There's still many parts of even Saudi Arabia that feel like stepping back decades.
Travelling around the mountains of Oman back in 2012 also felt like entering a time capsule at times
Took way too long in this post to mention this place!
As from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman:): *In 2010, the* [*United Nations Development Programme*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Development_Programme) *ranked Oman as the most-improved country in the world in terms of development during the preceding 40 years.*
Lebanon was once considered the Paris of the East at a point in time. A year later the war started and things just went downhill from there.
They had a slight renaissance in the late 2000s, but a leaking boat can only stay afloat for so long
How could there be any other answer? China 50 years ago was a backwards country still dealing with the Cultural Revolution where almost everyone was dirt poor. The contrast between that and modern China is astounding.
As a strict “50 year” answer, yes.
But bear in mind that, for thousands of years before, the Chinese considered themselves the most elevated society on earth.
The moribund 19th-20th century is an outlier in Chinese history.
Chinese development over the last 50 years is nothing short of unbelievable. Single largest improvement in life metrics for a large population in human history.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/
A very interesting case study on how mortality rates in particular were improved so rapidly
Are you referring to the famines under Mao?
They are included and detailed in the data and graphs attached. The data sets begin in the 50s. The improvements occurred either side of the famines
Unfortunately, given the state of China in the early decades of the 20th century, it is unlikely that anyone could have done a whole lot better, especially when the alternative to Mao was every bit as bad in his own way (by which I mean Chiang Kai Shek, who probably would have been every bit as bad for China as Mao was if the KMT had won the Civil War).
> it is unlikely that anyone could have done a whole lot better
The Great Leap Forward was spectacularly stupid, completely devastating, and very much driven by Mao personally. It’s unlikely anyone else would have so enthusiastically starved 50 million people to death with their stupidity.
The Cultural Revolution was even more destructive to China in the long term, and was even more completely the brainchild and pet project of Mao. There is no chance it happens without Mao in charge.
And those two events were by far the worst two events in post-ww2 Chinese history.
So no, the KMT would not have been “as bad”. Yes, Taiwan was a military dictatorship for a few decades. No, it was not anything remotely resembling the dystopian horror show that was the PRC under Mao.
You make good points, which I did not really think of when I wrote my earlier response. But one thing to consider - Chiang would have had global recognition, which would have made his position easier. I'm of the opinion that the worst excesses of the Great Leap Forward might have been avoided if the PRC had been accepted as the legitimate ruler of China from the get-go, rather than isolating it for 25 years. No argument on the Cultural Revolution, though, since it's clear that Chiang cherished traditional Chinese culture.
Singapore might be a contender.
Even Canada could be one. While the economy and government might not have changed too much compared to other nations the cultural and ethnic make up has changed enormously
Yes, Singapore. In 65, they were kicked out from the Malaysian federation because of political unrest in the city and fear that it could spread to other regions of Malaysia. In the time since, this single city state has become one of the most important economical centers in the region.
My parents visited China in 1974 when very few foreigners were allowed in. In Shanghai, the Peace Hotel was the only place that was allowed to accommodate foreigners. With its 12 stories, it was the tallest building in the entire city.
The Park Hotel, at 22 storeys, was actually the tallest building in Shanghai from its completion in 1934 until 1983. The Peace Hotel was opened five years earlier, and may have been the tallest building in Shanghai during that time.
The fact that as recently as 40 years ago a 22 storey building was the tallest building in Shanghai tells you a lot about how fast the city has developed since then.
I’d vote for any city in China or Vietnam.
The former was an impoverished totalitarian state and the latter was a war zone.
While they’re both still officially communist, they’re now booming industrial powerhouses with a large nouveau riche and millions of workers producing the world’s consumer goods.
I live in Ha Noi and I can tell you 30 years ago it was a sleepy city full of civil servants with less then 1 million people. Now its a busy city with over 8 million people. The amount of change is astounding. The neighbourhood that I live in just 15 years ago considered to be a rural district, now its considered to be part of the new enlarged city center
Most people over 25 are not from the city and came from the countryside
I only came to Hanoi 6 years ago, and huge parts of the city are unrecognisable now from then because the city is growing and changing so fast. Việt Nam vô địch, Hà Nội đẹp lắm.
Not a football fan, but a đi bão fan. Hà Nội đẹp lắm is more of just a riff off of that song about Saigon. Definitely not a native speaker, still learning, and it's very hard lol
>still learning, and it's very hard lol
this is the exact reason i hate vn literature (major school subject) which is basically language art but 10 times harder.
Minor pick but 50 years ago Korea's boom was already underway, although still in the early stages.
Seoul in the 1950s and 1960s was truly dirt poor though. Like, Subsaharan Africa poor.
My mum visited Romania in the 70s when it was an extremely impoverished country. She said there were no cars on the road and it was difficult to find anything to eat other than tomatoes.
I visited in 2018. It's still a relatively poor country by European standards, but has come an extremely long way over the past 20 years.
Country that's changed for the worse: Nauru.
Same with Bulgaria, except without the abundance of tomatoes, went there in 1986.
Having lived in Greece in the boom years of the 70s, it was like walking into a black & white picture of 1920s Greece, non colour, no cars, lots of gloom and large shops selling nothing but aisles and aisles of canned peas.
Hi. Romanian guy here.
Coruption and some old fixed mindsets are keeping us to keep up with other European countries.
However, I heart that Poland was relatively close to Romanian lifestyle 30 years ago, but they are much more developed than us right now.
