Vancouver
GASTOWN
Gastown, a five-minute hike from the city centre, is the oldest part of Vancouver. The area was designated a heritage site in 1971. Old gas-style lamps and young maple trees line cobblestoned Water Street, whose three blocks comprise the heart of Gastown.
Allow at least 2 hours.
Begin this tour at the corner of Richards and Water streets. head east on the north side of Water Street.
1. THE LANDING
The first stop, The Landing, is an award-winning heritage structure containing a dozen elegant shops clustered around a central lobby, whose arched floor-to-ceiling window frames the North Shore mountains. A shiny escalator leads from one polished oak floor to the other. Head to the lower level, pick up a local newspaper or the New York Times at the Fleet Street news-stand and savour a cappuccino and muffin, a good melange of America and Europe, at the adjacent L'Express cafe or the 1950s-style diner at the east end of the building.
Landmark shops sell Scottish tartans, Belgian chocolates, Japanese lingerie, cut and potted flowers, Canadian winter clothes, gold jewellery handcrafted on site, designer clothes and toys for children, embroidered Victoria cushions, maple wood salad bowls and smoked salmon packed for shipping.
Continue along Water Street.
2. INUIT GALLERY
Water Street is lined with dozens of shops selling everything from souvenir sweatshirts to art deco furniture. The most exciting stop is the Inuit Gallery, a few doors east of The Landing which houses an impressive array of Inuit sculpture and north west native art. The so-called naive art recalls the way Inuit families used to live in harmony with their harsh land, expressed in soapstone and whalebone sculptures. The shop also sells northwest native Canadian cedar carvings, buttoned blankets and ceremonial masks.
The delightful steam clock is a notable landmark along Gastown's Water Street.
A little further along on the left is the steam clock.
3. STEAM CLOCK
Dedicated to the citizens of Vancouver in 1977, the steam clock was built by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon, England. The movement was based on an 1875 vintage design and has a 19kg gold-plated pendulum. A machine in a nearby basement is triggered by the clockwork every 15 minutes and little pins play a Westminster Chimes tune which electronically blows the steam whistles. The steam manifold for the five whistles sits on top of the cube housing the four dials, each highlighted by four enamelled copper dogwood flowers. A 24-carat gold-plated frame surrounds the dials which glow at night.
Continue along Water Street.
4. THE COURTYARD
In the next block meander through The Courtyard where Vancouver architects, tour operators and lawyers work behind huge glass windows. The outdoor cafe and delicatessen up the stairs provides a pleasant pause and a view across the harbour.
At the end of Water Street turn right into Carrall Street.
5. MAPLE TREE SQUARE
In Maple Tree Square stands the statue of 'Grassy' Jack Deighton, a garrulous Yorkshireman who built a saloon for lumber mill workers on the site of the Broghes building behind in 1867. The building is made with bricks from China used as ballast on sailing ships calling for timber at the Hastings Mill. Deighton, who had arrived in Vancouver with his wife, six dollars, a few sticks of furniture and a yellow dog, was an overnight success. Because he was so talkative and optimistic about prospects for Burrard Inlet, locals called him 'Gassy Jack,' and the ramshackle collection of huts and shops surrounding the saloon was dubbed Gastown. The name stayed, although the city grew westward and changed its name to Vancouver. Jack's statue faces the old Europe Hotel, a good example of the renovated Victorian buildings in Gastown.
Turn west through the Gaoler's Mews.
6. GAOLER'S MEWS
This cobblestoned courtyard is where Vancouver's first gaol once stood. A little further along, Blood Alley marks the site of many dastardly deeds during the settlement of the Wild West.
The south side of Water Street is also lined with shops and restaurants. Water Street restaurants cover the cuisines of Italy, France, Kenya, India and America. One of the best stops for lunch is Umberto's Al Porto, whose downstairs replicates a Tuscan farmhouse and whose upstairs provides a panoramic sweep of rail cars carrying Canadian wheat and containers, backdropped by helicopters landing at the heliport in front and the Sea Bus shuttling back and forth to North Vancouver.
Return along Water Street to The Landing.
PASSPORT'S ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL GUIDE TO VANCOUVER & BRITISH COLUMBIA (BOOK)
CHINATOWN Pages 24,25
Vancouver's Chinatown, the second largest in North America (at present) after San Francisco, crams a lot of life into six city blocks, a 10-minute walk from city centre.
Allow 2 hours for walking and another hour for dim sum.
Begin this tour at the southwest corner of Carrall and Pender streets.
1. SAM KEE BUILDING
The Sam Kee Building is the narrowest building in the world (1.8m by 30m), and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The two-storey building, once living quarters for a Chinese family, is now home to Jack Chow Insurance and a group of architects upstairs who own the building.
2. CHINESE CULTURAL CENTRE
In the nest block east, the Chinese Cultural Centre, marked by an enormous red gateway, houses a library and rooms for language lessons, tai chi, Chinese painting, lantern making and frequently changing exhibits of Oriental and Canadian art.
