Name: Geography Now! PALAU
Uploaded: 2020-03-28T09:23:08.000Z
Duration: 15 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

All right Palau. If you want the quick summary

once upon a time, there was a custody battle with a child between the US And Japan...

And for some reasons, Spain and Germany were arguing.

And the baby was technically descended from Taiwan who had no claim over it.

It gave them a lot of money because they didn't want China to get too cozy.

Ah! I love Oceania. The world's least talked about an explored region.

Palau is a nation that's just starting to make its debut on the vacation getaway list.

People are now just starting to talk about it. Each island kind of tells a different story.

Lucky in the sense that unlike their other Micronesia cousins.

Geographically, they kind of have a sweet spot close to the major landmasses.

For one, the country is located between the Philippine Sea and the North Pacific.

It is essentially the furthest western part of the Carolina islands...

...and the Pacific Ocean region known as Micronesia.

Not to be confused with the Federated States of Micronesia...

...which is a country within Micronesia.  And it is the closest to major landmasses of Asia and Australasia.

The nation is just east of the Philippines, and north of the West Papua region of Indonesia shared with Papua, New Guinea

It is made up of over 340 Islands,  some say as much as 500 if you include smaller rocks and islets.

The largest one being Babeldaob island, which holds the capital Melekeok, or "Ngerulmud".

Yeah, that's how you pronounce it, which is the least populated capital in the world with only about 400 people.

Cool capital building though. You can also find the largest airport. Most people fly into being Roman Tmetuchi International.

However, there are also small airstrips that serviced the Anguar and Peleliu islands.

Nonetheless, the largest city is Koror, which is on a separate island.

Just south of babble dub, which is where most of the commerce and action happens.

The country is further divided into sixteen states, each with their own little flag.

Don't forget these little islands way down south known as the Southwest islands also belonging to them as well.

The Hatohobei based state is the farthest one, made up of Tobi and the Hellen Reef.

The southernmost point nearly 400 miles or 640 kilometers from Babeldaob.

Populated by only about 43 people, making it the least populous first-level administration in the world.

Hellen Reef only has like three people living on it.

Most of the country is interconnected through a series of water taxis and ferries that hop between islands.

Malakal Harbor being the largest shipping port.

However, at about 68 kilometers or 38 miles, Babeldaob Island is the only one

with an extensive roadway network that goes all the way to cone lay, the northernmost point of the country.

Crossing over into core, the other Koror-Babeldaob Bridge.

Whereas to other islands, Meyungs and Malakal, are also connected the bridge.

It's also important to note that just like we mentioned in  the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia episodes.

Palau is the third and final Compact of Free Association state with the USA.

A compact free association means that Palau ends Marshallese,

and Micronesians not only have access to certain US social services like mail, education

but there are also allowed to freely enter and move about the USA and live there with no issues.

Citizenship also comes easy if they wish to apply for it.

You'll notice a lot of the buildings and sites have plaques dedicated to the countries that have funded or invested in them.

The capital was built by the Taiwanese, but inspired by Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

Otherwise, I talked to some of you guys the Palau and geography,

(Yes, We have people from Palau that watch this show.)

And many of you gave me a list of notable places to check out. In case if you decide to visit.

So many World War 2 Japanese sites, including a Shinto shrine,

Yeah, I can tell how there's kind of like a lot of World War 2 and Japanese stuff lingering around.

Yeah, we'll explain how it got that way in a sec.

But first! Let's go swimming with some non-poisonous jellyfish, shall we?

Yeah, they have a cool lake with non-poisonous jellyfish you can swim with it.

It's like one of their top tourist destinations.

However, due to overcrowding the government limits visits to avoid harming the fragile ecosystem.

And that's the thing, Palau is a front-runner in oceanic conservation efforts.

About 60% of it is marine area is protected territory.

We're getting a little ahead of ourselves though.

First off, Palau essentially sits right on the Ring of Fire at the Palau Trench...

..., which is an offshoot crack near the Mariana Trench, not too far from Challenger Deep, the deepest oceanic depth discovered.

This is basically how the country formed as volcanic activity forged the islands we see today.

And along wispy speckled archipelago following the large Babeldaob island...

...which is the second-largest island in Micronesia after Guam.

Most of the country is lush and green with tropical vegetation.

Most volcanic activity is extinct today. The tallest point Mountain ARELIS lies on Babel Dom

In fact, Babeldaob, of course, has all the other extreme physical points, like the largest lake.

Lake Ngardok, the largest freshwater lake in Micronesia.

There are many small rivers and streams that cross the country, the largest one feeding into the nara madhu bay like these three

but the largest one the nur Muskaan river from there the country smears into the ocean with small mostly uninhabited lush green islets and

Mangroves enclosed by a giant barrier reef as stretched as 490 square miles or 1260 square kilometers

This place is loaded with too many amazing natural sights

Like the rock island's a unesco heritage site a bunch of mushroom shaped bulbous islands that pop up out of the ocean like bubble wrap

Coral reefs and diving spots are everywhere and even underwater caves the most famous one being the chandelier cave at NarL

otherwise, even though the islands only make up about

177 square miles or 460 square kilometers an area the nation's exclusive economic zone extends even further to about two hundred

Thousand square miles or over half a million square kilometers of ocean about the size of France in 2009

80% of which to become a marine reserve and the world's first shark sanctuary

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Geography Now! PALAU

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