We often hear of city comparisons.  In my many years in Russia, I must have heard that St. Petersburg was the Venice of the North hundreds of times.  Another is Paris.  How many times have you heard “[Insert city] is the Paris of the [insert region]”?  Actually, a quick search reveals that there are at least 11 cities that are “the Paris of the East.”  Some are quite surprising:

• Baku, Azerbaijan
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Bucharest, Romania
• Budapest, Hungary
• Casablanca, Morocco
• Ghazni, Afghanistan
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• Kolkata, India
• Lahore, Pakistan
• Shanghai, China
• Warsaw, Poland