Since 1990s, I've visited over half a dozen countries and several states in the US. By comparison, America has one of the better landscaping and infrastructure works. However the quality of landscaping varies across the US by weather/geography and local budget restrictions.
Take for example, a typical sidewalk in California:
It's nice and flat/leveled concrete sidewalk with landscaping around it, with ramps by the curb for easy handicapped access. You'd find this quality of "uniform" sidewalks in most California suburban neighborhoods, except in places like the hilly parts of San Francisco where it's not possible due to geography.
In many parts of Taipei, the side walks are usually not leveled. That is, one part is "up" and the next building over is "down". If the terrain was on a hill I can understand, but even in flat parts of the city you have to watch up for steps going up and down, just walking down a street. I can't recall how many times I nearly tripped over. Plus the sidewalks are usually covered with merchants and scooters, forcing the pedestrians to dodge around.
In Beijing and Tianjing, it's better but the sidewalk construction is not always uniform and looks like patch works from one block to the next. Concrete here, brick there, tar over there, etc. It didn't appear that there was uniform planning and the development was done in a "hit and run" way.
Landscaping is a luxury in Asian cities due to land prices. Whenever I have relatives visiting, they comment on how well the landscaping is by the streets with lawns, trees, flowers, etc.
So, it's probably not surprising that someone visiting the US for first time is impressed by quality of landscaping here. Also, grass lawns weren't popular in Asia until recently. I recall when I was attending elementary school in Taipei back in 1980, there was a discussion on planting grass lawn on school grounds, and many parents thought it was a waste of money and it'd be better to just pour concrete over everything.