CARDIFF

Cardiff received a civic charter in 1905 and became the Welsh capital in 1955.
The University of Wales central registry is at Cathays Park: the city is also the location of the University of Wales College of Cardiff (which includes the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, founded in 1866) and the National School of Medicine at University of Wales College Hospital.
The city's museums include the National Museum of Wales, and the Welsh Folk Museum in the suburb of St Fagan's, which has a large open-air collection of dwellings brought from other parts of the country. The National Museum of Wales contains a collection of natural history exhibits as well as art collections, including paintings by Corot, Manet, Van Gogh, and Renoir. Works by Welsh painters including Augustus John, Gwen John, Ceri Richards, and Frank Brangwyn are also represented.
Culturally, the city has a strong musical background. It is home to the Welsh National Opera as well as the BBC Welsh Orchestra, and venues include St David's Concert Hall and the Cardiff International Arena. The "Cardiff Singer of the World" is a biennial international arts competition for young classical singers.
Sports venues include the Cardiff Athletic Stadium, the Wales Empire Pool (constructed for the 1958 Commonwealth Games), the Maindy Cycle Track, and the National Ice Rink (home to the Cardiff Devils ice hockey team). Cardiff Arms Park rugby ground has been replaced by a new stadium (the Millennium Stadium) costing over £100 million (US$150 million), which hosted the1999 Rugby Union World Cup.
Association football and cricket are represented respectively by Cardiff City at Ninian Park and Glamorgan county cricket club at Sophia Gardens.
Cardiff is a seaport that relied on coal exports until the mid-20th century but has since greatly declined. Now, coal is imported rather than exported, and along with grain, timber, fruit and vegetables, motor vehicles, and steel is among the main imports. Modern cargo-handling facilities are available at the Roath and Queen Alexandra docks. Light engineering and high-tech industries are replacing heavy engineering industries. Manufactures include steel wire and ropes, glass, plastics, electronic machinery, computer parts, processed foods, textiles, and paper. In addition there are regional and national office developments attracted by the good communications, including Cardiff-Wales International Airport at Rhoose, 20 km (12 mi) to the west.
As an administrative centre, Cardiff houses the Welsh Office and the Cardiff County Offices at Atlantic Wharf, as well as the offices of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. Cardiff Bay is the site of a major urban regeneration project, the largest of its kind in Europe. The area, comprising 1,093 hectares (2,700 acres) south of the railway and between the Rhymney and Ely rivers, contains most of the older run-down docks and the industrial area formerly associated with coal exports and heavy metal industries. The development is coordinated by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, set up in 1987, and has involved the clearance and drainage of derelict land for sale to investors. A number of small and medium-sized companies operating in printing and publishing, insurance, mechanical services, and computer and engineering consultancies, are now located within the area, which has attracted both local and overseas (notably East Asian) investment.
The Cardiff Bay (Taff) Barrage between Penarth Head and Queen Alexandra Head was approved in 1993 and encloses an area of 200 hectares (495 acres) of mudflats, creating a freshwater lake in the estuaries of the Taff and Ely rivers where the present tidal range is one of the world's largest at over 14 m (46 ft).