Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of federal government. With a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the world's 44th most populous country; the southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia. In the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire, along with the British Straits Settlements protectorate.
Peninsular Malaysia was unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia. In 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation; the country is multi-cultural, which plays a large role in its politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with large minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians, indigenous peoples. While recognising Islam as the country's established religion, the constitution grants freedom of religion to non-Muslims; the government system is modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the Prime Minister; the country's official language is a standard form of the Malay language.
English remains an active second language. Since independence, Malaysian GDP has grown at an average of 6.5% per annum for 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism and medical tourism. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked fourth largest in Southeast Asia and 38th largest in the world, it is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the East Asia Summit and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a member of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement. The name "Malaysia" is a combination of the word "Malay" and the Latin-Greek suffix "-sia"/-σία; the word "melayu" in Malay may derive from the Tamil words "malai" and "ur" meaning "mountain" and "city, land", respectively. "Malayadvipa" was the word used by ancient Indian traders. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word "melayu" or "mlayu" may have been used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to accelerate or run.
This term was applied to describe the strong current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra. Before the onset of European colonisation, the Malay Peninsula was known natively as "Tanah Melayu". Under a racial classification created by a German scholar Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the natives of maritime Southeast Asia were grouped into a single category, the Malay race. Following the expedition of French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville to Oceania in 1826, he proposed the terms of "Malaysia", "Micronesia" and "Melanesia" to the Société de Géographie in 1831, distinguishing these Pacific cultures and island groups from the existing term "Polynesia". Dumont d'Urville described Malaysia as "an area known as the East Indies". In 1850, the English ethnologist George Samuel Windsor Earl, writing in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, proposed naming the islands of Southeast Asia as "Melayunesia" or "Indunesia", favouring the former.
In modern terminology, "Malay" remains the name of an ethnoreligious group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and portions of the adjacent islands of Southeast Asia, including the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, smaller islands that lie between these areas. The state that gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957 took the name the "Federation of Malaya", chosen in preference to other potential names such as "Langkasuka", after the historic kingdom located at the upper section of the Malay Peninsula in the first millennium CE; the name "Malaysia" was adopted in 1963 when the existing states of the Federation of Malaya, plus Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak formed a new federation. One theory posits the name was chosen so that "si" represented the inclusion of Singapore, North Borneo, Sarawak to Malaya in 1963. Politicians in the Philippines contemplated renaming their state "Malaysia" before the modern country took the name. Evidence of modern human habitation in Malaysia dates back 40,000 years.
In the Malay Peninsula, the first inhabitants are thought to be Negritos. Traders and settlers from India and China arrived as early as the first century AD, establishing trading ports and coastal towns in the second and third centuries, their presence resulted in strong Indian and Chinese influences on the local cultures, the people of the Malay Peninsula adopted the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Sanskrit inscriptions appear as early as the fifth century; the Kingdom of
La Paz
La Paz known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz named Chuqi Yapu in Aymara, is the seat of government and the de facto national capital of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 789,541 residents as of 2015, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia, its metropolitan area, formed by La Paz, El Alto and Viacha, makes up the most populous urban area in Bolivia, with a population of 2.3 million. It is the capital of the La Paz Department; the city, located in west-central Bolivia 68 km southeast of Lake Titicaca, is set in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River. It is located in a bowl-like depression surrounded by the high mountains of the Altiplano. Overlooking the city is the towering, triple-peaked Illimani, its peaks can be seen from many parts of the city. At an elevation of 3,650 m above sea level, La Paz is the highest capital city in the world. Due to its altitude, La Paz has an unusual subtropical highland climate, with rainy summers and dry winters. La Paz was founded on October 20, 1548 by the Spanish conquistador Captain Alonso de Mendoza at the site of the Inca settlement of Laja as a connecting point between the commercial routes that led from Potosí and Oruro to Lima.
The city was moved to its present location in the valley of Chuquiago Marka. La Paz was under Spanish colonial rule as part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, before Bolivia gained independence. Since its founding, the city was the site of numerous revolts. In 1781, the indigenous leader and independence activist Túpac Katari laid siege to the city for a total of six months, but was defeated. On July 16, 1809 the Bolivian patriot Pedro Domingo Murillo ignited a revolution for independence, marking the beginning of the Spanish American Wars of Independence, which gained the freedom of South American states in 1821; as the seat of the government of Bolivia, La Paz is the site of the Palacio Quemado, the presidential palace. It is the seat of the Bolivian legislature, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, numerous government departments and agencies; the constitutional capital of Bolivia, retains the judicial power. The city hosts all the foreign embassies as well as international missions in the country.