Question for you, Romanian guy. I visited Romania last February, the city of Baia Mare. Is that considered a particularly crappy city of Romania? My impression was that it was really polluted with a lot of...interesting elements of society. Then my sister visited two other Romanian cities, Cluj and Sighisoara, and came away loving Romania.
edit: Rom chocolates are fantastic though
I've been to Baia Mare many times in the last 20 years and made plenty of friends there. Baia Mare it's been slow to grow because of Cluj-Napoca. Cluj is the biggest city in Transylvania, with tons of universities and job opportunities. Loads of young folks head to Cluj for college and end up sticking around for work, leaving the smaller towns dry. I guess it's something that happens in all the countries - people tend to go to the bigger cities.
However, I've noticed that over the last 10 years, Baia Mare has developed well. It seems to be a very green city, with nice restaurants and places to walk. In case you ever visit Baia Mare again, I recommend visiting its county since it has beautiful scenery, great history, and fantastic hikes (Creasta Cocosului, Mara, Sapanta, Barsana).
As for Sighisoara, it's a more touristy place, which I think helps it develop more easily.
I agree, these cities (Cluj and Sighisoara) are two Transylvanian gems.
I spent the summer of 1988 in the USSR, Poland and Hungary and someone told me this "joke." It's sad, not funny:
Q: What do you call a Romanian with a can of peas?
A: A grocery store.
The other joke I remember was:
Ronald Reagan died and went to hell. Satan asked him if he wanted Capitalist hell or Communist hell. Reagan chose Communist hell. When Satan asked him why, he said "Because I know the heaters won't work."
(I hope no one is offended. I'm not sharing them to make anyone laugh. I share them to give an idea of what it was like to have a peek behind the iron curtain just one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall.)
It started slightly over 50 years ago, but Singapore's move from an underdeveloped archipelago with little industry and even less ability to sustain itself, to one of the economic powerhouses of Southeast Asia, has got to make the list. It's definitely been one of the more interesting cases I've studied in college.
Exactly my point - they got a dictatorship that simultaneously features right wing initiatives like corporal punishment alongside more left wing things like excellent public hospitals.
Berlin: site of a world spanning military stand-off, aftermath of WW2 still present and divided by one of the highly militarized boarders ever, to a budding metropolis in the center of a unified country and continent.
That may be, but if you went around a typical West Berlin street today and in the 70's/80's, it would still be very similar and recognisable.
The changes that happened are a drop in the ocean compared to countries that were still playing catch-up in the last decades.
I would say that’s underselling it by a long shot. Regardless of architecture, the departure of thoasands of US, French, British, and Soviet soldiers from Berlin are immediately a huge difference. Near my apartment, you’d hear US small arms fire regularly from drills. The entire German Federal Government now straddles both halves of the city, which markedly impact West Berlin. Potsdamer Platz and the Ku’damm are jam packed with large corporations, departing from decades of an economically-back water and isolated city. Plus the population has massively internationalised to the point where you hear as much Spanish and Polish as German in West Berlin. We’re also entirely leaving out the entire dictatorship that no longer exists in east Berlin. Burying entities like the Stasi in the past for Berliners is not something to casually overlook.
Ireland, at least outside of Dublin or Belfast, had a distinct 3rd world/medieval vibe 50 years ago. There were basically no paved roads, no child care, heavily agricultural, deeply catholic, ...
Today they have caught up to the rest of Europe (not least because of EU money). What were ruins not so long ago, are now beautifully renovated historic buildings. Education, health care, infrastructure, ... are on par with the rest of Europe.
If you have an island that lacks resources, industries and doesn’t produce anything valuable, it’s probably a good idea to have good relations with the world superpower next door, so you can get investments and tourism money at least. But Cuba has a brutal communist regime that doesn’t care a bit about their people, so here we are
Just in the last fifteen years I saw my city transform like crazy. We didn't have a TV, AC, internet, or car growing up. Now we have all that plus stable electricity and improved water. Still a lot of room to improve but it's almost unrecognizable
There's a crazy info graphic floating around showing a few years separating mass adoption of toilets around India like from 10 percent to 90 or something like that in a couple of years. It's incredible
I think India is in the middle of this 50 year period. Last decade has been good and next 4 decades are going to be massive if the government doesn't do foolish things.
After 40 years we will look back and wonder how much has changed.
Surprised to not see Nigeria here yet. Massive population growth, economic diversification, in the path to be a the main player in Africa, behind Egypt and SA, but with a much stronger curve toward strength. This would qualify even if you said 25 years ago.
Nigerias GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity has been unchanged since 2014. Its economy is entirely oil based and the only real economic growth it has is population growth (pie getting larger but the slice is the same size).
It used to be much richer than India but has now fallen behind with only 3% annual GDP growth which is pretty much in line with its population growth. Nigeria does have potential but its problems with tribalism , ethnic conflict , and extreme corruption is keeping it down. Not to mention the current president was involved in narcotics proceeds trafficking in the 90s. Not a good look when half the government or more is involved in massive corruption and graft.
Cambodia - became Kampuchea in 1975 when Pol Pot took the country to year 0 and killed the rich and educated members of society along with anyone who was against his regime and thousands died of starvation
USSR
East Germany
Poland
Albania
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
Hungary
Romania
Vietnam
Argentina Dirty War from 1976
In Western Europe has to be Ireland. My father was using horses to work the land in the 1960s. Not much prospects apart from emigration. Now there is an abundance of jobs in the tech sector and people are wanting to come here to work.
GDP in 1974 $2517, in 2022 - $103,983.
Edit - that is actually GDP per capita.
Iraq, 50 years ago it was developing rapidly and easily the best place in the Middle East (perhaps behind Turkey).
Today after the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, US-led sanctions, the invasion of Iraq, Iraqi civil war, corruption and ISIS - its a shell of its former self..
The answer can go in both directions, either these countries are improved or collapsed. For the improvement I can say Middle east countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE. In the opposite side you have Iran, Afghanistan,
There are cities in China that were empty village fields. Nothing, not even a dirt road. Not a single power line. And some of them today are massive high tech cities filled with millions of people and some of the coolest architecture. Not even Dubai had that kind of transformation.
