Singapore

Singapore should not work. It is a city-state smaller than New York City with zero natural resources - no oil, no minerals, not even enough fresh water for its own population. When it was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, its founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew wept on national television. Sixty years later, Singapore has a higher GDP per capita than the United States, one of the best education systems on Earth, the world's best airport (Changi, for the twelfth time), and a skyline that looks like it was designed by a committee of science fiction authors.

The secret is relentless pragmatism. Singapore is governed with an efficiency that borders on obsession. The streets are spotless, the public transport is immaculate, corruption is virtually nonexistent, and the bureaucracy actually works. The trade-off is a level of government control that makes libertarians nervous - chewing gum is restricted, vandalism gets you caned, and the ruling party has won every election since independence. But the results speak for themselves: this tiny island is the busiest port in Asia, a global financial hub, and home to one of the most diverse food cultures on the planet.

That food culture is Singapore's soul. Hawker centers - open-air food courts where dishes cost a few dollars - are UNESCO-recognized cultural heritage. Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Peranakan cuisines collide here in ways found nowhere else. You can eat chicken rice, laksa, roti prata, and chili crab all within a hundred meters. Gardens by the Bay's supertrees glow at night. Marina Bay Sands is one of the most photographed buildings on Earth. And somewhere between the gleaming towers and the hawker stalls, 5.6 million people from dozens of ethnicities somehow make it all work.