Torreon vs Katowice

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Torreón (Spanish pronunciation: [toreˈon] (listen)) is a city and seat of Torreón Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2015, the city's population was 679,288. The metropolitan population as of 2015 was 1,497,734, making it the ninth-biggest metropolitan area in the country and the largest metropolitan area in the state of Coahuila, as well as one of Mexico's most important economic and industrial centers. The cities of Torreón, Gómez Palacio, Lerdo, Matamoros, Francisco I. Madero, San Pedro, Bermejillo, and Tlahualilo form the area of La Laguna or the Comarca Lagunera, a basin within the Chihuahuan Desert. The area was originally a center for ranching.

With irrigation, the city became an important center for farming and the processing of cotton. In the middle of the 20th century, it became an industrial city. The city has industries in textiles, clothing and metals processing. Some important industries and companies have business here, like Peñoles, Motores John Deere, Grupo Lala, Yura Corporation, as well as stores like Soriana, Cimaco, and Extra. There are also several shopping malls in the city, including Galerias Laguna, Almanara, Plaza Cuatro Caminos, and InterMall. Torreón is served by Francisco Sarabia International Airport, an airport with flights to several cities in Mexico and the United States.

Source: Wikipedia

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Katowice (UK: KAT-ə-VEET-sə, US: KAHT-, Polish: [katɔˈvitsɛ] (listen); Silesian: Katowicy; German: Kattowitz) is a city in southern Poland, the capital city of the Silesian Region, and a center of the Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin Metropolis. With the population of 292,774 (as of 2019), it is the eleventh-largest city in Poland. The wider Katowice urban area has the population of approximately 2 to 3 million people. Throughout the mid-18th century, Katowice had developed into a village upon the discovery of rich coal reserves in the area. In 1742 the First Silesian War transferred Upper Silesia, including Katowice, to Prussia. Subsequently, from the second half of the 18th century, many German or Prussian craftsmen, merchants and artists began to settle in the region, which had been inhabited mostly by Poles over the past hundreds of years. Simultaneously Silesia experienced the influx of the first Jewish settlers. In the first half of the 19th century, intensive industrialization transformed local mills and farms into industrial steelworks, mines, foundries and artisan workshops. This also contributed to the establishment of companies and eventual rapid growth of the city. At the same time, Katowice became linked to the railway system with the first train arriving at the main station in 1847.The outbreak of World War I was favourable for Katowice due to the prospering steel industry. Following Germany's defeat and the Silesian uprisings, Katowice and parts of Upper Silesia were annexed by the Second Polish Republic. Poland was then backed by the Geneva Convention and the ethnic Silesian minority.

On 3 May 1921, the Polish army entered Katowice and the Polish administration took control. The city became the capital of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship as well as the seat of the Silesian Parliament and Committee of Upper Silesia. After the plebiscite, many former German citizens emigrated; however, a vibrant German community remained until the end of World War II. In 1939, after the Wehrmacht seized the town, Katowice and the provinces were incorporated into the Third Reich. The town was eventually liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945.Katowice is a center of science, culture, industry, business, trade, and transportation in Upper Silesia and southern Poland, and the main city in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. Katowice lies within an urban zone, with a population of 2,746,460 according to Eurostat, and also part of the wider Silesian metropolitan area, with a population of 5,008,000 according to the Brookings Institution or 5,294,000 according to the European Spatial Planning Observation Network.In 2020, the city is classified as a Gamma - global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and is considered as an emerging metropolis. The whole metropolitan area is the 16th most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union with an output amounting to $114.5 billion.Katowice is the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony and Orchestra. It also hosts the finals of Intel Extreme Masters, an Esports video game tournament. In 2015, Katowice joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was named a UNESCO City of Music.

Source: Wikipedia