Geography

Tijuana is a city in northwestern Mexico. It is located in the state of Baja California at 32.53°N, 117.02°W. In 2003 it had an estimated population of 1,270,600 people.

This border city just south of San Diego, California, USA, is sometimes considered a mix of Mexico's good and bad: known for its economic prosperity, popular discos, and shopping areas, Tijuana is also considered to be Mexico's biggest illicit drug and prostitution center.

History

Tijuana is the city in which the 1994 PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated.

The famous battle between the Tijuana Cartel and the rival Chihuahua-based Juárez Cartel was portrayed in the 2000 Hollywood movie Traffic.

Tijuana's International Airport (General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport) is known for the approaches the airplanes have to carry out before landing, as they have to fly just over a fence before landing.

Economics

Tijuana is particularly famous among the millions of U.S. college students who flock to its location each year in search of an easily accessed place with few inhibitions and a legal drinking age of eighteen.

Due to Tijuana's proximity to the USA and its cheap labor, it is an attractive city to companies to establish extensive industrial parks comprised of maquiladoras where foreign companies employ thousands, usually in assembly related labor. This makes Tijuana an attractive city for poor migrant workers originating from the center and southern parts of Mexico, as well as other Latin American countries. Many of these migrant workers also travel illegally into the United States in search of better paying jobs.

Facts

- Tijuana's current governor, is also the owner of "Caliente" a very important "legal" gambling business that can be found all over Mexico.

- In Tijuana's most important comercial street "Av. Revolucion" you can find more pharmacies than restaurants, this is because medical services in Mexico are much more cheap than in the U.S.A so a lot of people from San Diego and Los Angeles visit Tijuana very often in order to buy medical supplies or treatments.