To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.

When something unfamiliar happens, it is common that people find connections with what they are familiar with to understand those they don’t know. That is to say, logically, strange things can stimulate our mind, further our information and fulfill what we are going to do. Accordingly, in order to have a good command of the most important characteristics of a society, studying its major cities, like capital cities and other worldwide cities, can be effective and efficient. Significant though major cities are to our understanding, it is not necessary to firstly learn something about them.

To begin with, admittedly, major cities can stand for the whole society most of the time. When we want to know more about the characteristics, the most effective way is to learn something about its major cities. For example, Korea, a development country, is famous for its worldwide brand Samsung. When it comes to its characteristics, I believe no one can confidently say he fully understands its characteristics. Thus, one can get to know the society by searching for information about the capital city Soul. This can save us plenty of time when we would like to quickly understand the whole society. There is another example. In major cities, government usually devote enough money to make developments including most aspects, such as education, facilities, environment and so on. All the characteristics can be easily found in those cities because with the migration from countryside to cities, the population in major cities is booming these years. It is true that those people will stick to their customs in major cities. Hence, most characteristics can appear in major cities.

However, is studying the major cities a necessity when one wants to understand the most important characteristics? I believe not. While major cities due to their reputation have already attracted numerous people, the most important characteristics often appear in other cities which are not that well-known. Nowadays, major cities have imported quantities of foreign companies which mix all the cultures up so that we can’t clearly know the basic characteristic of a society. Take Shanghai for an example. It is generally acknowledged that China is a traditional country which puts Chinese in the first place. But Shanghai, now has becoming a city with hundreds of worldwide famous companies or cooperate companies with other nations. If a scholar goes to Shanghai, it is hardly easy for him to record the traditional life of China in such a modern city. On the contrary, if he gets to a relatively small city like Chengdu in Sichuan Province, he can feel the slow steps and taste the special food.

Characteristics don’t mean the economy and the tall buildings, but the culture and the customs of local people. To have a good understanding of them, for a foreigner, what is the most important is communicating with local people. Although we can easily get information from the Internet about the society, that is only what one’s own view, which is sometimes not precise or even wrong. Only when one can go to that city, even a city which is not the major city, can he fully understand how local people live their lives. Importantly, taking part in the festivals can be the best way when one is eager to know that society.

To sum up, while studying the major cities can shorten the time of understanding the important characteristics of a society, that is not the best way to find out what is the most important characteristic. Of course I believe major cities can only be the economical characteristics. For most societies, the most important characteristics often come from people’s daily life and the traditional customs aiming to celebrating certain ancestors.