HOUSTON IN TEXAS – TRAVEL TIPS FOR THE CITY THAT IS MORE THAN APOLLO 13
Everything in Texas is a little bigger and better than anywhere else. At least if you ask the Texans. This also applies to the cosmopolitan city of Houston on the south coast, which offers its visitors a unique mixture of fine art, cultural diversity, unique gastronomy and of course space travel. The fourth largest city in the United States also has a lot to offer for children.
According to listofusnewspapers, the city of Houston with over 2.2 million people with nicknames like HTX, The Big H, Bayou City, H-Town, Space City or Hustle Town, whose cityscape is characterized by skyscrapers, is located in Harris, the third largest county in the country, in southeast Texasand extends over an area of 1,700 km2 of which 58 km2 is water. 1,642 square kilometers consist of mainland.
Houston in figures, data and facts
- Foundation: August 1836
- Counties: Fort Bend County, Harris County, Montgomery County
- Time zone: Central (UTC -6 / -5)
- Structure: 12 city districts
- Height: 12 meters
- Postal codes: 77001-77299, 77339 and 77345
- Area code: +1 713, 281 and 832
- GNIS ID: 1380948
- Coordinates: 29 ° 46 ‘N, 95 ° 23’ W
- Flag: white star on a blue background
The city, which has one of the largest seaports in the USA, is connected to the Gulf of Mexico via the Houston Ship Channel and is located in the east of the state of Texas on the Gulf Coast Plain. The sea is less than an hour’s drive away.
The former ghostwriter of Ronald Reagan, the German economist Hans Sennholz, who was born in Bergkamen, is an honorary citizen of the city, as is the Polish-Swiss painter, filmmaker, illustrator, sculptor and glass painter Jan January Janczak. Janczak came to Houston in 1985 for an extended study visit.
Most activities in Houston are outdoors
According to the climate diagram, Houston has a subtropical climate, with the expansion of the city and its geographic location in some cases leading to large differences in temperature and humidity in the greater Houston area. The average temperatures are between 15 and 27 degrees Celsius all year round.
The warmest months are July and August, when average temperatures of 29 degrees Celsius are reached. It gets coldest in December and January with around 12 degrees Celsius. Most precipitation falls in July, the fewest rainy days occur in March. Overall, the metropolis has around 106 days of rainfall per year with rainfall of around 1370 mm. On the other hand, there are 2,630 hours of sunshine per year and there is at least ten hours of light a day. In the summer months, precipitation can usually be experienced as short, heavy showers. It can also snow in Houston during the winter months.
Hurricanes are a recurring problem in Houston, although the city is mostly on the fringes of tropical cyclones. On average, according to weather records, the city has to deal with 25 of them over a period of ten years. Ascending trend. Most hurricanes happen in September.
Demographics: Houston has seen population growth of 40 percent since 1990
Houston is by far the most populous city in Texas. In 2016, it is estimated that around 2.3 million people lived there. In the Houston metropolitan area there are more than twice as many and the population is still growing. Since 1990 alone, the number of residents in the urban area has increased by 40 percent. The population density is 1,534.9 residents per square kilometer.
According to the results of the census (2010 census), the ratio between whites and African Americans is quite balanced at 25.6 percent to 23.7 percent. In addition, there are 6.7 percent people of Asian descent and 0.7 percent Indians. 43.7 percent of Houston residents say they are Hispanic. The median income of $ 46,187 in 2015 was slightly lower than the overall Texas median income. 22.5 percent of the population lived below the poverty line in 2015.
Most of the population are Catholics (15.1 percent), followed by Baptists and Methodists. Overall, only about 43 percent of the population of the Texan metropolis is religious. Acting mayor has been Sylvester Turner since 2016.
Houston is one of the strongest economic regions in the United States
Economically, the port in Houston is one of the most important ports in the southern United States. But Houston is too an important transshipment point for the oil industry for oil and oil products. There are many oil refineries and petrochemical plants in the southeast of the metropolis in particular. The port facilities are used to transport goods of all kinds by sea, but here too in maritime transport the focus is on the handling of crude oil and the oil products refined from it. In addition, many supraregional and globally known companies, such as Sysco, are based in the Texan city. The economic output of the Texan city in 2016 was 478.7 billion US dollars, the gross domestic product per capita was 65,332 US dollars.
The unemployment rate is 4.1% below the US average. The commute to work is long in Houston, and the average distance to work in the city is 15 miles.
Convenient location and good infrastructure
The Texas city is conveniently located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and 45/69. The Texas State Highway Beltway 8 forms a ring of the two highways that surrounds the city center. Together with the Sam Houston Tollway, this results in a total length of 142 kilometers for road traffic. State Highway 99, also known as the Grand Parkway, forms the outermost ring to the west and north. It is partially subject to tolls.
The city also has an Amtrak train station through which it is connected to the national rail network. The Metrorail light rail, which runs from north to south, is another means of public transport in H-Town’s rail traffic. Houston can be reached by plane via George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). The intercontinental IAH is 37 kilometers north of the city center, the HOU is eleven kilometers southeast. Lufthansa and United Airlines fly directly to the IAH from Frankfurt.
Colleges and universities in Houston
There is a lot for college teachers to do in Houston. Among other things, the private Rice University, the Texas Southern University, originally created for dark-skinned people, and the state University of Houston are located there.
Town twinning
Houston has a total of sixteen twin cities.
- Lahore, Pakistan
- Tampico, Mexico
- Luanda, Angola
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Tyumen, Russia
- Leipzig, Germany
- Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Perth, Australia
- Stavanger, Norway
- Grampian Region, UK
- Baku, Azerbaijan
- Nice, France
- Chiba, Japan
- Huelva, Spain
- Taipei, Taiwan