La Paz is an important political, administrative and sports center of Bolivia. La Paz is an important cultural center of Latin America, as it hosts several landmarks belonging to the colonial times, such as the San Francisco Church, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Plaza Murillo and the Jaén Street; the city is renowned for its unique markets the Witches' Market, for its vibrant nightlife. Its unusual topography offers unique views of the city and the surrounding mountains of the Cordillera Real from numerous natural viewing points. La Paz is home to the largest urban cable car network in the world. In May 2015, it was recognized as one of the New 7 Wonders Cities together with Beirut, Durban, Kuala Lumpur and Vigan. La Paz is listed on the Global Cities Index 2015, is considered a global city type "Gamma" by Globalization and World Cities Research Network; this area had been the site of an Inca city, located on a major trading route. Although the Spanish conquistadors entered the area in 1535, they did not found La Paz until 1548.
It was to be at the site of the Native American settlement, with the full name of the city being Nuestra Señora de La Paz. The name commemorated the restoration of peace following the insurrection of Gonzalo Pizarro and fellow conquistadors four years earlier against Blasco Núñez Vela, the first viceroy of Peru; the town site was moved a few days to its present location in the valley of Chuquiago, more clement. Control over the former Inca lands had been entrusted to Pedro de la Gasca by the Spanish king Emperor Charles V. Gasca commanded Alonso de Mendoza to found a new city commemorating the end of the civil wars in Peru. In 1549, Juan Gutierrez Paniagua was commanded to design an urban plan that would designate sites for public areas, official buildings, a cathedral; these were meant to express the relationships of Spanish colonial society. La Plaza de los Españoles, known today as the Plaza Murillo, was chosen as the location for government buildings as well as the Metropolitan Cathedral.
Spain controlled La Paz with a firm grip and the Spanish king had the last word in all matters political, but consultation was extended, taking months or longer by sea. Indigenous and other unrest was repeated around the turn of the nineteenth century. In 1781, for a total of six months, a group of Aymara people laid siege to La Paz. Under the leadership of Tupac Katari, they destroyed churches and government property. Thirty years Indians conducted a two-month siege against La Paz; this incident was the setting for the origin of the legend of the Ekeko. In 1809 the struggle for independence from the Spanish rule brought uprisings against the royalist forces. On July 16, 1809 Pedro Domi
Wire rope
Wire rope is several strands of metal wire twisted into a helix forming a composite "rope", in a pattern known as "laid rope". Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of such laid rope in a pattern known as "cable laid". In stricter senses the term "wire rope" refers to diameter larger than 3/8 inch, with smaller gauges designated cable or cords. Wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes. Wire rope evolved from wrought iron chains, which had a record of mechanical failure. While flaws in chain links or solid steel bars can lead to catastrophic failure, flaws in the wires making up a steel cable are less critical as the other wires take up the load. While friction between the individual wires and strands causes wear over the life of the rope, it helps to compensate for minor failures in the short run. Wire ropes were developed starting with mining hoist applications in the 1830s. Wire ropes are used dynamically for lifting and hoisting in cranes and elevators, for transmission of mechanical power.
Wire rope is used to transmit force in mechanisms, such as a Bowden cable or the control surfaces of an airplane connected to levers and pedals in the cockpit. Only aircraft cables have WSC. Aircraft cables are available in smaller diameters than wire rope. For example, aircraft cables are available in 3/64 in. Diameter while most wire ropes begin at a 1/4 in. Diameter. Static wire ropes are used to support structures such as suspension bridges or as guy wires to support towers. An aerial tramway relies on wire rope to move cargo overhead. Modern wire rope was invented by the German mining engineer Wilhelm Albert in the years between 1831 and 1834 for use in mining in the Harz Mountains in Clausthal, Lower Saxony, Germany, it was accepted because it proved superior to ropes made of hemp or to metal chains, such as had been used before. Wilhelm Albert's first ropes consisted of three strands consisting of four wires each. In 1840, Scotsman Robert Stirling Newall improved the process further. In America wire rope was manufactured by John A. Roebling, starting in 1841 and forming the basis for his success in suspension bridge building.
