Hong Kong has taken over from Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, according to a lifestyle survey which also reveals the gap between the costliest and cheapest cities is narrowing. Moscow muscles in at second place in the survey, released by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, with Tokyo third. At the other end of the scale, Johannesburg replaced Blantyre, Malawi as the cheapest city on the planet. Mercer said the gulf between those at the top and bottom of the pile had narrowed by nearly 15 percent in the 12 months to March 2002. The research took New York as the base city with a nominal score of 100 points. Hong Kong scored 124.2; the South African metropolis just 34.4. It measured the comparative cost of over 200 items such as housing, food, clothing and household goods as well as transport and entertainment in 144 cities worldwide. St. Petersburg in Russia and London were the two most expensive cities in Europe, while in the United States, New York was far and away the costliest city, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago and San Fra
ncisco. Elsewhere, Buenos Aires had the most dramatic fall, plunging from 23rd to 133rd following Argentina's economic crisis and devaluation of the peso. New Zealand and Australian cities continued to show they are probably the best bet for cheap but high quality living, with scores consistently around 50 or below while at the same time ranking in the top 30 for quality of life in another Mercer survey released in March 2002.

根据一项生活方式调查，香港已经取代东京坐上了世界上最昂贵城市的交椅，该调查同时显示生活成本最昂贵城市与最低廉城市之间的差距正在缩小。根据默瑟人力资源咨询公司公布的调查，莫斯科挤到了第二位，东京则位居第三。在标尺的另一端，约翰内斯堡取代马拉维的布兰太尔而成了地球上最低廉的城市。默瑟公司称，到迄2002年3月为止的12个月当中，排行榜顶端和底端之间的差距缩小了将近15%。此次调查以纽约为基准城市，基准分为100分。香港得分为124.2，而南非首都只有34.4。调查计算了全球144个城市超过200种项目的比较成本，包括住房、食品、服装、日用品、交通及娱乐等等。欧洲最昂贵的城市是俄罗斯的圣彼得堡和伦敦，美国最昂贵的城市当然是纽约，其次是洛杉矶、芝加哥和旧金山。在其他地方，布宜诺斯艾利斯的排名发生了最为戏剧性的下跌：在阿根廷经济危机及比索贬值之后，它从第23位猛跌到了第133位。新西兰和澳大利亚各城市的表现依旧良好，这表明它们可能是追求高质量低成本生活的人们的最佳选择：它们的得分仍旧在50左右或更低，与此同时，在默瑟于2002年3月公布的另一项调查中，它们又居于生活质量最高的30个城市之列。

Remarks：现代生活的真正昂贵之处在于：高度物质化的外部环境留给我们心灵的空间越来越小， “生活”越来越让位于“生存”。