Metro Continuing Education: International Students

About Edmonton

Edmonton is a cosmopolitan city that offers a safe and stable living environment. It is home to many international festivals, world-class sports and arts venues, and has a wide variety of recreational spaces and facilities.

Did you know Edmonton is:

514 kilometres (320 miles) north of the Montana, USA-Canada border?
a 3-hour drive south to Calgary?
a 4-hour drive southwest to Banff National Park?
a 3-hour drive west to Jasper National Park?

Size
Canada is the world's second-largest country surpassed only by the Russian Federation.

Capital
Edmonton is the capital city of the province of Alberta.

Population
Greater Edmonton has a population of over one million people.

Weather / Average Temperatures
The city averages 12.32 hours of sunshine per day.

Money
The currency in Canada is the Canadian Dollar
1 Canadian Dollar (CAD)=0.99 US Dollar (USD) approx.

Cost of living
Edmonton has a low cost of living rating compared to other Canadian and North American cities.

Getting Out and About
Edmonton is a safe, clean city with excellent transportation, shopping and recreational facilities and activities.


	SPRING	SUMMER	FALL	WINTER
HIGH	10C (50F)	23C (73F)	11C (52F)	-11C (12F)
LOW	-1 C (30F)	12C (56F)	0C (32F)	-19C (-2F)
MEAN	4C (40F)	17C (66F)	6C (43F)	-15C (5F)

Getting Out and About

Transportation
Edmonton has an extensive and affordable public transportation system of buses and the light rail transit (LRT). Metro is on a bus route. A single adult transit fare is $2.75 for 90 minutes of travel. A monthly pass costs $81.50.

Recreation Facilities & Activities
Edmonton’s river valley is the largest stretch of urban parkland in North America - 12 times larger than New York ’s Central Park . Besides 22 park areas, Edmonton has:

		over 132 kilometres of trails, including bicycle trails
		4 lake systems, with a total of 11 lakes
		14 ravines
		over 70 golf courses.

Popular sport and recreational activities are ice hockey, soccer, baseball, cycling, swimming, canoeing and cross-country skiing.

Festivals
Known as Canada’s Festival City, Edmonton hosts over 30 major festivals each year. The season kicks off on New Year’s Eve with a celebration downtown and carries through the year with a host of arts and cultural festivals, including Canada's largest Fringe theatre festival.

Shopping
Edmonton has more shopping malls per capita than any other North American city. The most famous of these is West Edmonton Mall, with over 800 stores and services, 110 eating establishments and seven world-class attractions. The mall features the world’s largest indoor amusement park, the world’s largest indoor water park, a National Hockey League (NHL)-size ice arena, four seaworthy submarines in the world’s largest indoor man-made lake, an exact replica of the Santa Maria ship, a miniature golf course, 26 movie theatres and a Las Vegas-style casino.

For further information on Edmonton and its many attractions, see www.discoveredmonton.com