Can you please help me rewrite this sentence into another easily understandable phrase?
"This city admits no near equal".
The sentence comes from a travel video I've been watching, in which the representer was in New York city. While being at the Grand Central Depot, he said through an old guide book whose author was Appleton:
"It's been replaced by a lofty temple, a building of such elegance, sophistication and grandeur that the Big Apple says 'I don't care where you've been before, this city admits no near equal'".
I've took a try for a while but it seems the whole sentence can hardly be translated exactly into my native words (Vietnamese) by anyhow. To be honest, I really wanted to ask "what does this sentence mean", but it seems silly.
Also, I'm wondering if I used it correctly: "easily understandable" or "easily understood"? Is there other single word which delivers the same meaning?