Everyone has heard of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone has seen films from Hollywood. But what else do we know about California? This book looks at the cities and the mountains, at the sea and deserts. It looks at the history of this exciting state, at the gold miners of 1849 and at San Francisco and its earthquakes.If you hear about California, what do you image in your mind? In my case, I came up with a famous bridge, San Andreas Fault, Disneyland, and Hollywood. Maybe we all know about the name of something like that, but we don't explain and talk clearly about it. By the way, I have been thinking that I want to go California in the future, because I love movies and wanted to experience the scale and setting of some Hollywood movies by myself. So I decided to read this book and learn not only the base knowledge but the history and background.
On April 18, 1906, there was a terrible earthquake in San Francisco. The earthquake destroyed about 5,000 buildings immediately, and 3,000 people died and 300,000 people lost their homes in fire and the earthquake. Today, the buildings in San Francisco are much stronger. They are specially stand up well in earthquake, so in 1989, when there was another earthquake in the city, only eleven people died and 1,800 lost there homes. When I was a high school student, I have learned about the San Andreas Fault in the geography class. After reading this book, I could know the relationship between the lots of earthquake in California and the San Andreas Fault. Actually, California has many hills and mountains and that is attracting many visitors now. I think that the sacrifice and experience of many earthquakes made recent California and that of sightseeing places.
Lying between the San Gabriel mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles is one of the world's largest cities. There are nearly nine million people living in the city, and it is more than 10,000 square kilometers i size. American film makers first came to Los Angeles because the weather was good all through the year, and because Californian workforces were cheap, who are from China to earn money as much as possible. If we visit there, we should go Dodger Stadium and watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play baseball. At different times of the year, we can also see American football games, ice hockey, and horse racing. Around Los Angeles, the sixty four kilometers of cast, including Malibu, Santa Monica, and Venice Beach is what Los Angeles people call 'the beach'. Surfers from all over the world come to Malibu's Surfrider Beach. I have never tried to ride on surfboard, but if my dreams to go to California, I would try to be a surfer like that people.Escotte, John.(2000). California. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
