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2. "Golden Dollar Church country" Vatican
We took the bus stopped in Rome near the train station, the guide yelled everyone off, entrusted to the "guide". The guide was a Chinese lady who has been in Rome for more than 10 years and is of course a Roman. She led us a while by bus **** car, a while on foot, through the streets and alleys, tossed for a while, came to the northwest corner of the city of Rome, from a gate into, in front of us is a grand oval square that can accommodate 300,000 people, a majestic church, she said that this is the Vatican City State, and then led us to visit, gushing introduction of the sights in front of us, introduced the history and current situation of this country The history and current situation of ......
Vatican City State, residing in the hills above, this is the original Roman emperor's garden, after the death of Jesus, his older disciple Peter became the head of the Church, came to Rome to preach, the disaster in the garden of the hills, but also buried in this. From then on, in the eyes of the believers here is the holy land. The Bishop of Rome, being in Rome, the capital of the empire, was politically and economically powerful and had more influence than the bishops of other regions, so he gradually evolved into the successor of Peter, and occupied the title of "Pope". In 756 A.D., the emperor of the time gave the city of Rome and the surrounding area to Pope Stephen II, with secular rights, the beginning of the Papal States. After the rise and fall of the country several times, the boundaries have changed. 1870 Italy completed the unification, the pope retired to the Vatican Palace, but do not recognize the demise of Italy, often antagonistic to the Italian. 1929 February 1 Mussolini in order to seek the support of the Catholic Church, and the Pope Pius II signed a contract, recognizing the Vatican is a sovereign state, unity of Church and State, the pope set the executive, legislative, judicial in a body, separate from the independence of Italy, the pope is a sovereign state. From then on, there was a city-state within the city of Rome - the State of Vatican City.
What is the size of this country? The Vatican City walls as the boundary, a total area of 0.44 square kilometers, east-west 1000 meters long, north-south 800 meters wide. "Guide" humorously said, equivalent to a city park, around the city walls to complete a circle, with less than an hour. The population of less than 1,500 people, is the world's smallest country. The Vatican has no agriculture, no industry, and the third sector is not developed. What economic sources to make it become a "golden dollar religious country", gold foreign exchange reserves of 10 billion U.S. dollars, to become the world's richest, the highest national income of the country? Listened to the "guide" of the introduction, witnessed the Vatican's style, only to make me unravel the mystery of the heart. The Vatican's wealth depends mainly on the power of religion. There are more than 800 million Catholics in the world, every year there are millions of people come to the Vatican pilgrimage, listen to the Pope's instructions. Devotees who come donate, creating a steady stream of wealth. Initially, the donated money was used to set up a bank, which gradually formed a factory financial trust. Economic activities are very active, in North America, Europe, many countries have tens of billions of dollars of investment, capital penetration of Italy and other countries in the economic sector, especially bank credit and real estate, only one of the real estate is 460,000 hectares. It is well documented that the profitability of religious banks is the largest source of revenue for the treasury.
The income from tourism is also significant. The entire Vatican is on the list of World Heritage Sites; St. Peter's is the largest church in the world, with many beautiful frescoes and sculptures; St. Peter's Square is second to none in architectural art; and the National Library has the largest collection of codexes, manuscripts, and orphaned books in the world. These also appeal to atheists, with nearly ten million people touring and visiting each year. The Vatican stamps are also collected by stamp enthusiasts around the world, and travelers are expected to buy some as souvenirs; the stamp industry earns $3 million a year. These four sources of wealth are like the four tall and thick marble Lang columns in St. Peter's Square, supporting the functioning of this Church State, enabling it to send holy envoys or delegates to more than 100 countries, so that it can convene a world conference of the Patriarchate to give orders, and have the ability to establish embassies in more than 90 countries.
Ancient **** and the country of San Marino
Leaving Venice, along the highway eastbound for 1 hour or so, on the face of the emergence of a mountain beams, undulating peaks, three peaks protruding from the top of each peak, a fortress resides in the male. There is a sense of dragons and tigers. The guide pointed to say, that is San Marino **** and the country, the highest peak called Titano, more than 700 meters above sea level, the capital of San Marino on that hill. The bus left the highway, climbed the slope around the bend, the higher the turn, climbed a steep slope, in front of the light, is a parking lot. The guide said, San Marino city is here, here can only stay - an hour. We hurriedly get off, look up, in front of us is the layers of stone buildings, some of the sky protruding, some close to the stone wall, ancient and spectacular. Follow a gently sloping stone street forward, panting to the end, in front of the eyes appeared tens of square meters of the platform, which is considered a small square, the center of the square erected a bust, the guide said, this is Mali Nuo, stonemason, the founding father.
