Feeling of Ottawa After Trip

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General Information

Ottawa, capital of Canada, Political and cultural center, is the second big city in Ontario, as well as the forth big city in Canada. Based on the Mercer Rank,Ottawa has the best quality of life in North America. Ottawa is also the second cleanest city in Canada and third cleanest city in the world. According to "Money Sense" a popular Canadian finance magazine, Ottawa has been assessing the most suitable city for living in the 190 cities in Canada. Because of its special culture, beautiful city view, leisure life style, Ottawa is not only loved by Canadians but also be considered as a good destination for international travelers. The great Ottawa area includes Ottawa Ontario and Hull Quebec. As a result tourists will feel the both culture from France and Britain in Ottawa. Total population and area of Ottawa is 1.23 million and 4662 km2 respectively.

Geographical Features

Ottawa is a flatland, theAbove Mean Sea Level of Ottawa is 109 meters. Although Ottawa belongs to temperature zone, it still has approximately 8 months under 0℃ during night time in a year. The cold airflow from the North Pole invades Ottawa every winter. The lowest temperature in Ottawa was -39℃. As a result, Ottawa is counted as one of the coldest capitals in the world.

Culture and History

"Ottawa" is originally from Indian language, it means "trade". When French and British colonizer first came to Canada, Ottawa was used as a wood resource distributing centre. Ottawa was not decided to be the capital of Canada until 1867. There is a story about why Ottawa was chosen. When Queen ElizabethⅡcame to Canada, she was asked to choose a capital. It was a dilemma because if she chose Toronto the British people's city, French people would not be satisfied; if she chose Montreal or Quebec city, British people would not be happy either. Therefore, she decided to establish Ottawa, a little wood resource business town in the middle of French and British area as the capital of Canada and neither French nor British would argue. Ottawa has 30 museum, 50 art galleries and theatres. The culture from British and French are combined in here. There is no doubt that Ottawa should have a reputation of the great cultural city.

Places Must Know

●Rideau Canal：It is 202 kilometers long, connects Ottawa and Kingston. Rideau Canal runs over the whole city. Tourists can take boats and have a river tour during spring, summer, and autumn. The Winter Carnival event is held every winter on Rideau Canal. People put on different colors skating dress and skate on the river.

●Artillery Park: An important national historical site in Canada. It was used for military base for the city of Quebec. There are three major historical buildings locate in this park: the Dauphine Redoubt, the Offices’ Quarters, and the Arsenal Foundry. They were built in 1712,1818,and 1903 respectively. Each traveler would be shocked by the sense of French culture in this park.

●Parliament Hill: The old castle style building is the place where Canadian governor work. The three splendid gothic buildings symbols Canada. And this is what Canadians are proud of.

●Canadian Museum of History : This museum rebuilt the history of Canada. Visitors come here would not be bored on reading introductions because what Canadian Museum of History does is to let visitors just feel the 1000-year-history of Canada by their own.

Challenge

When talking about Canada, Toronto and Vancouver usually come up into people's mind but not Ottawa. Some people even domestic citizens don't know that Ottawa is the capital city in Canada. "Toronto is the capital of Canada" is usually spoken by people. The main fact of this issue is reputation. As a result, if Ottawa wants to attract more tourists, the first step it should do is to expand its reputation. If everybody knows that Canada's capital is Ottawa, there would be more opportunities in tourism development.

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