For the past couple of years I've frequently found myslef reading articles and other publications talking about Beirut that can't help but mention it's former glory and how it was taken away by Dubai. I would love to hear everyone's opinions.

^^ The bitches stole our tourists & glamour.....that is my opinion !!!!

Dubai became popular at a time when Lebanon was in deep shit (getting out of wars). While we worked on rebuilding the necesities, they instead went to building 17830573694 story towers and hotels in the sea.

But personally, Lebanon is still the Paris of the Middle East, and Dubai is just kinda of a phase. People will get over it's tackiness in a couple years.

Lebanon (Beirut) has so much Dubai and the other Emirates don't have. We have nature, they have sand dunes. We have mountains, valleys, rivers, winter. They have none of that. It's all flashy, but kinda tasteless.

http://weeklydrop.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/burj-dubai-worlds-tallest.jpg

^^ WTF is that? It's hideous. They just want to have the record of "biggest this", "tallest that". Like eh, get over yourselves please.

http://www.korfeztuning.com/images/dubai-hotels.jpg

^^ Or this. They have plenty of land. They are ruining their coast with these fugly island. This is tolerable, but the World looks damn cheap.

I admit, Lebanon is not the cleanest, most luxurious place on Earth, but with new projects like Sama Beirut, Phoneician Village, etc, and even old ones like the Marina Towers, Beirut will slowly gain it's rep back. Just this year we got almost 2 million tourists!

In the long run, in 2020, Beirut will have interesting towers like in Dubai / Abu Dhabi, but still have history, culture, and glamour. Dubai will be a modern mess. Beirut is somehwere where you can live, raise a family, and is why toursits who visit keep coming back. Dubai, you visit it once, there won't be a need to go back. It's just a buisness town IMO.

And to finish off, LMAO @ this picture. It's already a theme park there. How tacky.

http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com/2007/burj_dubai_location.jpg

There are like 5 islands: The Muslim symbol, 3 palm trees, and the world. God knows how much worse this place will look in 10 years.

Dubai is broke, it was all a castle in the sand, dubai had grand plans for the tallest, biggest, widdest and the rest of the bla bla bla but no one bothered to look at profitability and return on investments, an economy can not be solely built on real esate and tourism.

The whole idea of if we build it, people will come is amazing but for simcity 4 not real life, so if anything lebanon should learn and start diversifying the sources of income and investments for the country as a whole and beirut in particular.

A world city is not made by towers and malls but by people and culture, beirut should definitely stay as far away as possible from the dubai model.

Come on guys Dubai is not a city that has the tallest and the biggest bla bla, It's a city that HAS a history and culture but of course not like the history and culture that Beirut has.
And who said that you can't raise a family in Dubai??!
Well going to Beirut next summer and I will see :)

^^Have fun there, and don't forget to visit other places in Lebanon, like Byblos, Beiteddine, Zahle and Baalkback.

Comparing Beirut's history to dubai's history is like comparing Versailles to an african village.

don't forget to visit other places in Lebanon, like Byblos, Beiteddine, Zahle and Baalkback.



Saida and Tyre too !!!!!:)



y do people always forget to mention Saida when they name lebanon's destinations ????:ohno::ohno:

It's not a prime location :D(joking) Notice I didn't even mention Tripoli. Basically Byblos, Trablos, Tyros, and Saida are practically the same: old souks, old port, old ruins. Of course each city has its specificities. I believe Byblos is the cleanest, best organised and most tourist-friendly one, and it's alwasy full of french and europeen tourists. That's why I only mentioned Byblos, but of course if he's staying in Lebanon for a long period, he can visit all the stated cities.

Saida and Tyre too !!!!!:)



y do people always forget to mention Saida when they name lebanon's destinations ????:ohno::ohno:


Saida gets more coverage then Zahle does ! Zahle is wow.

^^Have fun there, and don't forget to visit other places in Lebanon, like Byblos, Beiteddine, Zahle and Baalkback.

Comparing Beirut's history to dubai's history is like comparing Versailles to an african village.

Thanks I will.
I going to spend most of my time in Tripoli, Beirut and Saida.:cheers:
I wish I can visit the others.

^^ I will also be in Tripoli next summer :D

As a foreigner, I would much rather visit Beirut than Dubai.

As many have already pointed out, Dubai can never provide the richness of a city with a long history behind it.

This topic has been done to death....................................................... snooze

Ohh so this is the thread where we start to talk trash about dubai then beirut? please stop these jokes already, they are 2 different cities with different cultures and lifestyle, you don't like our projects in dubai keep your opinion to yourselves but don't start this war btw cities crap. Stupid projects? well what do you expect we are a desert city for crying out loud, but these stupid projects made 8 millions tourists visit our city and how many visited beirut last year? You have something against dubai, well why the hell do lebanese leave their precious country and come to work here huh, why don't they stay at their home country? Oh i know because they can't find jobs, crappy infrastructure and the list goes on and on, our tasteless tacky projects created millions of jobs for people like you. I love lebanon, the people, the weather, the girls... and i hate these kind of attitude but i don't start a war thread btw 2 cities so please just shut the hell up.

I guess the title of the thread makes it seem like a competition... but my intentions were to center it around Beirut, what it used to be, what it is, and what we want it to be.... Dubai fits in the picture perfectly since it's the IT city in the ME ... but it's not meant to attack anyone

These city vs city discussions are banned in this site