[Gubei]

By the request of Igzy, I want to start elaborating on my belief. The first topic is what city is.

- The definition of city varies with modern countries. For your information, my country’s “urbanization rate” is over 90%. That of China is about 50%. I’m not sure of that of US.

- So, the definition of city should be found in the Bible. And the notion of “city” in the NT should be interpreted according to the times when the NT was written – the Roman Empire. At that time, the city means a smallest political administration unit which is separated by meaningful geographic distance. You can find this through the maps attached to our modern Bible.

- Do not worry about the size of city. For example, the US is a country and the Republic of Marshall Islands is a country. Those two countries are members of the UN regardless of their size of land area or population.

- Bejing is a city. There is one major. NYC is a city. There is one major. Manhattan is not a city. That is a borough. Basically, NYC is meaningfully separated from other city (e.g. Boston) by the yardstick of scarcely populated geographic distance. 5 boroughs in NYC are not cities. If you have GIS software such as Arc-View, it is very easy to visualize how cities are meaningfully separated.

- Sometimes, two cities are really close to the extent that population is not separated by meaningful geographic distance. And then you just need to follow the political administration’s distinction.

Gubei