Marino, a Christian, is a figure of the 4th century AD. Some say that he offended the godfather, punished him to repair the church in Mount Titano; some say that he was dissatisfied with the church, hermit, quarrying stone to make a living, and do good deeds, people worshiped as "saints". This "saint" to accept fugitives, and gradually organized a "stonemason's commune", quarrying stone to build the mountain, quarrying stone to sell stone, became a paradise for fugitives. As more and more people gathered, the town expanded along the mountain. After his death, his children and grandchildren continued to build mountains, and in the early Middle Ages, some city-states appeared on the Italian Peninsula, and this place was also influenced by them and developed in the direction of a "state". In 1263, the State of San Marino was proclaimed as the State of San Marino. In the following centuries, it was repeatedly ravaged by foreign forces, and in 1740 it exercised its power independently. It has become the oldest **** and State in the world today.
The present **** and State is this large mountain, with an area of 61 square kilometers and a population of 2,150,000 people, about 4,300 in the city of San Marino, which is bordered on all sides by Italy. The government consists of 10 members, there is no prime minister, the foreign minister plays the role of prime minister, the head of state by the two equal rights of the consuls *** with the same, the term of six months, can not be re-elected, can be re-elected after three years. The consuls are elected by the Great and General Council. There is a constitution, which originated in the 14th century and was adopted in the 17th century, known as "Charter No. 1", which has been slightly modified over the past 300 years. The country does not have an army, but only the Grand Council, the Castle, the police, the municipal police and the gendarmerie, which is specialized in combating crime.
Leaving the square further up, is the St. Francis Gate, the right side of the door is a church, 14th-century stone buildings, church reliefs, ancient bells, tombstones, frescoes and religious artifacts are quite valuable, is a famous place. Through the church, there is a narrow street with stores on both sides, and the citizens, recognizing Chinese people, greeted us with a friendly, stiff "Hello! and smiling faces selling us tourist souvenirs. Leaving the street, we climbed up a steep slope to a towering castle. This mountainous country, the spirit of self-improvement is admirable, no resources, no airports, no railroads, no ports, with their wisdom, the sudden development of industry, clothing, machinery manufacturing, electronic equipment, chemical industry, brewing and so on scattered throughout the mountain of nine municipalities. It became the main source of finance. The people live in affluence, and the whole population enjoys public medical care, which seems to be a Garden of Eden.
Gambling country Morocco
On the morning of October 3, the bus along the Mediterranean Sea Nice coast driving sharply, a moment to the Principality of Morocco. The country's east, north and west surrounded by France, south of the sea, east and west 3 kilometers long, north and south of the narrowest place only 200 meters, a total area of only 1.95 square kilometers, equivalent to China's Macao 1 / 8. The territory of the hilly, an average elevation of 500 meters above sea level, the border line is 2.5 kilometers long, the coastline is 5.16 kilometers long. Along the coast of high-rise buildings, gardens scattered, similar to the scenery of Macao. There is no severe cold in winter and no heat in summer, which is a good place for leisure and vacation. According to legend, in the 6th century BC, the Mononese tribe lived here, thus getting its name.
