Kolkata. Seoul. Taipei. Those are three Asian cities to watch! They are not "leading" Asian cities yet, and may never be, given the competition of Shanghai,Tokyo,and Hong Kong. Yet, on this trip, each of these cities impressed me in terms of how fast they are turning into top-tier cities.
Kolkata is of course the weirdo on this list. I promised you in my prior blog to share my thoughts about it -- and here they are. It is far better than you (foreigner and, yes, Indians) might think. It was my first visit to Kolkata. (I was the keynote speaker of Brand Conclave, the prime branding confeence of the IndianConference of Industries: http://brandconclave.com/). Kolkata, as other Indian cities, is changing rapidly. It may have been left behind for a while (the region has had a democratically elected communist government for 30 years), but it is now happening. It reminded me, weirdly, of Shanghai in the early 1990s. And, like Shanghai, it has fabulous, albeit run-down, heritage buildings. It will be awesome when they get renovated as part of an economic boom.
Seoul, my next stop, for a course at Yonsei University, is a frequent stop of mine. But on this trip, for the first time in years, I noted a huge jump. Seoul really wants to be among the top lifestyle cities in the world, and not just Asia. Lifestyle is really the word here! Just a few years ago, most new foreign restaurants started to be cool --- but had lousy food. This has entirely changed. I had my best dinner in a year at "The Restaurant."
Taipei, similar to Seoul, modernizes very fast. The "101" building and complex is amazing. It is the tallest building in the world, and all the major international brands are there. In fact, the entire area surrounding it, is a cool indoors and outdoors lifestyle area. Really impressive, and a benchmark for modern urban development.
Each city is different in its own way. But all three are on a fast track.