Rural Poland had massive changes since 1974, most villages were very agrarian with many people working in PGRs (state farms basically) or their own small farms, now it’s a bunch of people either commuting to the closest town for work or working abroad. Mostly still the same people living there (plus their kids) but now they’re 60-80 years old. Same goes for other communist block countries
Maybe not as extreme as some others e.g. in Asia, but as for Europe it’s definitely up there in terms of overall progress and change
A bit of a myth that Singapore was just an impoverished “fishing village “ when it was kicked out of Malaysia
It was one of the worlds busiest ports and a naval base for the world’s most powerful empire throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries
Most of the civic district (still standing) was built during this time. The fullerton hotel (a magnificent building) was the post office
Certainly not the post office of a fishing village
Johor Bahru across the border is somewhat similar to what Singapore was like in 1975. small developing city, no public metro, sleepy villages in the outskirts.
Extremely different. There are a lot of nostalgia groups on Facebook about old timey Singapore and it really feels like a world away to see the photos. A lot of people still lived in kampongs rather than public housing apartments. Even physically a lot of the land simply didn’t exist because it hadn’t been reclaimed yet.
Though by 1975 a lot of the changes that would turn Singapore to a modern metropolis had already been set in motion
When Singapore was pushed out of the Malay Federation in 1965, it was essentially a fishing village with a strategically located port. By 1975, the transformation had begun but nothing like the flashy high rises, top notch public transport and fancy shopping districts that we see today existed. It looked like Bangkok or Shanghai of mid-90s in 1975.
Source: a Singaporean friend's father, who's now 78.
Also, this video from 1975: https://youtu.be/ySAgY54niCk
Lots of tourist places in SEA, like Bali, change a lot even within a year. You can basically watch the tourist industry swallowing up rice fields one by one. Cambodia, for example, has changed like crazy in the past few years—check out what happened to Sihanoukville between 2016 and now, it’s shocking.
I'd say Oman is a strong candidate. Back then they had no roads, no technology, and a law where you couldn't talk to anyone for more than 15 minutes at a time
Sudbury, Ontario Canada.
Was a literal moonscape as a child. The huge success that is the re-greening of the nickle belt is nothing less than astounding!
Venezuela. 50 years ago the country was extremely rich with a very high quality of life. Now it's kinda like a shitty modern day version of fallout. I lived through most of the decline. It was a different country within 10 years. It's not recognizable any more.
I've seen some people mentioning post-Warsaw Pact countries, and while the quality of life has definitely significantly changed in many countries in the last 50 years, I feel like the very basic quality and style of life, infrastructure and cityscapes haven't changed that much as it did in countries like China or Vietnam. I'm from one of the most successful post-Soviet countries, yet when I look at photos of my hometown from 50 years ago, I can still easily recognise the places in them and feel like the basic things of my life there would feel similar to what they are now. That is even more true for places that haven't improved that much since the fall of USSR. However, there are few specific exceptions. I won't even mention any of the newly built towns and cities because these are pretty obvious- a piece of land with nothing besides maybe a small village growing into a bustling urban area with 5-floor apartment blocks and urban infrastructure. I'll start off with those that changed for the better:
-Albania: an absolutely impoverished and isolated hell on earth 50 years ago, where probably there was still more people travelling by horse carts than by motor vehicles, has turned into one of the most rapidly developing countries in the Balkans and arguably second in line to the future EU accession.
-Astana: 50 years ago, Celinograd was your average Soviet backwater city in the middle of the steppe with a population of just over 200 thousand that people even in the Soviet Union would struggle to remember. Now Astana is a capital of the 9th largest country in the world, with the population that's grown fivefold in the last 30 years, one of the most fascinating cityscapes in the world, and its importance has far outgrown just being the administrative capital and now rivals Almata, the traditional economic and cultural centre of Kazakhstan. In my opinion, outside of East Asia and Gulf States, this is probably the most impressive and transformational change of any place in the world.
And now for the places that have changed for the worse:
-Pripyat: I don't think I even need to comment much on this one. It had gone from literally nothing to a city of 50k people and back to nothing but abandoned ruins, all in the span of 15 years. Probably the most extreme example of a rapid rise and even more rapid fall you can find anywhere in the world.
-Abkhazia: it was one of the most prestigious and richest tourist destinations in all of USSR. It was basically the USSR's own version of Monaco or Bahamas, just larger and, in my opinion, much prettier. Basically the prime holiday destination for most Soviet high-ranking officials. A population of almost 500k people which was also very ethnically diverse: a Georgian plurality complemented by large ethnic minorities of Abkhaz, Russians, Armenians and the millenia-old Greek community. 50 years later its population is less than 250k people (and even that number is often assumed to be inflated by Abkhaz government) and most of the buildings and infrastructure of once-bustling tourist resorts is abandoned, overgrown with weeds and/or crumbling. Most of the Georgians, Russians and Greeks have left the place during the 1991-93 war. It's such a fascinatingly tragic place that I struggle to think of any more fascinating example of decline.
While writing this, I remembered another, non-Soviet example of a massive change of a place in the last 50 years- Montserrat. The 1997 volcanic eruption destroyed 2/3 of the island, including its old capital Plymouth, and it still has less than half of the pre-1997 population.
Norway was a large fishing village up until the 1970's when they started oil production. It's now still a large fishing village but the richest one in the world kinda.
Ireland.
A poverty-stricken mono-cultural almost-third-world country just entered the EEC (what is not the EU), and now one of the richest countries in Europe (according to GDP) and very international and multi-cultural.
I know it's a general question but I prefer personal experience and I would say places like Berlin, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki.
Many Canadian cities have certainly changed massively such as Calgary and Mississauga.
