West New London

West New London (formerly Westminster) is the capital city of the People's Democratic Republic of Delongo and of the province of Greater New London; situated on Westminster Island between the Delongo Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and the River Bérégovoy. It is the third largest city in all of Delongo, and is the principle and largest city in Greater New London. It is primarily located on Westminster Island, and on some smaller surrounding islands, most notably on L'Île à Sous-Marie and Afee Island. It is surrounded on the Delongo Base by several large cities including East New London, Sasin, New Vancouver, and New Sienfield. West New London is frequently described as the political capital of the world, noted for being home to many international and national government institutions, including the New Communist International.

During the era of the Newland Empire, Westminster was a major point of reception for ships crossing to Newland from Rupertland. The city was decreasing in importance under the reign of Kings Isaac and James II.

The new Blixian-era city was founded by Joanne and Riland Murphy in 1817, centered in what they called "New London Square" with roughly 200 citizens. The city became the de facto capital of Blix in the 1820s, and was institutionalized as the capital following the Blixian Civil War. Since then, it has swelled to 38.2 million people in 2019 and has become a major metropolis-- dubbing itself "the coldest major city in the world."

All aspects of the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of Delongo are located in West New London: the Presidential branch (in Waldren Palace), the Legislative branch (House of Commons and Senate), the Judicial branch (in the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice), the People's Ministry (the state bureaucracy), the People's Politburo (including the Cabinet of Delongo), among others. The largest international office of the Queen of Rupertland, Ruberta II, is located in West New London.

West New London itself has a municipal government composed of representatives from each of the city's 40 boroughs, which have since been amalgamated into 14 larger "mega-boroughs." However, the Greater New London provincial government retains control over many aspects usually relegated to municipal governments. The GNL province consists solely of the Greater New London urban area.

Prior to 2013, West New London was the capital of the Independence Toll, which consisted of Greater New London, Newland (New Rupertland), and Rupertland. In 2013, a new province was created for Greater New London, making Rupertland the capital of New Rupertland.

Pre-Rupertland
The land around the Sasin Mountains was settled on by aboriginal peoples for a very long time, being one of the few resource-rich places in Northern Delongo that is also close to the sea for fish and whales. In the 1500s, when Rupertland settlement began in the region as a trading post with the larger city of Rupertland and the New Land region.



Westminster City
In 1612, King Rupert II declared that a new city would be created, but instead of being on Rupert Island, it would be on a new man-made island on the west coast of New Land. It would be a trading post, and the new capital city of New Land. The island would be created by making a river by hand. In 1629, the island was complete, and was named by King Elijah II as Westminster Island. Contruction on various pieces of the city began, including roads, beautiful buildings and multiple castles which are still in use today, such as the Supreme Court of Delongo (which was the Court of Westminster) and so many more.

Capital City
After being re-declared as permanent capital city after the Fires of New London, West New London began to grow into a major city, and became the only major city in such cold conditions on planet earth, and remains to be one of the coldest major cities on earth. It suffered due to its remoteness. It only became accessible in the 1950s to the general public, but because of not enough gas stations along its major highways, it was not fully accessible until around 2002. Until 1872, the only way to access the city was by boat from a major port, such as in Dimin, Blix, Oilman, or Matewood, this was sue to having no railways and no paths or roads for carriages. A railroad was built from Clifton, where the railroads from South Blix and South Matewood met, all the way up to New London in 1874, but only the newest of trains could make the trek due to dangerous conditions that the railway encountered. A road to the city only opened in 1924 after growing public demand, but in order to reach the city, gas tanks were required to be carried due to a lack of gas stations on the way to New London. It wouldn't be until 2002 when the trek could be carried out after government legislation forced new stations to be created.

Geography
West New London is well known for being very flat, as is much of the Independence Toll. It appears to be on a island, however, it is not, the River Bérégovoy, which isn't an actual river, is actually man made from the 1600s, by some people of Rupertland. The attempt did finally work after about 15 years dedicated to the project.

The project workers were told to make the new island in a special shape, and have a smaller island in the middle of the river. They succeeded. It is guessed that 10,000 workers were involved, and over 100 died from the intense labour and dangerous conditions.

The area surrounding the GNL is mostly composed of wetlands and swamps.

Race
West New London is one of the most diverse cities on Earth. There is no majority race, but a plurality of the population is East Asian, of which over 74% are Chinese.

Language
2012

Religion
2012

Sports
West New London its own, very successful NHL Hockey Team called the West New London Leopards. The team is well known for its All Star Player, Ricky Edge.

Technology
It is often referred to as the 21st Century Silicon Valley, for its success in the Technology Industry, which goes back to 1964, when bTECK was started in West New London. Now it plays host to many very large and successful tech start-ups as well.

Business
West New London is headquarters for some of the largest businesses in the world, including: the People's Bank of the PDRD, The National Insurance Group, bOIL, People's Transit, People's Post, the Delongo National Railway Group, RecDisp, Pas, People's Film Board, La Mode Blixienne, and more.

Boroughs
In 2015, the 40 boroughs were amalgamated into 14 larger boroughs, known colloquially as the megaboroughs. The largest of these is the Waldren Periphery, with over 7 million people, followed by the Waldren Observation, which has a population of over 6 million people and is the centre of the city.

