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Interesting Facts About Switzerland
By: http://ohfact.com/
Switzerland (/ˈswɪtsərlənd/), officially the Swiss Confederation, is
a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city
of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities.The country is situated
in Western-Central Europe,and is bordered by Italy to the
south, France to the west, Germany to the north,
and Austria and Liechtensteinto the east. Switzerland is a landlocked
country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and
the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps
occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of
approximately eight million people is concentrated mostly on the
plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the
two global cities and economic centres Zürichand Geneva.
Read More At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
Intersting Facts About Switzerland
Switzerland is prepared for a nuclear war, if there ever was
one – there are enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate
its entire human population, due to laws that require everybody
to have access to a shelter in their building or nearby. The Swiss
military keeps fully stocked artillery bunkers, disguised as quaint
country homes, in the middle of populated villages.
In Switzerland citizens can challenge any law passed by
Parliament –provided they can gather 50,000 signatures against
the law within 100 days. If succesful, a national vote is held and
voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the
law.
Switzerland is one of the only two countries to have a square
flag – the Vatican has the only other square flag in the world. The
Swiss flag is a red square with a white cross in the centre.
Switzerland's main access points are wired to blow in case of an
attack – one of the country's defense strategies is to demolish
every main road, bridge and railway access into Switzerland in
case of a foreign invasion, with at least 3,000 locations around the
country prepared to blow at a moment’s notice.
Coffee in Zurich is the most expensive in the world – costing an
average CHF3.65 (USD 3.65) in the Coffee Price Index 2016, with
Copenhagen, Basel, Bern and Geneva rounding out the top five
respectively. Switzerland was also the origin of instant coffee
when the Nestlé Company, started by Swiss businessman Henri
Nestlé in 1867, created Nescafe in 1938.
Switzerland boasts some of the world's most famous
inventions – they created Velcro, cellophane, the Swiss Army
Knife, absinthe, the potato peeler, Helvetica font, LSD,
muesli, edible chocolate gold and milk chocolate to name a few.
They were also pioneers in introducing bobsleigh, tobogganing
and luge as a competitive sport to the world.
Swiss men have the longest life expectancy in the world – in
2015 life expectancy at birth was 81.3 years for Swiss men and
85.3 years for Swiss women, according to World Health
Organization (WHO). This puts Switzerland second (after Japan)
for the average longest life expectancy. The population is also
ageing; in 2015, almost one-fifth of the population was 65.
Swiss law prohibits owning 'soclal' pets unless you have two of
them – this makes it illegal in Switzerland to keep just one guinea
pig, mouse, ferret, fish, canary, pig or other social creature. With
the world's most stringent animal welfare laws, Switzerland
judges isolation for such animals as abuse. This has sparked
services such as a lawyer who defends animals and a pet-renting
service in case one of a pair dies and the owner wants to avoid a
pet-buying cycle to abide by the pairing law.
There are Swiss taxes for owning a dog – annual taxes are
determined by the dog's size and weight. Dog owners are also
required to take a training course to learn how to properly care
for their pets.
Switzerland is one of the world's best places to be born, live and
be happy– according to consistently high rankings in global
reports. Switzerland was ranked the world's happiest country in
2015, and came second in 2016 (after Denmark) out of 156
countries, while Zurich was named the second best city to live in
Mercer's Quality of Living Report 2016 (after Vienna), and tied
with Bern and Helsinki as the second best city for personal
safesty, far above London (72) or the US (where no city ranked in
the top 50). According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU)
latest Where to be Born Index (2013), Switzerland was the best
country to be born.
There are 208 mountains over 3,000m high – with 24 of them
over 4,000m. The highest is Monte Rosa (Dufoursptiz) at 4,634m,
situated on the Swiss/Italian border.
Switzerland's climate is not all about snowy mountains – cold,
snowy winters were historically the norm but freezing
temperatures and large snowfalls are less the case today,
especially in lowland areas. Many Swiss ski resorts would struggle
to survive without artifical snow. During hot summers,
temperatures have been known to exceed 30–35°C in some areas.
The Alps acts as a climate barrier: northern Switzerland tends to
get colder from Atlantic winds, while southern Switzerland has a
milder climate influenced by Mediterranean winds.
Parents can be overruled on what they call their child – in
Switzerland it is prohibited to give a child a name that could
damage the child's interest. This right was exercised when
authorities banned Swiss musician Christine Lauterburg from
calling her daughter 'Lexicon'.
Switzerland is also known as Confoederatio Helvetica – which
explains the abbreviation CH. It's officially named the Swiss
Confederation for historical reasons, although modern
Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with
Bern as the federal city. The founding of the Swiss Confederation
traditionally dates to 1 August 1291 and is celebrated annually
as Swiss National Day.
Switzerland has a considerable wealth gap between rich and
poor – the top 20 percent of the population earn more than four
times as much as the bottom 20 percent, according to the OCED.
Read More At:
http://ohfact.com/interesting-facts-about-switzerland/
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