From Roman fortress to insignificant village, from the largest industrial city in the world to a post-industrial teardrop to a centre of innovation and optimism: Manchester has experienced everything. Today, it honours its past and is looking forward to the future.

“Energy.” That is the first word that comes to mind when you walk through the streets of Manchester. Even if you’re not aware that Manchester was the first industrial city in the world, you can feel the dynamics that seem to come from all sides. Even though the cotton industry that transformed the city from a village into a world city – nicknamed Cottonpolis – has long since disappeared.
One of the most prominent features suggesting Manchester’s drive for progress is its skyline which, more than other Northern English cities, is dominated by high-rise buildings. The characteristic Beetham Tower (169 m) is particularly noticeable, as are the four skyscrapers on Deansgate Square, the highest of which rises 201 meters into the sky.
Where Leeds boasts the omnipresence of owls, in Manchester it’s bees galore. You find them in the city coat of arms, on mosaic floors, as statues, as wall paintings, on drinking cups, on flower boxes and in a hundred other ways. In addition, there are about 545,000 around that cannot fly, but buzz all the better, because in fact, every right-minded Mancunian considers himself a busy bee.
The cotton warehouses are a reminder of the glory days of industrial Manchester. You might expect them to be dull, functional buildings, but nothing could be further from the truth. The warehouses have a sturdy elegance. Early period warehouses were built in the style of Italian Renaissance townhouses, and that is no coincidence. In their heyday, many northern Italian cities were city-states that traded in wool. Victorian Manchester felt related to them. The result is a legacy of beautiful red brick buildings that have the character of a stately home rather than a humble storehouse.

Number One Grandmother
In Faulkner Street, we walk underneath the paifang: the gateway that marks the beginning of Chinatown.
”Beautiful, eh?”
While we are studying the gate, a man has approached us, introducing himself as Chan. He is a business student in the United States and is presently staying with his parents in his city of birth for a few weeks.
”My grandparents were from Hong Kong. They were farmers and moved from the New Territories to here in the 1960s. You know, Britain was our motherland at the time. We were a British Crown Colony. My grandparents went to Manchester because we have family here in Chinatown. Sorry, I hope I’m not intrusive?”
We assure him the contrary is true, and Chan eagerly continues. “There are five Chinatowns in this country, often in port cities. In addition to Manchester you can find them in Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle and of course London.”
But then, Manchester is not a port city, is it?

Chan smiles. “We are indeed 60 kilometres inland, but thanks to the Manchester Ship Canal we became the third busiest seaport in the country at the end of the nineteenth century. That was mainly built, of course, to set ourselves free from the claws of our kind sister city Liverpool. The Liverpudlians raised huge rates to unload goods for Manchester. These were often just as high as the costs of the entire journey from the Far East to here. They had a monopoly position, and they certainly made use of that. Until the channel came.”
We chuckle. On our journey through northern English cities, we will hear more stories about the eternal competition between Manchester and Liverpool.
Chan walks with us through Chinatown for a bit. We pass Ho’s Bakery, Mei Dim Restaurant, Teppanyaki Chinatown, Happy Seasons, New Emperor, Great Wall. “Did you know that we have no less than three Chinese retirement homes here?” says Chan. “The oldest resident is a distant relative of mine. She is 86, and we call her Number One Grandmother.”