Comparing

Riyadh is a very different place to what it was 30 years ago. It used to be a very small city. Now it has over 4.7 million people, it is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and the seat of government.

They had changed the city, it looks like they deleted the entire city and build it again. Thirty years ago there were very few buildings made of mud but now there are a lot of modern ones built with concrete. People didn't use to live in the city centre but now there are lots of people choose to live downtown in these high rise buildings.

There has also been a big influx of immigrants making Riyadh much more multi-cultural than it was in 1990. Now you can see a great variety of nationalities in the street making modern Riyadh a colorful and interesting place to live. Recently the Indians, Lebanese, Turkish and Syrian have emigrated here. As a result, Riyadh now has lots of international Clothing Stores, restaurants.

However, with the rise in population has come an increase in traffic and traffic problems. Riyadh now has very high car ownership and very poor public transport. The buses are cheap and infrequent. Traffic jams are very common now. People also have less leisure time than they used to 30 years ago as they are busier now and it takes them longer to get to and from work.

Riyadh is a little more expensive place to live compared to thirty years ago. Houses are now some of the cheaper in the world compared to salaries. Houses used to sit on large pieces of land but now the blocks are smaller and there is a lot of sub-division especially in areas close to the city centre.

To sum up, Riyadh has changed a great deal over the last 30 years. Generally I think it has become a better place because there are more immigrants and more buildings like the Kingdom,Al-Faisaliah Tower and the new apartment blocks. However the things that are not as good as thirty years ago are the traffic jams, expensive houses and the lack of leisure time.