Happy Tycoon
Chapter 447: The northernmost city in the world
Yang Jing and the others stayed in Alter for more than a week. Counting the time they took, more than 20 days have passed since this trip.
The Arctic Ocean at the end of July has completely entered the warmest time of the year. At this time, the ice in the coastal areas of the Arctic Ocean has melted, and a large number of glaciers collapsed from Greenland and entered the Arctic Ocean to become icebergs.
Because the ice layer melts faster, the Blue Whale has been sailing at a speed of ten knots in the sea seven or eight kilometers away from the coastline. When bypassing the northern part of Greenland and entering the Greenland Sea, due to the influence of the warm North Atlantic current, there is almost no ice on the sea surface.
Here, Captain Andre can safely and boldly increase the speed of the ship to the normal cruising speed, and then go straight to Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard in northern Norway, at this speed.
When the Blue Whale arrived in Longyearbyen, it was already three days after leaving Alert.
Longyearbyen at 78 degrees 13 minutes north latitude is the capital of Svalbard and is known as the northernmost city on the planet.
Actually, there is still controversy about the title of "the world's northernmost city".
is different from Ushuaia, Argentina, which is recognized as the "southernest city in the world". The title of the northernmost city on the earth has been under debate.
The biggest noise is the two cities not far from each other on the northern island of Norway, Hammerfest and Horningschweig.
Hammerfest declared itself as "the northernmost city in the world" as early as two hundred years ago, and established many monumental buildings such as "the northernmost sign" and "the northernmost hotel" to prove its status. It also issued Related tourist souvenirs, printed matter and stamps, and seized the "public opinion orientation" of many books and magazines.
The title of "the world's northernmost city" has brought a lot of benefits to this small city with less than 10,000 people. Not only is there a flood of tourists, but also the government's many "inclined policies" have also benefited it a lot. For example, the first street lamp in the world that uses electricity is first installed in this city, because everyone agrees that there is a three-month polar night in winter, which is the place where street lights are most needed.
But their neighbor, Horning Schweiger in the North Point is obviously not convinced. The latitude of your Hammerfest is 70 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, but ours is 71 degrees north latitude. How can we say that we should be the "northest in the world"!
But the people of Hammerfest are righteous. According to Norwegian law, a total of five thousand people can be called a "city". There are only three thousand and three hundred people in Honningschweig, and it can only be called a small town.
Hammerfest’s reason made the Honningschweig people very dissatisfied, so in 1996, the Honningschweig people declared themselves a "city", but six months later it was declared invalid by the Norwegian government. In desperation, the city council played the Huairou card. Hammerfest has already made a fortune because of oil processing, so he should be more generous and share some of the benefits of the "most northern" among good neighbors.
Horningschweig now has a bar known as the northernmost bar in the world and a sightseeing spot where "the world's first sight of the northern lights". Every summer, as many as 208,000 tourists from various countries come by boat to see the world's first sunrise and the magnificent Arctic coastline, giving them a taste of the "most northern" sweetness. But they are still dissatisfied, because Hammerfest has 250,000 tourists every year.
Facing the dispute between Hammerfest and Horningschweig for the "world's northernmost city", Longyearbyen, which is further north, and Alter, which is further north, each moved a small Mazar to sit in the north, laughing Look at the two cities in the south for the title of "the world's northernmost city".
Longyle and Alter, the little brothers, looked at them interestingly, but they didn't say anything.
Alter can’t help it. Although it is the northernmost settlement in the world, Alter knows himself. Alter, at 82 degrees 28 minutes north latitude, is definitely the largest settlement on the planet. The human settlement at the northern end, but the settlement where Yang Jing and the others had just left was too small, and the environment was too bad.
Yang Jing and the others have just left Alter a few days ago, so they are most impressed by the situation there.
To the north of Alert is the perennially frozen Arctic Ocean, and to the south is a swamp covered with ice and snow. Most of the year is covered with snow and ice, and roads are not distinguished. The rest of the day is muddy. Although there is a small airport, it can only be lifted every year. With dozens of poor landings, most of the planes are still snow planes with only a few seats.
People there don’t see a few tourists throughout the year, and the residents are naturally uninterested in the “northern” dispute that can’t bring any benefits to them. What they often say is the town’s nickname, “the hero town”. , Because only heroes-ambitious explorers and persevering scientific research personnel-dare to come to this isolated, snowy place all year round.