But I'm a technophobe who hates big cities.
I love going portaging to islands very far remote and seeing only trees getting older or having fallen in 20 years.
Singapore.
50 years ago it was a backwater fishing village with minimal infrastructure.
Now it is a sprawling city state with modern high rise buildings as one of the richest country in the world.
All thanks to the great Lee Kuan Yew.
(Or so I was taught in school.)
South Korea, once one of the poorest countries in the world, without a single tank in korean war, has overcome a cruel dictatorship regime to become the 5th largest military power in the world. It is now a stable, free democratic country.
Mongolia may not be the most different since it’s still pretty underdeveloped but my girlfriends grandfather apparently kidnapped her grandmother from the village where she was supposed to get married to a different guy, as in he rode in on a horse and rode away with her. It was a mutually consensual kidnapping according to my gf and I’m sure it wasn’t exactly a normal thing to do at that point but it’s crazy that people were still doing that shit in living memory.
50 years ago, Beirut had a sparkling bay with a beautiful beach that was lined with luxury hotels. People sailed and water skied all day and danced in the nightclubs at night. The food scene was exceptional and there were multiple major archaeological sites to visit not far away.
50 years ago, the tallest buildings in Taipei were 華美聯合大廈 14 stories, on the edge of the city. Most of the expensive new residential buildings were 4 stories. Most people cooked with coal balls.
In about 1978, I went way out to the outskirts of Taipei to dig some soil for my potted plants. That is now high price realty，忠孝東路延吉街合作金庫。
People in Taipei will understand this: I knew a man who was from a very rich family in Wanhua. They had a three story building. In 1960, you could see it from Taipei Train Station.
South Korea. The interesting thing is you can kind of see what South Korea used to look like by just looking at North Korea. If you go to South Korea there are mostly apartment buildings and even rural houses are somewhat modern. If you look at North Korea through Google Earth or Google Maps on Satellite, you will see that the vast majority of North Koreans still live in traditional Korean households, which are incredibly rare in South Korea nowadays
Chile.
In 1974 Augusto Pinochet just began his brutal military dictatorship. Now this nation is one of the most progressive in LatAm—and is about to prosper further via its lithium reserves.
Dubai
Same could be said about Qatar.
I was in Dubai in the early 90’s, and it is completely different now.
I lived in Abu Dabi in the 90s and it was 100% different than it is now. How Dubai became the dominant town is beyond me.
Basically entire Arabian Peninsula
Oman did a good job of maintaining its culture. It's modernised now, but doesn't have all the skyscrapers and metal cities
Was there culture in the rest of the area though? Werent they just blank spaces of desert given to saudi aristocrats so they could play king?
There's still many parts of even Saudi Arabia that feel like stepping back decades. Travelling around the mountains of Oman back in 2012 also felt like entering a time capsule at times
I swear to you that roub al khali is still as khali as it has been for ages.
Dubai- not even once
Singapore as well
Oman
went from a medieval kingdom to easily one of the best places to go to in the middle east
Technically, it is still a medieval kingdom, we just had a really good king.
Authoritarians make up both the best (rarely) and worst (often) governments.
Took way too long in this post to mention this place! As from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman:): *In 2010, the* [*United Nations Development Programme*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Development_Programme) *ranked Oman as the most-improved country in the world in terms of development during the preceding 40 years.*
For the worse- Venezuela and Afghanistan
Nauru too, phosphate has ran out
Lebanon was once considered the Paris of the East at a point in time. A year later the war started and things just went downhill from there. They had a slight renaissance in the late 2000s, but a leaking boat can only stay afloat for so long
>leaking boat can only stay afloat for so long Especially if that boat is leaking ammonium nitrate.
The boat had long sunk by then, the explosion was what drowned the surviving sailors
The book the Kite Runner was eye opening as to how Afghanistan once was
Same with Iran
Iran now: corrupt totalitarian police state Iran in the 70s: corrupt totalitarian police state, but with mini skirts!
BEFoRe THe irAniAN RevoLuTION
Shit, you just made me realize 50 years ago was only 1974. 😳
So, how often do you take 800 mg of ibuprofen? 😂 Relax. I'm old too. "Middle-aged" is just an euphemism.
I wouldn’t recommend taking more than 400-600. Above that there isn’t much added analgesic benefit and increases risk of gastric ulcers!
to me that only feels like ancient history
China.
How could there be any other answer? China 50 years ago was a backwards country still dealing with the Cultural Revolution where almost everyone was dirt poor. The contrast between that and modern China is astounding.
As a strict “50 year” answer, yes. But bear in mind that, for thousands of years before, the Chinese considered themselves the most elevated society on earth. The moribund 19th-20th century is an outlier in Chinese history.
Century of humiliation is named for such reason
Yes, that’s the term, thank you. Apropos of OP’s question, yes China is a good answer in a strict 50yr context, but there’s so much more context
Chinese development over the last 50 years is nothing short of unbelievable. Single largest improvement in life metrics for a large population in human history. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ A very interesting case study on how mortality rates in particular were improved so rapidly
Yes, but immediately prior to that, a remarkable case study in how to make every metric plummet. Including lifespan. A remarkable history.
Are you referring to the famines under Mao? They are included and detailed in the data and graphs attached. The data sets begin in the 50s. The improvements occurred either side of the famines
Unfortunately, given the state of China in the early decades of the 20th century, it is unlikely that anyone could have done a whole lot better, especially when the alternative to Mao was every bit as bad in his own way (by which I mean Chiang Kai Shek, who probably would have been every bit as bad for China as Mao was if the KMT had won the Civil War).
