switzeland |  | | Uploaded by cooky28 7 months ago.
photo dimensions: 116x160.
photo size: 4125 bytes.
A land that conjures up images of breathtaking mountains, beautiful lakes, Alpine villages, chocolates, cowbells and fields of edelweiss is a land with the power to seduce...
Landlocked by France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy, Switzerland takes up an area of 41,295 square kilometers and is home to 6.9 million people. More than 60 percent of the country is mountainous and a quarter of it is covered in forests. The snow-capped Alps, Europe�s highest mountains, occupy the central and southern regions of the country. Some of the Alpine meadows are breathtaking and are inhabited by famous and distinctive Alpine animals such as the ibex (a mountain goat with huge curved horns) and the chamois (a horned antelope). There is perennial snow cover at altitudes of above 3000m. Winter sports resorts begin operating in late November and close around April. Switzerland is a federal republic and consists of 23 partly autonomous cantons. Politically neutral since 1815, it is an important international meeting place and houses one of the headquarters of the United Nations.
Its people enjoy the highest standard of living in Europe. Switzerland has long attracted many foreign artists and writers including Voltaire, Byron, Shelley, James Joyce and Charlie Chaplin. The 18th century writings of Rousseau in Geneva played a key role in the development of democracy while Carl Jung�s research in Zurich was instrumental in the development of modern psychoanalysis. Switzerland�s cities are well worth a visit. Zurich, the most populous city, is famous for its financial institutions and for its art galleries � both coexisting happily side by side. Lake Zurich offers endless opportunities for swimming, sunbathing and picnicking. Nestling on the shores of Lake Geneva, the city of Geneva is home to more than 200 international organizations. The city�s fine location and the wealth of boating and walking opportunities provided by Lake Geneva make it an attractive and relaxing place. Lucerne is often considered to be the true �Swiss� capital. This charming and attractive town straddles the Reuss River on the western edge of Lake Lucerne and makes an excellent base for excursions
Switzerland conjures up a fair swag of cliches: irresistible chocolates, kitsch clocks, yodeling Heidis, humorless bankers, international bureaucracies and an orderly, anally-retentive and rather bland national persona. But Harry Lime was wrong on more than one account when, in The Third Man, he said 500 years of Swiss democracy and peace had produced nothing more than the cuckoo clock. For a start, the Germans invented this monstrous timepiece; secondly, the Swiss, who are a brainy lot, have won more Nobel Prizes and registered more patents per capita than any other nation on earth. Muesli, DDT and life insurance may not be the stuff of legend, but where would the rest of us swashbucklers be without a bit of Swiss nous behind us?Switzerland may be neutral but it is certainly not flavorless. The fusion of German, French and Italian ingredients has formed a robust national culture, and the country's Alpine landscapes have enough zing to reinvigorate the most jaded traveler. Goethe summed up Switzerland succinctly as a combination of 'the colossal and the well-ordered'. The untamed majesty of the Alps and the tidy, just-so precision of Swiss towns prevent Switzerland from ever being as one-dimensional as some pundits like to try and make it.
Full country name: Swiss Confederation
Area: 41,295 sq km (16,105 sq mi)
Population: 7.3 million
Capital city: Bern (pop 130,000)
People: 74% German, 20% French, 4% Italian & 1% Romansch
Language: German, French, Italian & Romansch
Religion: 49% Roman Catholic & 48% Protestant
Government: Federal republic
President: Kaspar Villiger
GDP: US$192 billion
GDP per head: US$26,400
Annual growth: 2%
Inflation: 2%
Major industries: Banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, chemicals & precision instruments, tourism
Major trading partners: EU (esp. Germany, France, Italy, UK), US, Japan
Member of EU: no | |
|
|
|