Description: In the midst of dynamic growth as a fast paced modern commercial center, Bangkok manages to preserve its cultural heritage to a marked degree. The soaring roofs and gleaming spires of the Grand Palace and the city's many historic temples: Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Temple of Dawn and other shrines present the visitor with a picture of medieval Oriental wonder; as in an Eastern fairytale. Metropolitan Bangkok covers 612 sq mi of southern Thailand, and is located in the center of the most fertile rice producing delta in the world. A network of natural and artificial canals crisscross the city. They feed to and from Thailand's hydrological lifeline, the broad Chao Phraya River, which winds through the city providing transport for passengers and cargo. With an easy access to the river provided by the new skytrain, travelers who stay in the city can now enjoy the highlight of any visit to Bangkok, a boat cruise along the Chao Praya River. Bangkok is divided in two by the main north-south train line. Old Bangkok, where a large number of the city's temples and palaces and its Chinese and Indian districts are found, lies between the river and the railway. East of the railway, comprising the main business, tourist and sprawling residential districts, is 'new' Bangkok. Outside of these general classifications, Bangkok sprawls in all directions with a mixture of commercial, industrial and residential areas. Outside the city center are new high-rise neighborhoods where most of the city's approximately ten million inhabitants reside. Bangkok is the region's most exotic and, at the same time, most noisy and most chaotic capital city. Bangkok is both an ancient and a modern city, where the network of klongs (canals) offset a steady stream of automobile traffic, where giant outdoor markets compete with glittering shopping malls, and where modern buildings rise in the city that grew around the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It is the financial capital of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Bangkok continues to prosper in spite of a major economic setback in 1997, and the ongoing problem of some of the worst air and water pollution in the world.

Type: City