About Wales - Newsletter 1

Welsh Government Consultations sent this bulletin at 04-08-2014 04:24 PM BST

Monday 4th August 2014

Croeso!

That’s ‘Welcome’ in Welsh. And it will be a warm welcome that you receive when you arrive in Wales in September. Journalists are by their nature curious, so this is the first in a series of newsletters which will aim to give you a little of the story of the place you’ll be visiting.

We'll also include some background colour about the country and the cities in which the summit is being staged that may help with the reports that you’ll be writing, filming or tweeting for your audiences at home, plus links to further information.

Wales – Cymru

The summit is hosted at Newport, Wales. Wales is one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) with a unique constitutional position within what is a pretty unique nation-state.

The cities you’ll visit

The summit venue, the Celtic Manor Resort is in the city and county of Newport, Wales’s youngest city, but many of you will be staying in hotels or be covering events in the nearby city and county of Cardiff, Wales’s capital city. Whilst there’s barely 10 miles or 15 km between the two cities, both have rich histories, local civic pride and sporting rivalries that divide and define them.

Some of you may be staying even further afield, perhaps in Swansea, Wales’s own city by the bay or over the English border and Severn bridges in Bristol.

We hope that you find a warm welcome here in Wales, and that these pages add something or signpost you to further information about Wales. Please get in touch, drop us an e-mail at aboutwales@wales.gsi.gov.uk if we can help with information, provide imagery or set up visits for you when you’re with us.

Find out more interesting facts about Wales by downloading a copy of Wales 101.

“Shwd mae?”

Translated: “How are you?”. This is the most common form of greeting in the Welsh language and one you may well hear during your stay.

Cymraeg, the Welsh language is one of the oldest living languages in Europe. Around 20% of the Welsh population speak the language fluently. It’s a language which is closely related to other Celtic languages such as Cornish and Breton.

You should see plenty of evidence of the language during your visit to Wales – (most) place names and road signs are in both English and Welsh and there are Welsh language TV and radio channels.

The Welsh Government’s vision is to see the Welsh language thriving in Wales. Legislation passed in 2011 means the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally. Welsh-medium schools, where pupils are taught all their subjects in Welsh, are increasingly popular across the country and Welsh is compulsory until the age of 16 in other schools.

We have a different alphabet as well – ours has 28 letters – rather than the 26 in the English alphabet . We don’t have k, v, x and z for example and in a few cases the Welsh "letter" is actually made up of two characters ( "ch", "dd"). So next time you’re doing a Welsh crossword puzzle remember that these double character letters fit into one box!

Learn more about Wales and the Welsh language.

Hiraeth

Wales is steeped in culture and history and its people have a proud sense of ‘belonging’. Cultural heritage is something we live and feel. ‘Hiraeth’ is a Welsh word with no literal translation, but many Welsh people living outside its borders say they feel it keenly. It is an expression of the bond with your country and surroundings and a deep longing for your homeland. Yes, we’re a poetic, musical, romantic bunch and passion for our country runs deep in our veins, as witnessed on rugby international weekends!

A bit more about Newport and Cardiff …….

Newport, Wales’s youngest city, is hosting the NATO Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort. The 12th century Norman castle that still stands in the centre of the city gave the city its Welsh name Casnewydd (new castle).

Just north of Newport is Caerleon, where there are some of the best-preserved Roman remains in northern Europe. Around 2000 years ago Caerleon was a major military base for the Romans seeking to subdue the rebellious Celtic tribes of the area. And leisure time was definitely important in Caerleon - or Isca as it was known in Roman times – with its state of the art leisure complex and amphitheatre.

Newport was also the stage for the last armed uprising seen in Great Britain in 1839 when a movement of working people dubbed ‘The Chartists’ demanded political reform and fairer representation. The main square in the centre of the city is named after the leader of that uprising, John Frost.

The city’s distinctive Transporter Bridge, opened in 1906 and still in daily use, is one of only six such bridges still operating world wide.

Wales can also boast some magnificent country houses set in beautiful landscapes. We hope you get a chance to see the splendour of Tredegar House in Newport, taking you back 300 years to the age of Charles II.

Tintern Abbey, admired by poets like Wordsworth and Tennyson, is one of the most spectacular ruins in the country and just over 20 miles from Newport.

Iron and coal were the raw materials which underpinned the Industrial Revolution in Britain and beyond. They were the principal products of the south Wales Valleys. Cardiff, Newport and Swansea boomed during the 19th and 20th centuries, when their docks exported coal and iron to the rest of the world.

Iron from Welsh furnaces and forges helped build the railways, manufacture engines and construct factories on five continents. Welsh coal fuelled steamships and was exported to numerous distant ports. Skilled migrants took their knowledge and expertise of mining and iron-working all over the world, together with the distinctive culture which had evolved in the Welsh Valleys.

Half an hour outside Newport, the area around Blaenavon is now an UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the finest examples in the world of a landscape created by mining and ironmaking in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries . The two key sites are the Blaenavon Ironworks, and the Big Pit coal mine, sunk around 1860. The pit remained in operation until 1980 and is now one of only two places in Britain where visitors can go on an underground tour and experience the working conditions of the miners.

Cardiff, the capital city of Wales dates back to Roman times. There you’ll find a magnificent 12th century Cardiff Castle in the city centre, the National Museum of Wales with the largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside Paris, boasting works by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Cézanne and for sports fans, the Millennium Stadium is the largest stadium with a retractable roof in Europe and has hosted an IRB Rugby World Cup final and five FA Cup finals.

The regeneration of Cardiff docks has transformed the Cardiff Bay area into a stunning waterside destination. And at the turn of the 20th century, when Cardiff was one of the biggest ports in the world, the first ever million-pound cheque was signed on the floor of Cardiff’s Coal Exchange.

Over 100 years ago, Captain Scott left Cardiff on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Today, Cardiff Bay is home to Wales’ political headquarters at the Senedd, as well as the Wales Millennium Centre, a major venue for operas, musicals and other productions.

On the banks of the River Taff is Llandaff Cathedral which stands on one of the oldest Christian sites in Britain, dating back to 1107. And on the outskirts of Cardiff is the relatively modern fairy-tale Castell Coch (Red Castle), the by-product of a vivid Victorian imagination. It was built thanks to the untold wealth of the 3rd Marquess of Bute, reputed to have been the richest man in the world, stemming from his father’s investment in the development of Cardiff Docks. He wanted a rural retreat to complement the opulence of his main residence, Cardiff Castle. There was no holding back – as the dazzling ceilings and ornate furnishings and furniture show.

Both cities continue to grow, and are busy reinventing themselves in the 21st Century. Their influence extends across a hinterland that stretches north in the valleys and along the coast in both directions, and the wider Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area has a population of over one million.

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