46 Unusual Facts About World’s Popular Cities

There is a place named Downtown Eastside in Vancouver that provides a safe space for intravenous drug (Insite) addicts to inject themselves. They provide clean needles, food, and drug addiction counseling.

27. Until 2005, Toronto had a St. James-Bond Church, formed by the 1928 merger of the Bond Street Congregational Church and the St. James Square Presbyterian Church.

28. During the Munich Massacre, the camera crews filmed the actions and broadcasted it live on TV, so the terrorists were able to watch the police prepare an attack.

29. Nairobi, Kenya has a thriving country music scene because Kenyans “can identify with the stories in the songs.” Country Music CDs make up 15% of all music sold.

30. Madrid has the oldest continuously running restaurant in the world named Sobrino de Botín which hasn't closed its doors even once since its opening in 1725.

In Budapest, there is an hourglass (Timewheel) that takes a full year to run out. It takes 4 people almost an hour to turn it.

32. In 2010, heavily-armed SWAT teams raided nine barbershops in Orlando, Florida and arrested 34 people for barbering without a license.

33. There is a city named Madras in Oregon which is served by an airport called Bombay Farms, named after the older names of the Indian cities - Chennai and Mumbai respectively.

34. In the Chinese city of Chongqing, cell phone addicts have their own sidewalk lane.

35. Each Sunday there is an outdoor marriage market organized in Shanghai where thousands of singles have their parents search for a potential spouse.

The city of Abidjan in Ivory Coast has a Manhattan-style skyline and French-style sidewalk cafes. Many French moved there after its independence and some visitors have criticized the city for being "more French than African."

37. Baku, Azerbaijan has the largest KFC restaurant in the world.

38. The Spanish city of Cartagena once declared independence and applied to become a US state.

39. Suwon, a city in South Korea, has a guided bus tour of their municipal restrooms.

40. The Brazilian city of Porto Alegre has a system of participatory budgeting, where citizens decide how a percentage of the city budget is spent.

The Russian metropolis of Novosibirsk bans foreigners from being able to work as schoolteachers, bus or taxi drivers, timber merchants, lawyers, accountants, and jobs in mining and fisheries.

42. The Davao City in Philippines has a vigilante group named the Davao death squad which targets criminals of petty crimes and drug dealing. Their kill count is estimated to be between 1,020 -1,040.

43. In Cali, you can upgrade your prison cell for up to $127 per day. "Many of the self-pay jails operate like secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry."

44. In 1993, a newly elected administration of Belo Horizonte, the third largest Brazilian city, declared food a right of citizenship. Moving forward they reduced 60% of child mortality within 10 years. The needed budget amounts to 2% of the city budget per year.

45. In Hangzhou, China there are dockless bike sharing systems that are flooding the city with thousands of bikes that rapidly fall out of use and become trash

In 2013, Changsha, China began building a 220-story building that would take 90 days to complete but was canceled by environmental protests.