Interviewee: Mike Huang, PhD candidate in Biophysics at Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

Place of birth: Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province

Current residence: Phoenix, USA

Cities visited: Zhoushan, Yangzhou, Gaoyou and Zhenjiang (cities in China); Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore

Understanding of "Better City, Better Life": Well-developed public infrastructure.

Oral history:

In my eyes, a better city should be equipped with well-developed public infrastructure because it is an aspect of urban living that connects people with work and daily life.

Generally speaking, New York has well-developed public infrastructure. It has the strongest city feeling, offering everything you need and anything you can think of, like beautiful Central Park and numerous office buildings. It has the top universities in the world as well as a bustling downtown.

New York is rich in history, which can also pep you up. The fast pace of life there and the hardworking locals reflect the spirit of New York City -- anything is possible as long as you work hard. However, it is not a livable city because of the compact living space, crowded streets, and public security problems in some areas.

If possible, I would choose to live in San Francisco in northern California or Washington, D.C. in the eastern United States. The two cities have better living conditions and, more importantly, have been home to thousands of Chinese immigrants since the 1840s, so you can easily buy Chinese food and daily necessities. I think the convenience is quite attractive for overseas Chinese.

I haven't been to a lot of cities in China. For most of my childhood, I stayed in my hometown Nanjing. Nanjing is one of the cities with the highest density of universities in China and, more importantly, it stays away from the noise of busy metropolitan cities. Nanjing, to me, is one of the most beautiful cities.