Los Angeles is a huge metropolis, which is located in the southern parts of California. The city is situated in the western parts of the United States, on the Pacific coast. Los Angeles is a major tourist center. The reasons are numerous. It has great beaches, many of which are ideal for surfing. Moreover, it is one step away from the Yosemite National Park, which is world famous because of its fabulous landscapes, picturesque relief, pine forests, waterfalls and amazing wildlife.
The city is popular with the film industry. Here are the famous Beverly Hills, Malibu and, of course, Hollywood.
Not far from the cosmopolitan city you can find the Death Valley National Park. This is one of the most inhospitable parts of the continent.
Here in the 1913 has been measured the second highest temperature of the planet – 56,7 centigrade degrees!
With its population of 16 400 000 people, Los Angeles is one of the biggest cities on the planet. It is the second most populated city in the United States after New York.
The population of Los Angeles rapidly got ahead of such world famous centres as Chicago.
The majority of the population is consists mainly of immigrants from Mexico, because they are attracted by the better paid job and, of course, the closeness of the city to Mexico – Los Angeles is situated only two hours drive away from the Mexican border.
On the streets of Los Angeles you can see hundreds of nationalities. The attractiveness of Los Angeles is great due to its popularity, which is derived from the films and television.
The popularity, of course, would be impossible if there is no solid basis on which to build.
At the present time LA is one of the most rapidly developing cities in the United States.
Embodies the American dream, because here can be hard to blow in the business, but if you do it, the possibilities are truly unlimited.
This is a city of great contrasts. Can be seen very, very bright and rich districts some of which are among the most popular in the world.
However, there are many places, where it is not advisable to walk as you can meet dangerous gangs and the crime is very high.
The central part of the city is with business and administrative functions. Here you can see very high and modern skyscrapers, although the city is located in an area with high seismic activity.
The skyscrapers are designed to resist the earthquakes, which would be fatal for buildings in other parts of the world.
In closeness to Los Angeles you can find the fault of San Andres, which is a huge crack, formed because of the movement of the plates into the earth’s crust.
If you decide to travel across America and want to see Los Angeles, you have to know that this can not be done without a vehicle.
The distances are really great and the streets are made not for pedestrians, but for cars. It will be better if you rent a car.
However, this is the city with the biggest territory on the planet. You can travel two hundreds kilometers without to leave the borders of this world metropolis. The reasons are few.
One of them is that Los Angeles is not one city, but many. In fact this is an administrative grouping of approximately 90 cities and thus form the LA we know.
Another reason is that the people here live mainly in houses and the biggest part of them have very large yards (especially the well-off citizens)and this violate the urban compactness. At relatively large territory has a low concentration of population.
Climate. The climate of Los Angeles is subtropical – Mediterranean. This is one of the few places on the planet except the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where can be met this type of climate.
Located at 34° north latitude, Los Angeles is situated just in the heart of the subtropical climate zone. The summers are long and hot. From March to November the temperatures can become quite high and the weather is suitable for swimming and sunbathing on the beach.
The temperatures often reach 40°C and this in combination with the drought is the cause of the numerous forest fires around the city every year.
The hottest months are August and September. In this part of the year the weather is bearable around the coast, but in the inner parts of the city, where the influence of the ocean is less, the heat is just unbearable.
From December to late February is cool, but not cold. The coldest month is January. The average daily temperatures are usually between 18 and 20°C.
The nights are cool all year around, because around the coast of California pass cold ocean currents, which maintain relatively low humidity. Because of this reason the difference between daily and night temperatures is significant.
This is a typical feature of the desert climate. The conditions very strikingly remain those of Morocco, Andalusia (Spain), Cyprus, Israel and other countries in Southern Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor.
When we talk about the urban problems of Los Angeles, often mentioned is the lack of greenness. The vegetation in the city of the angels is represented by various types of palms – Date Palm, Royal Palm, Trahikarpus and so on.
Of course, this is not bad – just in the contrary. The palm trees are exotic and bear incredible holiday feeling.
The problem is that the palm trees are the biggest part of the vegetation and the other species are quite limited and this is a problem, because one large metropolis as Los Angeles needs much more greenery to counter the harmful effects of the automobiles and the industry.
Los Angeles is one of the most superfluous of vegetation cities in the United States. This, of course, does not mean that there is no beautiful parks and gardens.
The problem is that the greenery is not everywhere, but only in some areas. For example in the down town of the city the greenness is almost fully absent.
Landmarks. The main attractions of the city are the districts of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Malibu, Kodak Theater (where every year are given the prestigious awards “Oscar”), the boulevard of the stars (where the biggest celebrities of the show business have their own star with the name and imprint of the hand), the famous beaches of Malibu, Venice, Santa Monica and Zama, the word “Hollywood” in the northern part of the city, Sunset Boulevard, Via Rodeo (one of the most expensive shopping streets on the planet like Champs Elysees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York) and so on.
Other major tourist attraction which are located not in the city, but near by it, are the Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park, the fault of San Andres and the island of Santa Catalina, which is located in southwest, not far from the city in the Pacific Ocean.