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Los Angeles may be a figment of its own imagination, but if you long to stand in the footsteps of stars and breathe their hallowed air, you've come to the right place. Disneyland, movie stars, TV, fast-food and hype - it's all here in overdrive. Los Angeles has littered the world with its paraphernalia.
If you're not prepared to embrace the dream, you'll doubtless find it filthy, irritating, frightening or just plain dumb. No other city studies itself with such narcissistic intensity. In LA, game show hosts are household names and nobodies erect billboard shrines to themselves.
LA beguiles scores of curious tourists, starlit and moonstruck, hopeful starlets and wanna, be rock musicians each day. It's a thriving hybrid, a conglomeration of 88 independent cities sprawling over a vast urban maelstrom. LA is more than the sum total of its mass-produced fantasies.
Facts in a glance
Area: 1,215 sq km
Population: 9.9 million
Country: USA
Time Zone: GMT/UTC -8 (Pacific Time)
Telephone Area Code: Downtown & Hollywood 213, 323; Beverly Hills
& Santa Monica 310; Long Beach 562; Pasadena & San Marino 626;
San Fernando Valley 818; Anaheim & Newport Beach 714
See Also