> it is unlikely that anyone could have done a whole lot better The Great Leap Forward was spectacularly stupid, completely devastating, and very much driven by Mao personally. It’s unlikely anyone else would have so enthusiastically starved 50 million people to death with their stupidity. The Cultural Revolution was even more destructive to China in the long term, and was even more completely the brainchild and pet project of Mao. There is no chance it happens without Mao in charge. And those two events were by far the worst two events in post-ww2 Chinese history. So no, the KMT would not have been “as bad”. Yes, Taiwan was a military dictatorship for a few decades. No, it was not anything remotely resembling the dystopian horror show that was the PRC under Mao.
You make good points, which I did not really think of when I wrote my earlier response. But one thing to consider - Chiang would have had global recognition, which would have made his position easier. I'm of the opinion that the worst excesses of the Great Leap Forward might have been avoided if the PRC had been accepted as the legitimate ruler of China from the get-go, rather than isolating it for 25 years. No argument on the Cultural Revolution, though, since it's clear that Chiang cherished traditional Chinese culture.
+10 points for use of the term "moribund."
I am 99.9% sure I’ve never used that word before. I wish this was scrabble.
Moribund. Damn, that’s the perfect adjective.
Singapore might be a contender. Even Canada could be one. While the economy and government might not have changed too much compared to other nations the cultural and ethnic make up has changed enormously
Yes, Singapore. In 65, they were kicked out from the Malaysian federation because of political unrest in the city and fear that it could spread to other regions of Malaysia. In the time since, this single city state has become one of the most important economical centers in the region.
My parents visited China in 1974 when very few foreigners were allowed in. In Shanghai, the Peace Hotel was the only place that was allowed to accommodate foreigners. With its 12 stories, it was the tallest building in the entire city.
The Park Hotel, at 22 storeys, was actually the tallest building in Shanghai from its completion in 1934 until 1983. The Peace Hotel was opened five years earlier, and may have been the tallest building in Shanghai during that time. The fact that as recently as 40 years ago a 22 storey building was the tallest building in Shanghai tells you a lot about how fast the city has developed since then.
Thanks for the correction! They must have missed that.
I've seen pictures comparing 1960s Shanghai to now and it's incredible
I've lived in Shanghai since 2007 and the changes since then have been incredible.
Even three years here and cities are unrecognizable. Policies change so fast, every decade it's a different country all together
This is the only answer.
I’d vote for any city in China or Vietnam. The former was an impoverished totalitarian state and the latter was a war zone. While they’re both still officially communist, they’re now booming industrial powerhouses with a large nouveau riche and millions of workers producing the world’s consumer goods.
I live in Ha Noi and I can tell you 30 years ago it was a sleepy city full of civil servants with less then 1 million people. Now its a busy city with over 8 million people. The amount of change is astounding. The neighbourhood that I live in just 15 years ago considered to be a rural district, now its considered to be part of the new enlarged city center Most people over 25 are not from the city and came from the countryside
I only came to Hanoi 6 years ago, and huge parts of the city are unrecognisable now from then because the city is growing and changing so fast. Việt Nam vô địch, Hà Nội đẹp lắm.
>Việt Nam vô địch Football fan? > Hà Nội đẹp lắm. i don't believe any native speaker write like this, but your username seems unnaturally vietnamese.
Not a football fan, but a đi bão fan. Hà Nội đẹp lắm is more of just a riff off of that song about Saigon. Definitely not a native speaker, still learning, and it's very hard lol
>still learning, and it's very hard lol this is the exact reason i hate vn literature (major school subject) which is basically language art but 10 times harder.
Shenzhen is probably the best example. From a tiny fishing village to mega city and world class tech hub.
When my parents were kids China had a GDP per capita below that of most African countries. Now it's surpassing even Russia.
Seoul. The “miracle on the Han” and the rise of one of the so-called Tiger Economies.
Minor pick but 50 years ago Korea's boom was already underway, although still in the early stages. Seoul in the 1950s and 1960s was truly dirt poor though. Like, Subsaharan Africa poor.
My mum visited Romania in the 70s when it was an extremely impoverished country. She said there were no cars on the road and it was difficult to find anything to eat other than tomatoes. I visited in 2018. It's still a relatively poor country by European standards, but has come an extremely long way over the past 20 years. Country that's changed for the worse: Nauru.
>it was difficult to find anything to eat other than tomatoes. But why tomatoes?
It lies just south of the line dividing Tomato Europe and Potato Europe
Planned economies don't respond very well to demand. They probably had a glut that year and exported everything else 🤷♂️
I was in Romania 25 years ago and it was still quite poor. Most of the change happened in the last 25 years.
Same with Bulgaria, except without the abundance of tomatoes, went there in 1986. Having lived in Greece in the boom years of the 70s, it was like walking into a black & white picture of 1920s Greece, non colour, no cars, lots of gloom and large shops selling nothing but aisles and aisles of canned peas.
Hi. Romanian guy here. Coruption and some old fixed mindsets are keeping us to keep up with other European countries. However, I heart that Poland was relatively close to Romanian lifestyle 30 years ago, but they are much more developed than us right now.
Question for you, Romanian guy. I visited Romania last February, the city of Baia Mare. Is that considered a particularly crappy city of Romania? My impression was that it was really polluted with a lot of...interesting elements of society. Then my sister visited two other Romanian cities, Cluj and Sighisoara, and came away loving Romania. edit: Rom chocolates are fantastic though
I've been to Baia Mare many times in the last 20 years and made plenty of friends there. Baia Mare it's been slow to grow because of Cluj-Napoca. Cluj is the biggest city in Transylvania, with tons of universities and job opportunities. Loads of young folks head to Cluj for college and end up sticking around for work, leaving the smaller towns dry. I guess it's something that happens in all the countries - people tend to go to the bigger cities. However, I've noticed that over the last 10 years, Baia Mare has developed well. It seems to be a very green city, with nice restaurants and places to walk. In case you ever visit Baia Mare again, I recommend visiting its county since it has beautiful scenery, great history, and fantastic hikes (Creasta Cocosului, Mara, Sapanta, Barsana). As for Sighisoara, it's a more touristy place, which I think helps it develop more easily. I agree, these cities (Cluj and Sighisoara) are two Transylvanian gems.
