sandr020

The Economist Intelligence Unit is a British business providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, including country, industry and management analyses world-wide. Plus, as examined in 2016, it has published an annual Global Liveability Ranking which began in 2004. The Unit ranks cities for their urb­an quality of life, based on assess­ments across five categories — stability, infrastructure, healthcare and culture, education and environment. With Melbourne winning the world title for the past seven years, it may come as a surprise to Australians that Vienna for the first time topped the EIU’s Global Liveability Index. The 2018 results were as follows: 1. Vienna Austria; 2. Melbourne Australia; 3. Osaka Japan; 4. Calgary Canada; 5. Sydney Australia; 6. Vancouver Canada; 7. Toronto Canada and Tokyo Japan; 9. Copen­hagen Denmark and 10. Adelaide Australia. Vienna The differences between the top 30 cities in this index were small. Vienna and Me...

China’s old cities were thriving commercial centres, especially in silk production. In the later C13th, during the rule of Kublai Khan , China’s silk industry reached a great level of soph­is­tication. The guilds had established meticulous pay scales, working hours and a pricing system for silk. Silk reached the markets, in Persia and further west, via the long “ Silk Road ”. The road stretched from the western gates of Hsian in China's Chanxi Province, and passed via the southern Gobi Desert until western Turkistan. It then passed via Kashghar to the major trading cities of Samar­kand, Bukhara and Merv. Once the Silk Road crossed the length of Persia/Iran, it divided into two branches; one went tow­ard Azar­baijan, and the other ran through Ham­adan, Baghdad or Mosul, Antioch or Capadoccia, Izmir and Istanbul. Caravanserai of Shah Ab­bas, Isfahan now the Abbasi Hot­el  East-West economic exchanges required big warehouses in the trading cities, linked by camel caravans. Businessmen...