Vancouver- The first place I touched down in Canada, is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The city is so well organized and gorgeous, that any picture you take from anywhere even with a tiny phone camera will look like a professional post-card picture!

After I started traveling to the other parts of Canada, I realised that it is the same anywhere in Canada. Places are “Picturesque” – in it’s true meaning.

Canada is one of the 23 countries in ‘North America occupying half of the continent and the second largest country in the world. If sun rises in Japan, it sets near Canada. If Japan is in the East end of the entire world, US and Canada are the west end. (This statement would have been more relevant when the earth 'was' flat). One can reach Japan from Vancouver by traveling around 7500 Kilometers through the Pacific Ocean. But from the same point to reach the other end of Canada, one has to travel over 9000 Kilometers !

Many places of northern Canada that are close to the North Pole are covered in ice throughout the year. In the east of Canada lies Greenland, Iceland and Europe separated by the Atlantic ocean. South of Canada is the United States of America (USA) that shares a 8891.6 Kilometers(5525 miles) long border with Canada which is the longest land border in the world. The rest of Canada is bordered by the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, covering a distance of 2,43,791 Kilo meters (151,485 miles) of coastline which is the longest in the world.

Spread across in 10 provinces (States) and 3 territories, most parts of Canada experience extreme cold weather in winter but in spite of this, 31% of Canada are forests. Though Canada is the second largest country in the world (second to Russia), there are only 3.5 Million people living here and out of this population 21% of people speak French and 11% speak other international languages. While English and French are the official languages, many official intimation notices are seen written in Mandarin (Chinese), Punjabi etc..

When it comes to names of people, Canada follows the Surname (or last name), first name convention and incidentally, the most common surname in Canada happens to be ‘Li’. From this one can guess the extent of Chinese population in Canada considering that 'Li' or 'Lee' is the most common surname in China.

To be contd...