Los Angeles is noted for its balmy climate, lush scenery, and many freeways, as well as occasional earthquakes, brushfires, and smog. Los Angeles is one of the leading manufacturing, commercial, transportation, financial, and international trade centers of the United States. The Los Angeles metropolitan area is a leading hub of the United States aerospace industry, as well as a center for motion picture, radio and television broadcasting, and music recording. Tourism is also an important part of the city's economy. The Urban Landscape Los Angeles is an urban-suburban agglomeration built on a hilly coastal plain, with the Pacific Ocean on its western and southern boundaries.
Mountain ranges are to the east and north.
In the north is the San Fernando Valley, a part of the city separated from Hollywood and downtown by the Santa Monica Mountains and by Griffith Park, the city's major outdoor recreation area. Los Angeles is tied together by a system of freeways built for high speeds but often clogged with traffic. Smog from automobile exhaust and other sources is an intermittent pollution problem. The explosive growth of Los Angeles in the 1900s was mostly unplanned, with residential developments, shopping malls, and low-rise commercial buildings spread across the land. Popular among tourists are the Farmers Market, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and the motion picture studios in Hollywood and nearby Burbank and Culver City.