Adjoining Austria, Germany, Poland and the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic consists of Bohemia in the west and Moravia in the east. Within Moravia is a small southern part of the historical region called Silesia, the rest of which is in present-day Poland. Prague, the capital of both the Czech Republic and Bohemia, sits astride the Vltava River about 30km (19mi) above its junction with the Labe River. The Czech Republic has a beautiful and diverse landscape with plenty of mountains, gentle highlands, lowlands, caves, canyons, broad fields, bogs, lakes, ponds and dams. Unfortunately, the further north you go, the worse the appalling air pollution and high-altitude acid-rain damage gets, the belated pay-back for unregulated industrialisation since the 19th century.
Despite centuries of clear-cutting for cultivation, forests still cover about one-third of the Czech Republic. Most remaining virgin forest is in uncultivatable mountain areas. Above the tree line (about 1400m/4592ft) there is little but grasses, shrubs and lichens. Almost half the high-altitude forests in northern Bohemia have been killed or blighted by acid rain; Moravian forests have fared somewhat better.
The richest wildlife are lynxes and other wildcats, marmots, otters, marten and mink. Pheasants, partridges, ducks, wild geese and other game birds are common in woods and marshes, and commonly hunted. Eagles, vultures, osprey, storks, bustards and grouse are rarer. Occasionally, wolves and bears wander over the Carpathian mountains into eastern Moravia.
The damp continental climate over most of the Czech Republic is responsible for warm, showery summers; cold, snowy winters; and generally changeable conditions. July is the hottest month everywhere, January the coldest. From December through February, temperatures push below freezing even in the lowlands, and are bitter in the mountains. There is no real 'dry season', and the long, sunny hot spells of summer tend to be broken by sudden, heavy thunderstorms. Winter brings 40 to 100 days of snow on the ground (about 130 in the mountains), plus fog in the lowlands.
Population
10,249,216 (July 2003 est.)
Area
78,866 sq km
Ethnicity/ Race
Czech 81.2%, Moravian 13.2%, Slovak 3.1%, Polish 0.6%, German 0.5%, Silesian 0.4%, Roma 0.
Major Languages
Czech
Religion
Roman Catholic 39.2%, Protestant 4.6%, Orthodox 3%, other 13.4%, atheist 39.8%
Go For Hockey International Expo For The First Time In PRAGUE
This attractive four-day event will take place at the Prague Exhibition Centre Letòany starting on 8 November 2012, and it will be held annually in the course of the following five years. It will be attended by the world\'s leading manufacturers of hockey and floor ball equipment and accessories, sportswear and assistive devices manufacturers, food supplement producers, as well as hockey schools and national and international sports associations.
Thanks to close cooperation with the organizer, Prague Convention Bureau managed to confirm the event for Prague. \"We are very happy that after long negotiations, the client put confidence in us that Prague can organize similar type of event, even five years in a row. Not only congresses but also sport events are very important for our destination from both economic and social point of view, and therefore we offer them full support in all directions,\" said managing director of Prague Convention Bureau Lenka Žlebková to obtaining the event. Holding the expo in the Czech lands is seen as a significant event. Ice hockey is undoubtedly the most popular sport in both the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia. Czech Republic regularly enjoys great success in the field of ice hockey. That is why the expo organizers expect strong interest from the public.
„I am very pleased that the organizers have chosen Prague for this extraordinary exhibition. Czech hockey has a long tradition and as a country of many world hockey legends we are proud of it. Therefore, I believe that an event of this type has its place here, and that it will certainly delight any hockey fan,“ said Prague Councillor Václav Novotný about Go For Hockey International Expo.
The accompanying program of these hockey days will include fun activities and competitions for parents and children. Also there will be an exhibition of sledge hockey, women’s ice hockey and floor ball. Another significant attraction will be a beneficial hockey game between hockey legends and many other shows by famous national and international personalities.