Roebling introduced a number of innovations in the design and manufacture of wire rope. With an ear to technology developments in mining and railroading, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, principal owners of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company — as they had with the first blast furnaces in the Lehigh Valley — built a Wire Rope factory in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania in 1848, which provided lift cables for the Ashley Planes project the back track planes of the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, improving its attractiveness as a premier tourism destination, vastly improving the throughput of the coal capacity since return of cars dropped from nearly four hours to less than 20 minutes; the decades were witness to a burgeoning increase in deep shaft mining in both Europe and North America as surface mineral deposits were exhausted and miners had to chase layers along inclined layers. The era was early in railroad development and steam engines lacked sufficient tractive effort to climb steep slopes, so incline plane railways were common.
This pushed development of cable hoists in the United States as surface deposits in the Anthracite Coal Region north and south dove deeper every year, the rich deposits in the Panther Creek Valley required LC&N Co. to drive their first shafts into lower slopes beginning Lansford and its Schuylkill County twin-town Coaldale. The German engineering firm of Adolf Bleichert & Co. was founded in 1874 and began to build bicable aerial tramways for mining in the Ruhr Valley. With important patents, dozens of working systems in Europe, Bleichert dominated the global industry licensing its designs and manufacturing techniques to Trenton Iron Works, New Jersey, USA which built systems across America. Adolf Bleichert & Co. went on to build hundreds of aerial tramways around the world: from Alaska to Argentina and Spitsbergen. The Bleichert company built hundreds of aerial tramways for both the Imperial German Army and the Wehrmacht. In the last half of the 19th century, wire rope systems were used as a means of transmitting mechanical power including for the new cable cars.
Wire rope systems had lower friction losses than line shafts. Because of these advantages, wire rope systems were used to transmit power for a distance of a few miles or kilometers. Steel wires for wire ropes are made of non-alloy carbon steel with a carbon content of 0.4 to 0.95%. The high strength of the rope wires enables wire ropes to support large tensile forces and to run over sheaves with small diameters. In the so-called cross lay strands, the wires of the different layers cross each other. In the used parallel lay strands, the lay length of all the wire layers is equal and the wires of any two superimposed layers are parallel, resulting in linear contact; the wire of the outer layer is supported by two wires of the inner layer. These wires are neighbours along the whole length of the strand. Parallel lay strands are made in one operation; the endurance of wire ropes with this kind of strand is always much greater than of those with cross lay strands. Parallel lay strands with two wire layers have the construction Seale or Warrington.
In principle, spiral ropes are round strands as they have an assembly of layers of wires laid helically over a centre with at least one layer of wires being laid in the opposite direction to that of the outer layer. Spiral ropes can be dimensioned in such a way that they are non-rotating which means that under tension the rope
Åre ski resort
Åre is a ski resort in Jämtland, founded 110 years ago in 1909 and owned by SkiStar AB. Åre, short for Årefjällen, is located in Åre Municipality, just outside and above the village of Åre 80 km from the city of Östersund. The ski lift system is at an elevation of 1,420 m; the village and ski area are accessible by train. The nearest airport is Åre Östersund Airport. With a latitude of 63.4° north, the ski area is 350 km south of the Arctic Circle. 1882 – The railway to Åre is finished and opened by King Oscar II. 1891 – Åre tourist information centre opens. ”Tourists and spa guests visiting the climatic spa Åre” is the theme of the first advertising campaign. 1892 – The café on the top of Åreskutan opens. 1910 – Åre Bergbana opens, the first fixed link in Åre, beginning the area's development as a winter sports resort. Tobogganing and skiing are offered. 1935 – The local slalom racing club, the Åre Slalomklubb, is formed. Over the years, the club's members have included such names as Lars-Börje Eriksson, Patrik Järbyn and Richard Richardsson.
1940 – The first drag lift is opened in Åre, located near the Olympia area and Lundsgården. The tiny yellow lift cabin is still in place. 1952 – The Fjällgården ski area is opened. The lift passengers were transported standing up in tall buckets, one of, displayed in front of the funicular station on Åre square. 1954 – Åre hosts the World Championships, making Åre known throughout the skiing world. 1966 – Duveds Linbana, the first chairlift in Duved, is opened, followed by other investments in the Duved ski area. 1976 – The Kabinbanan cable car, servicing the upper part of the ski area, is opened at a cost of 73 million Swedish kronor. At this time, the formidable success of Swedish ski racer Ingemar Stenmark gives a great boost to the Swedish alpine ski industry. 1981 – The first lift is built at Åre Björnen, followed by other investments in the area. The first snow cannons are installed at Åre. 1989 – The Olympia gondola is opened by King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia. 2001 – In the central part of the Åre ski area, two new lifts are built and three new slopes are opened — the single largest investment since the building of the cable car.
