Chop - A Beautiful Tourist Destination
Chop is an important city located in the beautiful and mountainous oblast of Zakarpattya in the Tysa Lowlands. The Zakarpattya oblast is a province situated in southwestern Ukraine, bordering countries like Hungary and Slovakia. The river Tisza is basically the only thing separating Chop and Záhony, the Hungarian town that Chop borders, from each other. Interestingly, the city of Chop has been designated a district, which is separate from all the other districts within the Zakarpattya region. The city of Chop takes up an area of 4,900 square miles or 12,800 square kilometers.
The Carpathian Mountains are one of the features of the region, attracting hundreds of visitors to the area, which contributes to the economy of the Zakarpattya oblast. The Carpathian Mountains are part of the great Central Mountain System, which runs through Europe. The 1 500 km Carpathian Mountains run through Romania, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. Tourists also take advantage of the ski and spa resorts, which are popular in the area.
Chop is considered an urban settlement and is home to many ethnic groups apart from Ukrainians. This includes Hungarians or Magyars from Hungary, Rusyns and Romanians from Romania. There are a number of Romanian ethnic minority groups living in various nearby countries. Rusyns come from a minority group called Ruthenians and are a relatively modern ethnic group. In the 19th and 20th century Rusyns refused to be identified as Ukrainian but in recent years a large majority have taken on the Ukrainian identity. There are over 1,271,600 people living in the city of Chop.
The Lviv-Stryi-Budapest railway line and the Lviv-Uzhgorod-Košice line meet in the city of Chop and are an important intersection in the Ukraine. The city also has railway-servicing Chop and factories that produce bricks and tiles. Chop is also situated near other railway lines that travel internationally. Chop also has highway border crossings into countries like Slovakia and Hungary. In 1944 the German and Soviet troops began a month long battle in the city of Chop, which adversely affected the city and the people for many years after.