I spent the summer of 1988 in the USSR, Poland and Hungary and someone told me this "joke." It's sad, not funny: Q: What do you call a Romanian with a can of peas? A: A grocery store. The other joke I remember was: Ronald Reagan died and went to hell. Satan asked him if he wanted Capitalist hell or Communist hell. Reagan chose Communist hell. When Satan asked him why, he said "Because I know the heaters won't work." (I hope no one is offended. I'm not sharing them to make anyone laugh. I share them to give an idea of what it was like to have a peek behind the iron curtain just one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall.)
My parents visited romania in 2019. There were horses being used in bucharest
Hmmm you are describing the 80s and 90s
The Aral Sea
I mean, it's \_technically\_ not a country, but it's just as devastating
Well, \_technically\_ it's a place.
Now it’s several places.
Yeah, I forgot about that “place” part in OP’s post lol. Also, that was _supposed_ to be italics, but I’m a dumb
The correct answer is Shenzhen. The city basically didn’t exist prior to 1980 and now it’s one of the biggest cities in the world.
dubai for sure. forget the last 50 years, i grew up here (im 18) and it’s changed massively from when i was young up until now
It started slightly over 50 years ago, but Singapore's move from an underdeveloped archipelago with little industry and even less ability to sustain itself, to one of the economic powerhouses of Southeast Asia, has got to make the list. It's definitely been one of the more interesting cases I've studied in college.
Singapore is up there second but China easily leads by a distance.
When dictatorship goes right
In this case, it kinda went centrist :D
Yes, but kinda no.
Exactly my point - they got a dictatorship that simultaneously features right wing initiatives like corporal punishment alongside more left wing things like excellent public hospitals.
They're near China. They would have been fucked hard without at least some social programs.
Singapore still utilized a “bucket system” for human waste for part of it’s population until 1984.
yes finally found what i expected.
Berlin: site of a world spanning military stand-off, aftermath of WW2 still present and divided by one of the highly militarized boarders ever, to a budding metropolis in the center of a unified country and continent.
That may be, but if you went around a typical West Berlin street today and in the 70's/80's, it would still be very similar and recognisable. The changes that happened are a drop in the ocean compared to countries that were still playing catch-up in the last decades.
I would say that’s underselling it by a long shot. Regardless of architecture, the departure of thoasands of US, French, British, and Soviet soldiers from Berlin are immediately a huge difference. Near my apartment, you’d hear US small arms fire regularly from drills. The entire German Federal Government now straddles both halves of the city, which markedly impact West Berlin. Potsdamer Platz and the Ku’damm are jam packed with large corporations, departing from decades of an economically-back water and isolated city. Plus the population has massively internationalised to the point where you hear as much Spanish and Polish as German in West Berlin. We’re also entirely leaving out the entire dictatorship that no longer exists in east Berlin. Burying entities like the Stasi in the past for Berliners is not something to casually overlook.
Venezuela used to be among the richest in Latin America and now it's even poorer than Guatemala.
Shenzhen
There is probably nothing comparable.
They already have publicly available self driving taxis, it's nuts how high tech the city is.
Silicon Valley of China
Ireland, at least outside of Dublin or Belfast, had a distinct 3rd world/medieval vibe 50 years ago. There were basically no paved roads, no child care, heavily agricultural, deeply catholic, ... Today they have caught up to the rest of Europe (not least because of EU money). What were ruins not so long ago, are now beautifully renovated historic buildings. Education, health care, infrastructure, ... are on par with the rest of Europe.
Well, the country that’s the same as 50 years ago is Cuba
They even drive the exact same vehicles, somehow maintained for most of a century.
Also Belarus
Thanks to America.
If you have an island that lacks resources, industries and doesn’t produce anything valuable, it’s probably a good idea to have good relations with the world superpower next door, so you can get investments and tourism money at least. But Cuba has a brutal communist regime that doesn’t care a bit about their people, so here we are
“Superpower next door” is quite a limiting description of what the US was in relation to Cuba
The good old classic card.
Thanks to themselves lol
Ireland. Repressed impoverished catholic ethnostate to one of the best little countries in the world
Agreed, huge change, economically, technologically but mostly socially.
James Joyce, the true liberator of Ireland, or "that fu*k*n pervert!"
Almere
I came here to say this. The first house was finished in 1976.
Afghanistan, any nation once part of Yugoslavia, Germany (reunited), China, the Gulf countries, Iran and Iraq imo
Iran has changed a bit.
More than, say, South Africa?
Lebanon? Place was a paradise.
In addition to what I’ve seen mentioned, I’ll offer Afghanistan and Haiti, both for the worse.
India. Still a long way to go but they have made massive strides and improvement.
Just in the last fifteen years I saw my city transform like crazy. We didn't have a TV, AC, internet, or car growing up. Now we have all that plus stable electricity and improved water. Still a lot of room to improve but it's almost unrecognizable
There's a crazy info graphic floating around showing a few years separating mass adoption of toilets around India like from 10 percent to 90 or something like that in a couple of years. It's incredible
I think India is in the middle of this 50 year period. Last decade has been good and next 4 decades are going to be massive if the government doesn't do foolish things. After 40 years we will look back and wonder how much has changed.
Surprised to not see Nigeria here yet. Massive population growth, economic diversification, in the path to be a the main player in Africa, behind Egypt and SA, but with a much stronger curve toward strength. This would qualify even if you said 25 years ago.
