Welcome to The Lower Mainland Of British Columbia, Canada
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British Columbia summary
British Columbia is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west, by the American state of Alaska on the northwest, and to the north
by the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, on the east by the province of Alberta, and on the south by the U.S. states of Washington,
Idaho, and Montana. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, although its history is
tied with lands as far south as the California border. British Columbia's land area is 944,735 square kilometres (364,764 square miles)
which is about the size of France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. It is larger than the total area of Washington, Oregon and
California. British Columbia's rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi), and includes deep, mountainous
fjords and about 6,000 islands, most of which are uninhabited.
British Columbia's capital is Victoria, located at the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island. BC's most populous city is Vancouver,
located in southwest corner of the BC mainland called the Lower Mainland. Other major cities include Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond,
Delta, and New Westminster in the Lower Mainland; Abbotsford and Langley in the Fraser Valley; Nanaimo on Vancouver Island; and Kelowna and
Kamloops in the Interior. Prince George is the largest city in the northern part of the province, while a town northwest of it, Vanderhoof,
is near the geographic centre of the province.
Mount Robson, Canadian Rockies, B.C.The Coast Mountains, Canadian Rockies and the Inside Passage's many inlets provide some of British Columbia's
renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and ecotourism industry. Seventy-five percent
of the province is mountainous (more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level); 60% is forested; and only about 5% is arable. The Okanagan area
is one of only three wine-growing regions in Canada and also produces excellent ciders, but exports little of either beverage. The small rural towns
of Penticton, Oliver, and Osoyoos have some of the warmest and longest summer climates in Canada, although their temperature ranges are exceeded by
the even-warmer Fraser Canyon towns of Lillooet and Lytton, where temperatures on summer afternoons often surpass 40 °C (104 °F)
Much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast as far north as the Alaska Panhandle and south from the Olympic Peninsula to
northern California, is covered by temperate rain forest. This region is one of a mere handful of such temperate rain forest ecosystems in the world
(notable others being in Chile, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Russian Far East). The province's mainland away from the coastal regions is not as
moderated by the Pacific Ocean and ranges from desert and semi-arid plateau to the range and canyon districts of the interior plateau. A few southern
interior valleys have snowy, cold winters, while those in the Cariboo, the northern part of the Central Interior, are as cold as anywhere else in
wintertime Canada due to their altitude and latitude. The northern two-thirds of the province is largely unpopulated and undeveloped, and is mostly
mountainous except east of the Rockies, where the Peace River District contains BC's portion of the Canadian Prairies.
British Columbia economy
British Columbia has a resource dominated economy, centred on the forestry industry, but also with increasing importance in mining. While employment in the resource sector has fallen steadily, unemployment is currently at a 30-year low of 4.5%. New jobs are mostly in the construction and retail/service sectors. Currently, the Vancouver region is the third-largest feature film production location in North America, after Los Angeles and New York.
British Columbia photos
Text & photo credits
The text contained in 'British Columbia Summary,' and 'British Columbia economy' above is courtesy of
Wikipedia.com.
The articles ('British Columbia Summary,' and 'British Columbia economy') are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.)
They use material from the Wikipedia article "British Columbia".
The British Columbia images on this page are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Images:
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