2006 – The Olympia chairlift is replaced by the world's first telemix lift, a lift with chairs and gondolas. 2007 – Åre hosts the World Championships for a second time. 2009 – Åre is named winner of "World's top ski resorts" by the British travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller 2013 – Sadelexpressen, Fjällgårdsexpressen and Tegeliften opened. 2016 – Åre hosts Freestyle Junior World Championships in Moguls, again 2018, this time in Duved. 2017 – Åre hosts the Junior World Championships. 2019 – Åre hosts the World Championships, its third. 2021 – Åre along with Östersund will host the 2021 Special Olympics World Winter Games. 2026 – it will host alpine skiing and freestyle skiing should Stockholm and Åre host the 2026 Winter Olympics and 2026 Winter Paralympics. There is night skiing every evening until week 10; the night skiing is between 6 8 pm. Central Åre: The lift "VM8:an" with the two slopes "Gästrappet" and "Lundsrappet" in the world championship area. Duved: The lift "Hamreliften" and the slopes "Skistarbacken" and "Hamrebacken".
Åre Björnen: The lifts "Björnliften", "Nalleliften" and "Vargliften" with connecting slopes. In Central Åre there are plenty of runs to choose both for beginners and advanced skiers. Central Åre is the largest area in the Åre Ski Area. Advanced skiers prefer the central area with the longest runs which are fairly steep. Lifts in Central Åre Bergbanan Tottliften Fjällgårdsexpressen Hummelliften Kabinbanan Gondolen VM6:an VM8:an Worldcupliften Bräckeliften Lillröda Lillvita Rödhakeliften Rödkulleliften 1 Rödkulleliften 2 Nedre Tväråvalvsliften Nedre Tväråvalvsliften 2 Stendalsliften Ullådalsliften Ullådalsliften 2 Övre Tväråvalvsliften Åre Björnen is the ski area for the youngest skiers and families. ÅreBjörnen is connected to Central Åre with lifts. Lifts in ÅreBjörnen Björnliften Järvenliften Mårdenliften Högåsliften Lokattliften Nalleliften Renenliften Sadellexpressen Vargliften Copperhill liften Tegefjäll is suitable for families with small children, the system is connected to the Duved lift system.
Lifts in Tegefjäll Englandsliften Fjällvallsliften Mini Tege Tegesliften Gunnilliften – at 1.6 kilometers long, this is the longest T-bar lift in the world. Duved offers slopes both for the beginner and the expert. Duved is connected to the Tegefjäll system. Lifts in Duved Byliften Torpliften Duveds Linbana Hamreliften Leråliften www.visitare.com/en – Official visitor guide – Ski area www.are-sweden.com – Information on Åre Ski resort Piste Maps – Åre ski resort
Cable transport
Cable transport is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods in vehicles called cable cars; the cable may be driven or passive, items may be moved by pulling, sailing, or by drives within the object being moved on cableways. The use of pulleys and balancing of loads moving up and down are common elements of cable transport, they are used in mountainous areas where cable haulage can overcome large differences in elevation. Aerial transport, such as: Aerial tramway Chairlift Funitel Gondola lift Ski lift Zip line Surface transport, such as: Cable railways Cable car Cable ferry Funicular Surface lift Vertical transport, such as: Elevator Rope-drawn transport dates back to 250 BC as evidenced by illustrations of aerial ropeway transportation systems in South China; the first recorded mechanical ropeway was by Venetian Fausto Veranzio who designed a bi-cable passenger ropeway in 1616. The industry considers Dutchman Adam Wybe to have built the first operational system in 1644.
The technology, further developed by the people living in the Alpine regions of Europe and expanded with the advent of wire rope and electric drive. The first use of wire rope for aerial tramways is disputed. American inventor Peter Cooper is one early claimant, constructing an aerial tramway using wire rope in Baltimore 1832, to move landfill materials. Though there is only partial evidence for the claimed 1832 tramway, Cooper was involved in many of such tramways built in the 1850s, in 1853 he built a two-mile-long tramway to transport iron ore to his blast furnaces at Ringwood, New Jersey. World War I motivated extensive use of military tramways for warfare between Austria. During the industrial revolution, new forms of cable-hauled transportation systems were created including the use of steel cable to allow for greater load support and larger systems. Aerial tramways were first used for commercial passenger haulage in the 1900s; the earliest form of cable railway was the gravity incline, which in its simplest form consists of two parallel tracks laid on a steep gradient, with a single rope wound around a winding drum and connecting the trains of wagons on the tracks.
