British Columbia

British Columbia has classy cities, striking scenery, and many geography that gives something for everyone.

With high lands, rivers, seashores, forests, and lakes, there are adventures for each one. Regardless of whether climbing, mountaineering, boating, strolling along trails, swimming in warm lakes, or lazing on the beach, there're activities to swimsuit every taste.

British Columbia has a few of the most cosmopolitan cities in Canada. It features international art exhibitions, nice shopping facilities and fantastic dining.

British Columbia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains on the west coast of Canada. Due to its temperate climate, BC's mountainous regions are well-known for their world-class skiing conditions. In 2010, the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games pulled in many guests to this gold medal destination.

The region which certainly is sustained by a resource-based economic system, has major ports that permit for international trade. Railways and Transcontinental highways terminate here. Tourism and out of doors recreation contribute to the economic system, though logging, mining and other types of resource mining are the economic mainstay. As a result of mild conditions BC's valleys, significantly the Fraser and Okanagan Valleys, are agriculturally wealthy, though less than 5% of the province's land is arable. Seventy-five percent of the province is mountainous, while forest covers sixty percent.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty established the present southern border of the province, although lands as far south as California are attached to its history. BC is surrounded on the east by the region of Alberta, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the northwest by the State of Alaska, and on the north by the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. On the south the province is surrounded by the American states of Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

BC's Pacific coastline is above 27,000 kilometers (17,000 mi) long. The coast has rocky fjords and roughly 6,000 largely-unpopulated islands. The total land area of the province is 944,735 sq. km (364,800 sq mi). Vancouver is BC's chief city by population. Vancouver is located on the southwest corner of the mainland, named as the Lower Mainland. Victoria is British Columbia's capital city, located on southeastern Vancouver Island.

A number of of BC's well-known and awesome scenery is located where the Coast Mountains and also the Inside Passage forms numerous inlets. The ecotourism and outdoor adventure business prosper here.

One of BC's premier points of interest are the Okanagan Valley's vineyards. They also produce Cider here. The Fraser Valley plus Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley as well have wine-cultivation locations. Famed for their warm weather, Kamloops, Penticton, and the small towns of Osoyoos and Oliver boast a few of the warmest and longest summer time in the nation. The Fraser Canyon cities of Lytton and Lillooet are even warmer; shade temperatures there can exceed 40 °C (104 °F) on summer days and have the advantage of reduced humidity.

The mainland climate varies from boreal forest and sub-arctic prairie in the Northern Interior, to desert and semi-arid plateau, to the range and canyon districts of the Central and Southern Interior. Outstanding pleasant rainforest covers much of the rest of the coast and the western part of Vancouver Island.

Due to its expanse from the Pacific Ocean the inland local weather is much less moderate. Common in a few Southern Interior are short but chilly winters and harsh but infrequent snowfalls. In the the southern side of the Central Interior, the Cariboo, latitude and altitude create colder winters, but the depth and length of the cold season is usually lower than at comparable latitudes somewhere else in Canada. The northern two-thirds of the region are largely mountainous and include fewer people and less development. The exception is the Peace River District, east of the Rockies. This area located on the province's northeast forms side of the Canadian Prairies.