Paris of the East

Usually a calque of French Paris de l'Orient, praising a location for its supposed resemblance to the glamor and nightlife of 19th-century Paris.

the Paris of the East (usually uncountable, plural Parises of the East)

1. A major city that is considered as magnificent or culturally significant as Paris.
   • 2004, Cornelia Golna, City of Man's Desire: A novel of Constantinople‎^[1], Go-Bos Press, translation of original in Dutch, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 318:

     "You know, of course," noted another officer, "there are any number of Parises of the East, from Warsaw to Bucharest."

the Paris of the East

1. (dated) Former nickname for Bucharest: the capital and largest city of Romania.
2. (dated) Former nickname for Casablanca: a major city in Morocco.
3. (obsolete) Former nickname for Lahore: a major city in modern Pakistan; in use during the time of the British Raj.
4. (dated) Former nickname for Phnom Penh: the capital and largest city of Cambodia.
5. (dated) Former nickname for Hanoi: a major city in Vietnam.
6. (dated) Former nickname for Shanghai: a major port city and direct-administered municipality of China.

• Peter Soppelsa, "How Haussmann's Hegemony Haunted the Early Third Republic", Is Paris Still the Capital of the Nineteenth Century?, 2017.