Loaded wagons at the top of the incline are lowered down, their weight hauling empty wagons from the bottom. The winding drum has a brake to control the rate of travel of the wagons; the first use of a gravity incline isn't recorded, but the Llandegai Tramway at Bangor in North Wales was opened in 1798, is one of the earliest examples using iron rails. The first cable-hauled street railway was the London and Blackwall Railway, built in 1840, which used fibre to grip the haulage rope; this caused a series of technical and safety issues, which led to the adoption of steam locomotives by 1848. The first Funicular railway was opened in Lyon in 1862; the Westside and Yonkers Patent Railway Company developed a cable-hauled elevated railway. This 3½ mile long line was proposed in 1866 and opened in 1868, it operated as a cable railway until 1871. The next development of the cable car came in California. Andrew Hallidie, a Scottish emigre, gave San Francisco the first effective and commercially successful route, using steel cables, opening the Clay Street Hill Railroad on August 2, 1873.
Hallidie was a manufacturer of steel cables. The system featured a human-operated grip, able to start and stop the car safely; the rope, used allowed the multiple, independent cars to run on one line, soon Hallidie`s concept was extended to multiple lines in San Francisco. The first cable railway outside the United Kingdom and the United States was the Roslyn Tramway, which opened in 1881, in Dunedin, New Zealand. America remained the country; however in 1890, electric tramways exceeded the cable hauled tramways in mileage and speed. The ski lift was developed by James Curran in 1936; the co-owner of the Union Pacific Railroad, William Averell Harriman owned America's first ski resort, Sun Valley, Idaho. He asked his design office to tackle the problem of lifting skiers to the top of the resort. Curran, a Union Pacific bridge designer, adapted a cable hoist he had designed for loading bananas in Honduras to create the first ski lift. More recent developments are being classified under the type of track that their design is based upon.
After the success of this operation, several other projects were initiated in New Zealand and Chicago. The social climate around pollution is allowing for a shift from cars back to the utilization of cable transport due to their advantages. However, for many years they were a niche form of transportation used in difficult-to-operate conditions for cars. Now that cable transport projects are on the increase, the social effects are beginning to become more significant. In 2018 the highest 3S cablecar has been inaugurated in Zermatt, Switzerland after more than two years of construction; this cablecar is called the "Matterhorn Glacier ride"and it allows passengers to reach the top of the Klein Matterhorn mountain. When compared to trains and cars, the volume of people to transport over time and the start-upcost of the project must be a consideration. In areas with extensive road networks, personal vehicles offer range. Remote places like mountainous regions and ski slopes may be difficult to link with roads, making CTP a much easier approach.
A CTP system may need fewer invasive changes to the local environment. The use of Cable Transport is not limited to such rural locations as skiing resorts.
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a resort municipality in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada 125 km north of Vancouver and 36 km south of the town of Pemberton. Incorporated as the Resort Municipality of Whistler, it has a permanent population of 11,854, plus a larger but rotating population of seasonal workers younger people from beyond British Columbia, notably from Australia and Europe. Over two million people visit Whistler annually for alpine skiing and snowboarding and, in summer, mountain biking at Whistler Blackcomb, its pedestrian village has won numerous design awards and Whistler has been voted among the top destinations in North America by major ski magazines since the mid-1990s. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted most of the alpine, luge and bobsled events; the Whistler Valley is located around the pass between the headwaters of the Green River and the upper-middle reaches of the Cheakamus. It is flanked by glaciated mountains on both sides.
Although there are a few other routes through the maze of mountains between the basin of the Lillooet River just east, the Cheakamus-Green divide is the lowest and most direct and was the main trading route of the Squamish and Lil'wat First Nations long before the arrival of Europeans. One Lil ` wat legend of the Great Flood says; the first British survey by the Royal Navy took place in the 1860s. These surveyors named the mountain London Mountain because of the heavy fog and cloud gathering around the mountain, but the area informally acquired the name "Whistler" due to the call of the hoary marmot. In the late 19th century, a trail was cut through the valley, linking Lillooet via Pemberton with Burrard Inlet via a pass from Squamish to the Seymour River; the trail was completed in 1877, but because of the difficult and unforgiving terrain, it was only used once for its intended purpose, to drive cattle. The area began to attract trappers and prospectors who established small camps in the area in the early 20th century.
