Reflections on my hometown, Quezon City

BEFORE I became a visiting professor in South Korea in 2019, I lived my entire adult life in Quezon City. My family moved to North Fairview in Quezon City in 1992, and I have lived in the area ever since.

Quezon City was born in response to the severe limitations of Manila, both as a city and as the capital of the country. In terms of land area, Manila at about 43 square kilometers, is one of the smallest national capital cities in the world. For comparison, Ankara, Turkey is the world's largest capital city with a land area of 24,521 sq km, or nearly 600 times larger than Manila. Seoul here in South Korea (605 sq km) is 14 times larger than Manila. Even then, Seoul is three to eight times smaller than other nearby East Asian capital cities like Tokyo (Japan), Beijing (China) and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.