To be honest, Yang Jing, who had just left Alert, knew very well that Alert was not qualified to compete for the title of "the world's northernmost city". There is not even a village or town, how can it be called a "city"? Not to mention that even if it is there to get this title, there is no uselessness. More than 99.99% of the people in this world can't get there!
As for another place that is eligible to compete for the title of "the world's northernmost city", it is the Longyearbyen city where Yang Jing and the others are about to enter the port.
Geographically speaking, Longyearbyen, at 78 degrees 13 minutes north latitude, is undoubtedly far north than the two quarreling neighbors in the south. Moreover, although this city has a population of only more than 1,800 people, it is an out-and-out city, and it is also a capital city. Therefore, no matter how you look at it, Longyearbyen is more qualified for the title of "the world's northernmost city".
But, unfortunately, although this city belongs to Norway, it was discovered by the American Longyearbyen when he was looking for a coal mine. The proportion of Russians and Ukrainians among the residents is twice that of Norwegians. For this reason, although this town known for its Arctic scientific research has the world’s northernmost coal mine and considerable international fame, in the eyes of Norwegians, this city is actually the least qualified to be "the world’s northernmost city." "city of.
He refused to admit his own country. In desperation, Longyear and Alert had to move the little Maza to see the two cities in the south.
However, although the Norwegians are unwilling to recognize the status of Longyearbyen, this city is extremely famous all over the world, otherwise Captain Andre would not have set the second supply point for this voyage here. City.
Don't look at Longyearbyen City is not big, but here has a dock that can dock a 10,000-ton giant ship.
No way. Although Longyearbyen was discovered by Icelanders as early as 1194, the harsh climate here makes it difficult to survive here. It was not until 1906 that American John Longyear discovered a wealth of coal mines in this area that the city began to prosper.
It can be said with certainty that this city was developed on the basis of coal mines. Moreover, the Swell Coal Mine in Longyearbyen is one of the world's most productive coal mines, which is very attractive to Europe in the context of industrialization. With the injection of U.S. dollar capital, coal mines blossomed everywhere in Svalbard. Tempted by high salaries, many miners from Norway, Russia and other countries left their homes and came here to fight the severe cold and became the first islanders.
With a coal mine, it is natural to have a wharf to transport raw coal out, so this 10,000-ton wharf was formed.
After the Blue Whale steadily docked at this pier, Yang Jing and Gege led Dabai off the ship.
It takes a whole day for the Blue Whale to be resupplied here, and it will not leave here until tomorrow evening to move on. Before that, Yang Jing and the others had more than 20 hours to visit the city.
After actually entering the city, Yang Jing discovered that this long and narrow city is in a valley. It is precisely because of the towering mountains on the north and south sides that the residents in the valley can withstand the cold wind from the Arctic.
The city is very small, much smaller than Nuuk, which Yang Jing once visited. However, the buildings here are as colorful and beautiful as Nuuk.
It is said that the reason why the houses here are in this color is because from November to January of each year, Longyearbyen has three months of polar nights. During this period, the whole city is plunged into darkness. In ~lightnovelpub.net~, the exterior walls of the houses here are painted in colorful colors to make it easy for residents and tourists to identify them in the dark.
The hotel Yang Jing booked is the best Radisson Blu Polar Hotel in Spitsbergen in Longyearbyen. Like other buildings in the small town, this hotel is also made of wood. And the height is only two floors.
This four-star hotel is located in the center of the small city 1.3 kilometers away from the pier. Originally, the hotel wanted to send a car to pick up Yang Jing and the others, but because of the great white presence, Yang Jing refused. It’s not far anyway, it’s healthier to walk around.
On their way from the pier to the hotel, Yang Jing found that on the hillsides on both sides of the road, abandoned wooden cable cars could be seen everywhere.
These cable cars are all left over by the Svalbard Mining Group, the largest company in the town. Before mechanization, these cable cars were used to transport coal from the mining area to the dock.
The current Longyearbyen is in the extreme daytime. It is the peak of tourism. When Yang Jing disembarked, it was 8:30 in the evening local time, but there were still many tourists on the street at this time.
Yang Jing and his party quickly attracted the attention of many people, mainly because the Dabai next to Yang Jing was too attractive. Although some people in Europe and the United States also keep polar bears as pets, polar bears of this size are really rare. Even if Longyearbyen, like Churchill in Canada, has a large number of polar bears, and the city is also known as "the hometown of polar bears", it is really rare to see a wild polar bear walking on the street so swaggeringly.
So along the way, the combination of Yang Jing, Gege, and Dabai received the highest attention...