The area began to gain recognition with the arrival of Myrtle and Alex Philip, who in 1914 purchased 10 acres of land on Alta Lake and established the Rainbow Lodge. The Philips had relocated from Maine to Vancouver in 1910, had heard rumours of the natural beauty of the area from Pemberton pioneer John Millar. After an exploratory journey, the couple was convinced. Rainbow Lodge and other railway-dependent tourist resorts were collectively known as Alta Lake. Along with the rest of the valley bridging the Cheakamus and Green River basins, they became part of British Columbia's first Resort Municipality in 1975. Completion of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in 1914 reduced the travel time from three days, providing ease of access from Vancouver, the Rainbow Lodge gained a reputation as the most popular vacation destination west of the Rockies; the lodge was a summer destination, with boating and hiking among the most popular activities, soon other lodges began to open not just on Alta Lake, but on other valley lakes as well.
Appreciation of the outdoors was not the only activity in the valley, however. Logging was a boom industry. During the first half of the 20th century, most of the lower slopes of the surrounding mountains were cleared of old growth. At its peak, four mills were in operation, most located around Green Lake. Prospecting and trapping were pursued as well, though no claims of great value were staked. Whistler is well known for its skiing and snowboarding in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. There are many other smaller activities such as donating/Tubing; the different run difficulties: Green, Black, Double Black. Locals consider some runs to be considered "Triple Balck" these runs aren't labelled on maps. Throughout the year each run's difficulty stays the same; until the 1960s, this quiet area was without basic infrastructure. There were no sewage facilities, water, or electricity, no road from Squamish or Vancouver. In 1962, four Vancouver businessmen began to explore the area with the intent of building a ski resort and bidding for the 1968 Winter Olympics.
Garibaldi Lift Company was formed, shares were sold, in 1966, Whistler Mountain opened to the public. The town still known as Alta Lake, was offered the 1976 Winter Olympics after the selected host city Denver declined the games due to funding issues. Alta Lake Whistler declined as well, after elections ushered in a local government less enthusiastic about the Olympics; the 1976 Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck, Austria. Whistler was the Host Mountain Resort of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, the first time the IOC has bestowed that designation on a community. Whistler hosted the alpine technical and speed events, the sliding events at Fitzsimmons Creek, the Nordic events in the nearby Callaghan Valley and all the Paralympic events except the opening ceremonies, sledge hockey and wheelchair curling; the Whistler Olympic and Paralympic Village housed around 2,400 athletes, coaches and officials. Post-games, the site has been turned into a new residential neighbourhood Cheakamus Crossing.
Whistler is located on British Columbia Highway 99, al
Lebanon
Lebanon known as the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is west across the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized sovereign state on the mainland Asian continent; the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a maritime culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, became one of the Empire's leading centers of Christianity. In the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established; as the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their identity.
However, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church and asserted their communion with Rome; the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918. Following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon; the French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, Consociationalism-type of political system with a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities. Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon during the independence, Riad El-Solh, first Lebanese prime minister and Emir Majid Arslan II, first Lebanese minister of defence, are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence.
Foreign troops withdrew from Lebanon on 31 December 1946, although the country was subjected to military occupations by Syria that lasted nearly thirty years before being withdrawn in April 2005 as well as the Israeli military in Southern Lebanon for fifteen years. Despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been influential in the Arab world, powered by its large diaspora. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the country experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture and banking; because of its financial power and diversity in its heyday, Lebanon was referred to as the "Switzerland of the East" during the 1960s, its capital, attracted so many tourists that it was known as "the Paris of the Middle East". At the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. In spite of these troubles, Lebanon has the 7th highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world after the oil-rich economies of the Persian Gulf.
Lebanon has been a member of the United Nations since its founding in 1945 as well as of the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation and the Organisation internationale de la francophonie. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning "white" from its snow-capped peaks. Occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh; the name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L. The name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. Lebanon as the name of an administrative unit was introduced with the Ottoman reforms of 1861, as the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, continued in the name of the State of Greater Lebanon in 1920, in the name of the sovereign Republic of Lebanon upon its independence in 1943; the borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920. Its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states.
As part of the Levant, it was part of numerous succeeding empires throughout ancient history, including the Egyptian, Babylonian, Achaemenid Persian, Hellenistic and Sasanid Persian empires. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Abbasid Seljuk and Fatimid empires; the crusader state of the County of Tripoli, founded by Raymond IV of Toulouse in 1102, encompassed most of present-day Lebanon, falling to the Mamluk Sultanate in 1289 and to the Ottoman Empire in 1517. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943. Lebanon's history since independence has been marked by alternating periods of political stability and prosperity based on Beirut's position as a regional center for finance and trade, interspersed with political turmoil and
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