Scene of Banff
Scene of Banff
Reputed as the "backbone of North America", the Rocky Mountains have an extent as far as 4500 kilometers from north to south. Just like a giant dragon, the Rocky Mountains stretch in rises and falls, and present a grand spectacle with range upon range and peak upon peak. Among its wide geographic distribution scope, a larger part is within the territory of Canada. It is also the core zone of Rocky Mountains including five national parks, i.e, Jasper, Banff, Yoho, Kootnay and Waterton Lake that some provincial parks all these above parks encircle together the most beautiful part of the Rocky Mountains. If one travels in winter along the 230-kilometer No.93 Icefield Parkway, the most famous one in the world, he or she will witness on both sides lofty snow peaks, giant ice fields, frozen lakes and occasionally some wild animals, together with severalhas no habit of hibernation.
A
Jasper is the largest national park while Banff is the largest town. The Town of Banff was founded in 1883 and has become the only incorporated municipality in the Province of Alberta. This town is the commercial hub of the national park as well as the cultural events center. Some cultural organizations and agencies, such as Banff Center, White Museum, National Luxton Museum in Banff, National Historical Sites of Caves and Basins and other art museums, are located there.
As Canadian National Park Law and Canadian authority stipulate, the Town of Banff keeps a strict control over its permanent population. The census in 2007 showed 8721 persons in total. As a matter of fact, the unit price of real estate in Banff is not higher than Calgary City in a distance of 50 kilometers. Nevertheless, even a millionaire, a celebrity or a high-ranking official will find it extremely difficult to purchase an inch of real estate.
With mountains and streams nearby, this town enjoys a beautiful scene. Along both sides of the main avenue stand stores of various shapes and colors. Most of them are selling sports equipments. Just like many Chinese merchants who always present a niche for a statue of Buddha, the owners of Banff stores prefer to leave some black bear dolls of varied patterns outside their doors. On some large vehicles that pass the street, one often finds some vivid and colorful painting of other wild animals.
However, the most interesting resort for tourists is the nearby mountain that has gained its reputation out of a famous Hollywood film. 12 years ago, the director Ang Lee chose this part of mountains as the location for the film Brokeback Mountain by which many film viewers have enjoyed the magnificent landscape of the Rocky Mountains. The tender and romantic love story reflected in the film has added a lot to the imagination of prospective tourists.
In local stores, one can find only a few souvenirs about the film. Rather, there are more pictures about Icefield Parkway. The icy world, thick piles of snow and vast wilderness are invariably the main theme of those pictures. Indeed, even in late March, one still goes with the starry sky most of day. The tiny number of local population and the frigid climate confine most of local residents within their house and thus the majority of accents one can hear in the street mainly come from USA and Europe. This town receives 3.3 at least million tourists annually.
B
Except Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya,Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Kruger National Park in South Africa, there is no better place than the national parks within the Rocky Mountains that provide tourists with frequent encounters with wild animals in the open country.
Since the 19th century, plenty of European immigrants moved here in batches for settlement. They not only hunted down quantities of wild animals as merchandises or for entertainment, but also reclaimed lands, expanded pasture and built up towns in such a large scale that many wild animals lost their own habitats. For example, the establishment of Banff National Park initially aimed for control over a certain hot spring and for tourist development so as to increase the revenue of federal government, which had nothing to do with the wildlife preservation. In order to bring the commercial value of national park into full play and pursue high profits in a rapid way, more tourist resorts were developed, more highways were constructed, and more hotels, sanatoriums, zoos and museums were built. In order to provide sufficient fuel, sleepers under the rail and top pillars of coalmine, they felled large mass of forests for the sake of thousands of railway workers’ life. All above economic undertakings and tourist development led to great pressure on natural conservation.
The stress on ecological protection did not occur until 1972 when controversy arose out of its candidate bid for Winter Olympiad. The increasing influence of environmental protection organization finally forced the Canadian authority to give up their bid. In 1988, the revised National Park Law elevated the protection of ecology and environment onto the 1st Priority. All the ongoing development projects were suspended and the first batch of national parks were established along with related regulations and administrative measures.
Biologists started to adopt such measures as aviation survey, radio tracking and study of teeth specimen to know further information of various animals distribution, scope of activity, species structure and ecological behaviors, such as. Then little by little, they came up with some protective measures in accordance with the laws such as wildlife preservation zone expansion, restoration of bushes and lawns, plantation of excellent herbage, and fabaceae and planned hunting so as to keep species the total number of under control.
In the preseut-day national parks, the trees along the mountains and fields are free of human disturbance. Nobody will try to erect a fallen tree so that everything in nature may live up to its own destiny. In the meanwhile, those wild animals are more cherished. Many signs with deer, sheep and bear will be designated along the road so as to remind drivers to slow down and pay attention not to hurt those animals. At present, wolf is the rarest animal with a total of merely dozons and might be more precious than panda in China. Any passenger who happens to discover the trace of a wolf is obliged to report to the administration of national parks which pay close attention to the wolves' living condition and is ready to put forward new measures for protection at any time.
C
In an overview from Sulphur Mountain, the most spectacular architecture in the Town of Banff must be the five-star luxury hotel in Scottish Baronial style between Bow Falls and a dark green forest. It's the Banff Spring Hotel. This time-honored hotel of a century’s history came into being along with the building of the Rocky Mountains section of a throughout-Canada railway in 1884.
The then general manager of Canadian Pacific Railway supposed that tourists, more than enjoyment in local hotels, would take the train all the way to reach Banff. Thus he proposed the plan of building Banff Spring Hotel so as to attract tourists with charming scenery and unique hot springs to prosper their railway transportation.
Designed by architect Bruce Price, this hotel was the first one among the big batch of castle-style hotels throughout Canada by Canadian Pacific Railway. The outer wall of the hotel, made up of grey and brown plates of stone, canie into resemblance to a castle in the Middle Ages. After two years’ construction, it was officially open to the public in June 1888.
With an area of 92000 square feet, this hotel consists of 828 guest rooms, 55 meeting rooms, 17 restaurants, golf course, stores, galleries, and various indoor and outdoor venues such as bowling and tennis courts, outdoor swimming pools, cinemas, fitness center, Turkish sauna, massage falls and solar heating devices. The elegant and exquisite decorations gawe off a noble scent and all the furniture of ancient aesthetics lead to a traditional and dignified style. In contrast, this hotel appears to be unique as if so with many mysteries. All its waiters are always dressed in traditional Scottish skirts of lattice pattern even in the freezing winter. At 5 pm every day, some bagpipers in short pants will perform melodies to create a distinct Scottish attraction that has invited numerous heads of the state, royal and noble families, film stars and cultural celebrities to take residence here.
Within this spacious hotel, its rooms vary in all respects and the freeway corridors easily get the tourists lost. Nevertheless, the most confusing, fearful and yet curious part of this hotel might be the haunting gossip at midnight. Rumor has it that over a century ago a British princess held her wedding in this hotel, but unfortunately when stepping downstairs, she stumbled over her long wedding gown and passed away. From then on, at every midnight, this princess in her wedding gown often appears in elegant paces along the corridor of the hotel.