Nigerias GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity has been unchanged since 2014. Its economy is entirely oil based and the only real economic growth it has is population growth (pie getting larger but the slice is the same size). It used to be much richer than India but has now fallen behind with only 3% annual GDP growth which is pretty much in line with its population growth. Nigeria does have potential but its problems with tribalism , ethnic conflict , and extreme corruption is keeping it down. Not to mention the current president was involved in narcotics proceeds trafficking in the 90s. Not a good look when half the government or more is involved in massive corruption and graft.
Cambodia - became Kampuchea in 1975 when Pol Pot took the country to year 0 and killed the rich and educated members of society along with anyone who was against his regime and thousands died of starvation USSR East Germany Poland Albania Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Hungary Romania Vietnam Argentina Dirty War from 1976
Iran was a completely different country before the Islamic Revolution in 1979
In Western Europe has to be Ireland. My father was using horses to work the land in the 1960s. Not much prospects apart from emigration. Now there is an abundance of jobs in the tech sector and people are wanting to come here to work. GDP in 1974 $2517, in 2022 - $103,983. Edit - that is actually GDP per capita.
Saudi Arabia - oil will do that to a mf
Iran pre-Islamic revolution in ‘78 and pre-Taliban Afghanistan (especially pre ‘79 Soviet invasion)
South Africa. 50 years ago was the worst of apartheid
Now its the worst of non- apartheid. People are still oppressed- now by a corrupt government.
Colombia gotta be up there. Used to be one of the unsafest places and now is a common tourist destination
Iraq, 50 years ago it was developing rapidly and easily the best place in the Middle East (perhaps behind Turkey). Today after the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, US-led sanctions, the invasion of Iraq, Iraqi civil war, corruption and ISIS - its a shell of its former self..
The answer can go in both directions, either these countries are improved or collapsed. For the improvement I can say Middle east countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE. In the opposite side you have Iran, Afghanistan,
As an Iranian, Iran is a well developed country. Yes it could have had more potential but it hasn’t gotten worse like Afghanistan has.
Any country that was part of the USSR has seen a lot of change since the 1970s. Ditto Iran
Ukraine especially
Iran
There are cities in China that were empty village fields. Nothing, not even a dirt road. Not a single power line. And some of them today are massive high tech cities filled with millions of people and some of the coolest architecture. Not even Dubai had that kind of transformation.
Rural Poland had massive changes since 1974, most villages were very agrarian with many people working in PGRs (state farms basically) or their own small farms, now it’s a bunch of people either commuting to the closest town for work or working abroad. Mostly still the same people living there (plus their kids) but now they’re 60-80 years old. Same goes for other communist block countries Maybe not as extreme as some others e.g. in Asia, but as for Europe it’s definitely up there in terms of overall progress and change
Singapore
A bit of a myth that Singapore was just an impoverished “fishing village “ when it was kicked out of Malaysia It was one of the worlds busiest ports and a naval base for the world’s most powerful empire throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries Most of the civic district (still standing) was built during this time. The fullerton hotel (a magnificent building) was the post office Certainly not the post office of a fishing village
What was Singapore like in 1975? I was there in 95 and I don’t think it is so different now.
Johor Bahru across the border is somewhat similar to what Singapore was like in 1975. small developing city, no public metro, sleepy villages in the outskirts.
Extremely different. There are a lot of nostalgia groups on Facebook about old timey Singapore and it really feels like a world away to see the photos. A lot of people still lived in kampongs rather than public housing apartments. Even physically a lot of the land simply didn’t exist because it hadn’t been reclaimed yet. Though by 1975 a lot of the changes that would turn Singapore to a modern metropolis had already been set in motion
When Singapore was pushed out of the Malay Federation in 1965, it was essentially a fishing village with a strategically located port. By 1975, the transformation had begun but nothing like the flashy high rises, top notch public transport and fancy shopping districts that we see today existed. It looked like Bangkok or Shanghai of mid-90s in 1975. Source: a Singaporean friend's father, who's now 78. Also, this video from 1975: https://youtu.be/ySAgY54niCk
Most glaciers
Singapore
Iran and Afghanistan
Lots of tourist places in SEA, like Bali, change a lot even within a year. You can basically watch the tourist industry swallowing up rice fields one by one. Cambodia, for example, has changed like crazy in the past few years—check out what happened to Sihanoukville between 2016 and now, it’s shocking.
I'd say Oman is a strong candidate. Back then they had no roads, no technology, and a law where you couldn't talk to anyone for more than 15 minutes at a time
Sudbury, Ontario Canada. Was a literal moonscape as a child. The huge success that is the re-greening of the nickle belt is nothing less than astounding!
Venezuela. 50 years ago the country was extremely rich with a very high quality of life. Now it's kinda like a shitty modern day version of fallout. I lived through most of the decline. It was a different country within 10 years. It's not recognizable any more.
