Other major BC that host significfant Canadian immigration populations include Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond, Delta, and New Westminster in the Lower Mainland; Abbotsford and Langley in the Fraser Valley; Nanaimo on Vancouver Island; and Kelowna and Kamloops in the Interior. Prince George is the largest city in the northern part of the province, while a town northwest of it, Vanderhoof, is at the geographic centre of the province.
Immigrants to British Columbia will find the Coast Mountains, Canadian Rockies and the Inside Passage’s many inlets provide some of BC’s renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and ecotourism industry. Seventy-five percent of the province is mountainous (more than 1,000 metres or 3,280 feet above sea level); 60% is forested; and only about 5% is arable. The Okanagan area is one of only three wine-growing regions in Canada and also produces excellent ciders, but exports little of either beverage. Those immigrating to Canada from warm climates will enjoy the small rural towns of Penticton, Oliver, and Osoyoos which have some of the warmest and longest summer climates in Canada, although their temperature ranges are exceeded by the even-warmer Fraser Canyon towns of Lillooet and Lytton, where temperatures on summer afternoons often surpass 40°C (104°F).
Much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast as far north as the Alaska Panhandle and south from the Olympic Peninsula to northern California, is covered by temperate rain forest.