People come here to travel and sightseeing, think this small country has many peculiarities. One of the peculiarities is the exchange of land for independence. In 1297 AD, the Grimaldi family occupied the castle here. 100 years later, the formation of the prototype of the Principality, has become Spain, France's protectorate. 1861, Mo and France signed a gift of Menton, Rougoublon two large towns and other conditions to obtain independence, so that the territory from 20 square kilometers to the present area. Later on, it signed another contract to exercise its sovereignty under the respect of France's political, economic, navigational and military interests, and to take any diplomatic action by consensus with France. Once the Head of State had no descendants, Mo would be incorporated into France. France assumed the obligation to guarantee the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. The head of government is appointed by the Prince, but must be French. Listening to these introductions, tourists have commented, what kind of independence is this? It is bitter independence. The second of the peculiarities is the special composition of the population. The country has 32,000 inhabitants, with only 6,089 people of national nationality, while there are 10,229 French nationals and 6,410 Italian nationals, both exceeding those of national nationality. The rest are of British, Swiss, German, Belgian, American and other nationalities. The official language is French, the lingua franca is Italian, English, and Moroccan is only considered a dialect. The third peculiarity is that gambling, which is prohibited in civilized countries, has become a pillar industry. The government has endeavored to diversify the economy for many years, but up to now, the industry is still weak, but the tourism industry is well-developed, in which the gambling industry occupies an important position, and it is called the gambling country. There are two casinos in the country, the world-famous Monte Carlo is located in the north of the capital; one of them is an ordinary casino, tourists can go in to visit. A group of friends to buy coins, a try, because the language is different, can only be under the guidance of the staff, win also confused, lose also confused, figure a fun also. The other two buildings is a big gamble, there is a certain status of people can go in. It is said that with 5-10 million euros can be in the room to bet, and there are people to accompany the gambling. Around the casino built an opera house, stores, swimming pools, hot springs baths, sports fields, etc., services and entertainment venues are readily available. Every weekend and holiday, rich merchants gathered here, gambling tax, spending generous, to bring no bandit income. Local lodging, dining, buses, and even buy newspapers with the color of gambling, and thus called the gambling country.
Moroccans ambitious, active participation in international activities, is now a member of 70 international organizations, of which more than 10 headquarters are located in Morocco, often held forums, summits, such as international conferences and international cultural and sports events, and strive to create the image of a cosmopolitan city.
Micro-industrialized Liechtenstein
In central Europe, the Alps between Switzerland and Austria, called Liechtenstein Park, is 500 A.D. years ago after the arrival of the Allemagne nation descended from the Prince's family name in 1917, the establishment of the country in 1806 to become a sovereign state. The country is small, 24 kilometers from north to south and 8 kilometers from east to west at its widest point, with a total area of 160 square kilometers, making it the largest of the pocket-sized countries we visited on this tour. There are mountains, rivers and plains, and the mountains are mostly between 1800 and 2600 meters above sea level, with year-round snow on the peaks.
Land available area: forests accounted for 1/3, pasture accounted for 1/3, agricultural land accounted for only 4.7%, the rest is the building land and barren mountains. The snow-capped peaks and the clear mountains and green water and meadows form the typical landscape of this mountainous country. The population of 3.3 million people, of which foreigners accounted for 1/3 of this constitutional monarchy, the duke has the highest decision-making power, the government has only five members, in addition to the prime minister, deputy prime minister, the other three are part-time, and close relations with Switzerland, diplomatic defense are entrusted to Switzerland, we enter and exit the border by the Swiss border personnel to check the formalities. There are only 68 police officers in the whole country. In the past 10 years, the government has taken measures to follow the path of industrial wealth. The composition of the national economy has changed a lot, industry has become the lifeblood of the national economy, the traditional agriculture and animal husbandry, stamps industry, the position of the backward. Metal processing, machinery manufacturing, ceramics, chemicals, medicine, electronics, textiles and other industries to accelerate the pace of development, the country has about dozens of small and medium-sized enterprises, distributed in more than a dozen small towns. Although it is a resource-poor country, the two-pronged approach has worked. Raw materials rely on imports, 95% of the products are exported, and our country imports its complete sets of equipment and electronic products. It is known as a "micro-industrial country". This country's development of economic novelty, the government formulated a low tax policy and bank secrecy law, to promote the development of the financial industry, we walk in the capital city of Vaduz street, opposite to see the bank building, where there have been 15 banks, the international capital flow to this mountainous country. 1999 data recorded that at that time, the turnover has reached 34.9 billion Swiss francs. The development of the banking sector has in turn provided sufficient funds for industrial development. The city of Vaduz, with a population of only 5,000 inhabitants, is on its way to becoming a "financial capital".
The people of Vaduz, with more than 20,000 telephones, more than 12,000 televisions, and 674 cars per 1,000 people, are one of the richest countries in the world.
The bus we rode on the highway drove sharply, snowy peaks, green mountains, meadows, cows and sheep, vineyards like a landscape painting, flashed outside the window, leaving the border