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Living and working in Chicago

The windy city, the quintessential American city - whatever you want to call it, downtown Chicago in Illinois remains an amazing, vibrant and dynamic place to live and work in. Based on the shores of Lake Michigan, it's the world's third largest inter-modal port after Hong Kong and Singapore. And as the home to the world's first skyscraper, it's the United States' second financial centre - a diverse, buzzing city that's ranked as one of the ten most influential cities in the world.

As well as being a major financial centre, the city's the venue for a multitude of cultural events. It claims to be the birthplace of modern improvised comedy, and is home to around 100 theatres and performance spaces - not to mention its own opera company, symphony orchestra, ballet dance troupe and a number of modern and jazz dance troupes. In fact, it's an incredibly musical city. It's the birthplace of Chicago blues, Chicago soul and house music, as well as being home to a variety of jazz, gospel and rock bands, and a host of music festivals each year.

The lake front is the heart of the cultural district, with The Museum Campus - a 10-acre park based around the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum of Natural History and the Shedd Aquarium. The Art Institute of Chicago is also close by, and further along the front are Millennium Park and Navy Pier - home to museums, exhibition halls and auditoriums, as well as shops, restaurants and a 45-metre Ferris wheel. The city also boasts a host of other museums and galleries.

As the home of the deep-dish pizza, Chicago's well-known for its food. From the local Chicago hot dog and Italian beef sandwiches to high quality restaurants offering Greek, Italian, Chinese or South Asian specialities, you can sample food from around the world.

For sports fans, the city's home to 16 professional sports teams, including the Chicago Bulls basketball team, the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox baseball teams, the Chicago Bears American Football team and the Chicago Fire soccer team. Chicago's also bidding to be the host city for the 2016 summer Olympic games. And, of course, ABN AMRO sponsor the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.

Frank Sinatra once famously sang that Chicago was 'my kinda town'. Many people since then have discovered plenty of reasons to agree with him.