Most wealthy former boroughs (richest to poorest): New London Heights, New Birmingham, New Amsterdam, Seaside, New Edinburgh, Kingston, New Grenwich, East Buckingham, Tip, New Staed, West Buckingham, Midtown, Old New London, Waldren

Least wealthy former boroughs (poorest to richest): Upper Bronx, Lower Bronx, North Core, North Manchester, South Amoton, Aeroson, Yatsen-Chek, Afee Island, Uptown, Downtown

Waldren Observatory
The most densely populated mega-borough after the Bronx is the Waldren Observatory, with over 6 million people. On business days this increases to nearly 10 million people in the area to the large number of commuters and tourists.

Relations
West New London has some very good, and very bad relationships with other cities around the world.

East New London
Perhaps the most famous relationship would be the one with East New London.

In the 1800s, what was simply New London, the two halves of the city (on the island, off the island) got along well. However, following the Russian Revolution, the cities divided into a capitalistic faction (the West) and a socialistic faction (the East).

Tourism
For a long time, New London was a rarely considered tourist attraction, known for being tremendously far from the major metropolises of the PDRD: Blix, Matewood, Ritz, and Rupertland. But in the early 2000s, the Capital Nightlife program began to rejuvenate nightlife in New London. Since then there has been a drastic rise in the party scene in New London, along with a rise in sex work, which the city permits.

West New London is now the sixth most visited city in the PDRD after Blix, Rupertland, Matewood, Ritz, and Clifton (this excludes travelling workers, who if included would make West New London the second or third most visited city).

Health
The GNL area is served by several major hospital networks:


 * The People's National Hospital in collaboration with the City University New London operates the People's National Hospital - Northern Delongo situated on Afee Island. It was established in 1999 and is considered by The Times of Soleil Boulevard to be the nation's second best hospital (2020)
 * The Westminster University Health Network operates five hospitals, including the Dux. Evangeline Rupertson Hospital in the Lower Bronx, WNL. This is the oldest hospital in New London, established in the 17th century. Other hospitals include the Sasin City Health Centre, the New Vancouver Hospital, the Eastern Health Institute (East New London), and the Bradshaw Health Centre (Downtown WNL).
 * The New London Chinese Health Network operates three hospitals in GNL: The Chéng Shi Hospital, The Yatsen-Chek Hospital, and the New Dimin Chinese Hospital.
 * The Jewish General Hospital of New London is located in Walt, WNL.

Air
Due to the extreme remoteness of the Urban New London Area, airports are the most commonly used transportation links to and from the UNLA. Highways are regularly closed in the winter due to snow white-outs due to the vast flatness of the areas surrounding the UNLA. Express and Train routes are also regularly closed in the winter for that reason as well. Some highways and trains are moving underground, but this is proving extremely difficult due to the swamps surrounding the region. The largest airport in the region is the New London Yi Tee-Suop International Airport (transporting 160 million passengers), followed by the New London Capital International Airport (transporting 103 million passengers, mostly professionals and domestic traffic).

Formerly the New London Guthro Airport was the signature airport of the region, but it was closed in 2016 and replaced by the NLYTS. The Guthro airport area will be turned into a massive affordable housing development capable of holding hundreds of thousands of residents. The oldest airport in the region is the controversial New London Joanna Murphy Airport, which was located on Buckingham Island, and disturbed many of the residents of Buckingham-Crossing and New Royalston. It was closed in 2010 after many protests by these groups, who are some of the wealthiest in the city.

The infamous L'aeroport General International Delongnien (LAGID) was built privately as the first major private international airport on the west coast of Delongo. The airport went into bankruptcy is now used for all cargo needs of the GNL and Northwestern Delongo.

Road
Greater New London is known for its spectacular highways, mostly built during the 1960s and 1970s. The highways were controversial and had the effect of dividing communities and solidifying divides between the poor and the wealthy.

Public Transport
New London is known for its spectacular metro system, the New London Underground (NLU), which extensively connects the entire Greater New London province.

New London was one of the first cities connected to the Express Rail service in 2003. West New London is connected to the Express service via several stations: West New London - Waldren (in Waldren, Waldren Observation), West New London - Westminster (in New Westminster, Waldren Periphery), and West New London - Bronx (in the Lower Bronx, the Bronx). Other major connected stations in the region include: New Thames (at New London Yi Tee-Suop International Airport), and Lexington. Locally connected stations exist in East New London, Sasin City, New Vancouver, and New Sienfield. A station is planned for New London Capital International Airport to connect to route 225/325. These local stations are designed to relieve the NLU for longer-distance use. All GNL Express stations are connected extensively to the NLU and New London Buses.

Climate
West New London is known for being one of the coldest major cities in the PDRD and in the world, surpassed in the PDRD only by Oceanview and by several small cities in Justalign. It has a harsh subarctic climate.

Indeed, although Rupertland is similarly situated, Rupertland is actually much warmer than West New London due to the effects of the Delongo Sea stream and the extremely strong, cold winds from the Delongo Sea. In the past, many Westminster residents would sail to Rupertland City over the winter, because it was much warmer (daily mean = -2 degrees, compared to -22.2 in January).