"We live in one of the world’s few car-free cities (gated communities aside, I guess): Discovery Bay, an island suburb of Hong Kong, established 1974."

 A reader named Peter writes, responding to a post from a few days ago, "We used to joke about 'killing the car, and we'd joke internally about how we were succeeding if people felt comfortable jaywalking" (about an effort to create cities where you could get to everything on foot or bicycle within 20 minutes).

We’ve lived here since 1998. Some might quibble with the word “city”, but, well, we call it that, and it’s deemed a “city” by our foundational Deed of Mutual Covenant. We’re definitely a “20-minute city”, with folks walking or bike-riding everywhere.

For shoppers, there’s buses. The only private transport is bicycles and golf carts (limited to 517 in number, therefore the re-sale market is brisk and high).

A few years back many of us had e-bikes, though now not so much, I'm not sure why. The latest thing is electric scooters. The founder of DB, the eccentric entrepreneur, Payson Cha, designed horse carriage lanes along the main road, planning that as a means of rush-hour transport; it never quite worked out, though the Clydesdales still pull tourists around on coaches.

We’re connected to the city centre (“Central”…) by ferry (20 minutes), and via buses and cabs. Taxis are restricted to one area at the outskirts. People “jaywalk” everywhere, though we don’t call it “jaywalking” here. We just call it “walking".

As often as not on the roads. And we are surrounded by fine Country Parks on our doorstep, for hiking. We don’t have any police to police “jaywalking”, in any case.

Shortly after we arrived, the only police station here closed down, for lack of “customers".

DB is, like the rest of Hong Kong, remarkably crime-free, only more so. Not a single murder in the 20-odd years we’ve been here. Other crimes are vanishingly rare.

We’ve left our doors unlocked for the 23 years we’ve lived here. (but don’t tell anyone…)

Some people mock DB. “It’s like the Truman show”; and I can kind of see that. But it sure is cosy, convenient and comfortable.

Others say it’s “sterile”, which I take to mean we don’t have the grit, grime and graffiti that other more “real” places have.

It’s middle class — maybe even upper-middle — to be sure; you can’t live here if you’re poor.

But it’s diverse. The demographics are roughly 50-50, “foreigners”, like me, long-term expats from all over, and Chinese (both local and mainland).

The foreigners are very sinicised; the Chinese rather westernised, so everyone rubs along pretty well, knows and respects each other’s cultures.

The community is active in all sorts of ways, sports, artistic, food, environment. We run our own community, with very little input from the government.

We cover the costs of everything (including roads) out of management fees, based on square footage owned, and that’s managed by elected committees at Village then City levels. (I’ve served on both).

As I write this, I realise it may sound a bit unreal, a nirvana perhaps. Well, it is real — my wife often comments that we live in a paradise. (Born in Beijing, she’s widely travelled and lived in Sydney, Melbourne, now here).

Me, I’ve lived in many cities in my 70+ years, the ones for over three years being: Tokyo, Sydney, Canberra, New York, London, Rome and Bonn. I could live again in any of these. But I prefer (we prefer) to live here.

When there’s no Covid, we get to the airport in 17 minutes and thence to anywhere in the world out of one of the planet’s best airports. We can catch the bullet train from Kowloon side — 27 minutes from our front door — and be anywhere in the vastness of China, from the karsts in Guilin to the highlands of Yunnan, in speed and comfort.

Wherever you live in the world is going to be a balance of pluses and minuses, as no place has it all. For the moment, this place suits us fine, safe, efficient, convenient, pretty -- beautiful even. (of course there’s the “China issue” though that’s not as fearsome as made out in the west; but that’s a whole n'other topic….)

There you have it. A paean of praise for this little — and I think unique — "20-minute city". It’s rather lovely and I invite you and your readers to come visit, covid willing! I’ll show them around!

PS: On Portland: again, Heather and Bret on the Darkhorse podcast are very good on this. They moved there about 5 years ago, after they were chased out of Evergreen.They’ve talked eyewitness-wise of what’s been going down there. Which seems to be, in a sentence, a fine city trashed by woke-dom….