has been in ruins since the reformation.
Having a cathedral is only a general rule, Southwark (in London) has a cathedral yet is still defined as a ‘town’.
Noted. I was certain that Honolulu was on trade routes if for no other reason that being a reprovisioning stop on the trans-Pacific run, and I’m aware of the south-to-north railway across Australia, but what trade passes through Perth, as opposed to trade destined for Perth itself? Cargo going to and from India? South Africa?
How’s about Anchorage, Alaska? Although it’s “small” (listed as 265,000 in the MSA), it’s a major city for the region and it’s gotta be fairly remote. The nearest thing would be Fairbanks, but Fairbanks isn’t that big (30,000 says my brother, and the 1990 census).
Perth? Remote? Are you kidding? I spent a semester there as an undergrad, and no way does Perth feel remote, regardless of how far away you are from a large city. Anchorage, now that has more of a remote feel (granted, I was 8 when I was there, but still).
Snicks
What’s your definition of “not much time at all”? I’ve been from Toronto to Perth and back a few times; each time was a 30-hour trip that was as direct as I could get out of Toronto, changing planes only in Honolulu and Sydney.
I would imagine that this length of time would be normal for travel originating from the NE United States and east-central Canada (Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, etc.), and I’d also imagine that there are daily flights to Australia from New York, just as there are from Toronto. But 30 hours is not what I’d call “not much time at all.” It is certainly faster than taking a ship, but still, heading for Perth from here isn’t the kind of thing one decides to do because one has a couple of days off and wants a small vacation.
It’s worth the trip though. Jervoise, your home town was a great place to visit–well worth the time spent getting there (in a tourist class seat, yet)–and I hope I can return again someday.
Instead of debating what minimum population constitutes a city, perhaps you could just use the product of the metropolis’ population and its distance to the nearst other metropolis as a score to compare isolation.
S/G
I think Wikkit already established at the beginning of this thread that Iowa didn’t have any cities.
Just to add…cousin of mine in Idaho replied when asked where do they shop?
“We have to drive to Wal-Mart…it’s about a three hour drive there.” :eek: “and BTW don’t bring your little dog if y’all come visit. The bears will get him.”
A friend of mine in Alaska response to the same question…
“Drive hell…I have to fly two hours just to get to a road.”
Most isolated I’ve been…no flights possible, no roads present nor off-road accessible. (helicopter maybe if there were one w/in a hundred miles, the closest town w/ electricity BTW) I was way up the Sierra’s in Mexico. It took over a week on horseback, after one hell of a long trip across the desert in an old truck. Forgot to mention at least a couple of days on foot. Oh well, that’s about as far stuck out as I’ve been (excluding boat rides) might be a good thread.
The US defines a metroplitan area one city of 50,000 or two or more cities economically linked with a total population of 50,000.
Alaska cites have to be taken with a grain of salt. For instance Juneau, Alaska has more area than all of Rhode Island or Deleware Anchorage is also like a couple thousand square miles (almost 1,700 sq miles) that is bigger than RI(1,045sq Miles) and almost as big as DE(1,955sq miles).
So those population figures are a bit unrealistic.
I have heard people say they feel Darwin Australia is more isolated than Perth, due to it’s lack of services and it’s orientation to Asia.
Perhaps a city should be defined as any contiguous series/grid of square miles with at least 100 people in each. Pick a number; this deals with all the silliness of borders. Of course, it’s almost impossible to calculate.