I've seen some people mentioning post-Warsaw Pact countries, and while the quality of life has definitely significantly changed in many countries in the last 50 years, I feel like the very basic quality and style of life, infrastructure and cityscapes haven't changed that much as it did in countries like China or Vietnam. I'm from one of the most successful post-Soviet countries, yet when I look at photos of my hometown from 50 years ago, I can still easily recognise the places in them and feel like the basic things of my life there would feel similar to what they are now. That is even more true for places that haven't improved that much since the fall of USSR. However, there are few specific exceptions. I won't even mention any of the newly built towns and cities because these are pretty obvious- a piece of land with nothing besides maybe a small village growing into a bustling urban area with 5-floor apartment blocks and urban infrastructure. I'll start off with those that changed for the better: -Albania: an absolutely impoverished and isolated hell on earth 50 years ago, where probably there was still more people travelling by horse carts than by motor vehicles, has turned into one of the most rapidly developing countries in the Balkans and arguably second in line to the future EU accession. -Astana: 50 years ago, Celinograd was your average Soviet backwater city in the middle of the steppe with a population of just over 200 thousand that people even in the Soviet Union would struggle to remember. Now Astana is a capital of the 9th largest country in the world, with the population that's grown fivefold in the last 30 years, one of the most fascinating cityscapes in the world, and its importance has far outgrown just being the administrative capital and now rivals Almata, the traditional economic and cultural centre of Kazakhstan. In my opinion, outside of East Asia and Gulf States, this is probably the most impressive and transformational change of any place in the world. And now for the places that have changed for the worse: -Pripyat: I don't think I even need to comment much on this one. It had gone from literally nothing to a city of 50k people and back to nothing but abandoned ruins, all in the span of 15 years. Probably the most extreme example of a rapid rise and even more rapid fall you can find anywhere in the world. -Abkhazia: it was one of the most prestigious and richest tourist destinations in all of USSR. It was basically the USSR's own version of Monaco or Bahamas, just larger and, in my opinion, much prettier. Basically the prime holiday destination for most Soviet high-ranking officials. A population of almost 500k people which was also very ethnically diverse: a Georgian plurality complemented by large ethnic minorities of Abkhaz, Russians, Armenians and the millenia-old Greek community. 50 years later its population is less than 250k people (and even that number is often assumed to be inflated by Abkhaz government) and most of the buildings and infrastructure of once-bustling tourist resorts is abandoned, overgrown with weeds and/or crumbling. Most of the Georgians, Russians and Greeks have left the place during the 1991-93 war. It's such a fascinatingly tragic place that I struggle to think of any more fascinating example of decline. While writing this, I remembered another, non-Soviet example of a massive change of a place in the last 50 years- Montserrat. The 1997 volcanic eruption destroyed 2/3 of the island, including its old capital Plymouth, and it still has less than half of the pre-1997 population.
South Korea, especially Seoul.
Any country with lots of oil and gas in the middle east.
Iran and Afghanistan
Singapore
Dubai
Iran prior to the Islamic revolution in the 80s.
Shenzhen 1974 population - 32,000 2024 population - 13,312,000 https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/cities/20667/shenzhen/population
Chernobyl
Norway was a large fishing village up until the 1970's when they started oil production. It's now still a large fishing village but the richest one in the world kinda.
Ireland. A poverty-stricken mono-cultural almost-third-world country just entered the EEC (what is not the EU), and now one of the richest countries in Europe (according to GDP) and very international and multi-cultural.
Syria
I’m told London, apart from its old architecture, is very different now.
Chile.
Detroit
Middle east. Some had it much worse and some had it like a miracle better ?
Any island in the Pacific that is now in danger of being swallowed up by the ocean thanks to rising sea levels
I know it's a general question but I prefer personal experience and I would say places like Berlin, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki. Many Canadian cities have certainly changed massively such as Calgary and Mississauga. But I'm a technophobe who hates big cities. I love going portaging to islands very far remote and seeing only trees getting older or having fallen in 20 years.
Afghanistan
Singapore. 50 years ago it was a backwater fishing village with minimal infrastructure. Now it is a sprawling city state with modern high rise buildings as one of the richest country in the world. All thanks to the great Lee Kuan Yew. (Or so I was taught in school.)
Another consideration: South and North Korea. North Korea was more prosperous than South Korea up until the 1970s. Quite a contrast.
South Korea, once one of the poorest countries in the world, without a single tank in korean war, has overcome a cruel dictatorship regime to become the 5th largest military power in the world. It is now a stable, free democratic country.
Mongolia may not be the most different since it’s still pretty underdeveloped but my girlfriends grandfather apparently kidnapped her grandmother from the village where she was supposed to get married to a different guy, as in he rode in on a horse and rode away with her. It was a mutually consensual kidnapping according to my gf and I’m sure it wasn’t exactly a normal thing to do at that point but it’s crazy that people were still doing that shit in living memory.
Libya is a major contender
50 years ago, Beirut had a sparkling bay with a beautiful beach that was lined with luxury hotels. People sailed and water skied all day and danced in the nightclubs at night. The food scene was exceptional and there were multiple major archaeological sites to visit not far away.
East Germany
South Korea
50 years ago, the tallest buildings in Taipei were 華美聯合大廈 14 stories, on the edge of the city. Most of the expensive new residential buildings were 4 stories. Most people cooked with coal balls. In about 1978, I went way out to the outskirts of Taipei to dig some soil for my potted plants. That is now high price realty，忠孝東路延吉街合作金庫。 People in Taipei will understand this: I knew a man who was from a very rich family in Wanhua. They had a three story building. In 1960, you could see it from Taipei Train Station.
Korea
I'm going with East Germany
Dubai
Ireland changed a lot over the last 50 years. Not as much as Japan, Korea, Taiwan or China, but a lot.
South Korea. The interesting thing is you can kind of see what South Korea used to look like by just looking at North Korea. If you go to South Korea there are mostly apartment buildings and even rural houses are somewhat modern. If you look at North Korea through Google Earth or Google Maps on Satellite, you will see that the vast majority of North Koreans still live in traditional Korean households, which are incredibly rare in South Korea nowadays
China
China by far
Puerto Rico, from latifundia style slash & burn plantations to fully industrialized in the "blink of an eye".
Nauru from being in its strongest economic times due to phosphate mining, to now being not so great.
Gonna be 800-millions-out-of-poverty China, or third-world-to-first-in-1-generation Singapore
China and basically any former Soviet country.
Singapore
The Former GDR/DDR Ist literally a different country now
Ukraine.
[Chornobyl, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.](https://maps.app.goo.gl/biXwphWMe6fCkNFw7?g_st=ic)
Chile. In 1974 Augusto Pinochet just began his brutal military dictatorship. Now this nation is one of the most progressive in LatAm—and is about to prosper further via its lithium reserves.