Behind the CCC lies the Dr Sun Yat-sen Park and Garden.
3. DR SUN YAT-SEN PARK AND GARDEN
High whitewashed walls hide this pocket of peace from the bustling city beyond. Modelled after the classic scholars gardens of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), the Taoist balance of yin and yang (light and shadow, smooth and rough, large and small) creates perfect harmony. This quiet, secluded sanctuary shelters varied vistas of pebbled patios, moon gates, lattice windows, see-through shrubbery, placid milky-jade pools and craggy grey limestone.
Cross East Pender Street.
4. EAST PENDER STREET
Across East Pender Street, the Wing Sang Building, housing the Yen Lock Restaurant, is the oldest structure in Chinatown, dating from 1889.
Both sides of Pender are lined with Mandarin, Cantonese and Szechwan restaurants, and shops selling such imported goods as wicker ware, parasols and porcelain, bamboo bird cages and jade jewellery. Prices are reasonable, but browsers are welcome. At the Chinese pharmacies, it is intriguing to watch the experts mixing potions of herbs, ginseng root, dried cuttlefish, powdered antler velvet and other exotic ingredients for infusions to alleviate everything from influenza to impotence. Many westerners now take ginseng and royal jelly.
Continue east along East Pender Street.
5. LITTLE JAPAN
At 173 East Pender, down a few stairs, is a cluster of small shops called Little Japan. Kimono Corner artfully displays traditional Japanese clothing and noren (cotton door hangings). The grocery store is highlighted by shelves of chocolate Pocky's, a hit with children from any country. A restaurant serves sushi, teriyaki, soba and other specialities, along with take-out bento box lunches. Another area displays Japanese pottery, porcelain, lacquer ware, cards and books.
Cross Main Street, still on East Pender Street, turn right on Gore Avenue, walk a block Keefer Street and turn right again.
6. KEEFER STREET
Here the predominant aroma announces windows of Chinese pastries. Most pastry shops have a room at the back for a tasty cup of tea and a snack (the coffee is usually mediocre). On the south side of Keefer stands a shopping centre, with Hon's Wun-tun House (great soup and noodles for low prices; cash only, no alcohol) at street level. The big supermarket in the basement is not nearly as much fun as street shopping.
Follow Keefer Street two blocks west back to the Dr Sun Yat-sen Park and Garden.
PASSPORT'S ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL GUIDE TO VANCOUVER & BRITISH COLUMBIA (BOOK)
GRANVILLE ISLAND Pages 28,29
Granville Island is actually a peninsula. Once a swampy tidal flat and later the industrial heart of Vancouver, these 15 hectares of land are now an urban oasis of parks and walkways and renovated warehouses, transformed into a successful combination of more than 200 commercial, cultural, recreational and industrial enterprises.
Allow about two hours plus extra time for more leisurely browsing and a meal.
Walk south from downtown for 10 minutes to the foot of Hornby Street or the Aquatic Centre and take the five-minute mini-ferry ride across False Creek. There is complimentary three-hour parking for both cars and boats on the island.
1. ART CLUB THEATRES
Overlooking the ferry terminal are two Arts Club theatres. Walk right between them to the Information Centre which has maps, a calendar of current events and other brochures, and offers an audio-visual presentation explaining the evolution of the area.
Northwest is the Public Market, well worth a stroll through, if only to enjoy the aroma of a great array of local and imported fruits and vegetables, fish and seafood, plants and flowers and fast food stands. On the waterfront, a bevy of buskers, including colourful clowns and jugglers and sometimes mediocre musicians, entertain benches of visitors munching such market products as Vietnamese salad rolls and Italian lasagne.
Northwest of the market is a good place to watch the yachts and motor boats slip out to English Bay beyond. The deck at Bridges Restaurant (there may be a queue) is a super spot to sit in the sun or watch the sunset.
Turn south into Duranleau Street.
2. DURANLEAU STREET
Duranleau Street sports a series of maritime shops selling rugged outdoor wear, scuba gear, yacht fittings and other nautical wares. Across the street, the Net Loft shelters a dozen shops, including Edie's Hats with a selection of stylish headgear; The Postcard Place; Paper Ya's which features handmade writing paper and other paper art from around the world; Mesa, where a weaver may be at work at the loom; and the Wickaninnish Gallery of native jewellery and sculptures.
Cross Anderson Street.
3. GRANVILLE ISLAND BREWERY
Across Anderson Street, the Granville Island Brewery produces a popular preservative-free light lager (Bavarian-style pilsner) and features free tastings every afternoon.
Cross over to Cartwright Street.
4. CARTWRIGHT STREET
The Kids Only Market houses two dozen shops and activity areas, and a playcare centre for pre-schoolers. Just beyond the Waterfront Theatre is the supervised summertime Water Park, where children douse each other with revolving water canons, while parents watch over a coffee or lunch at adjacent Isadora's, a co-operative, reasonably-priced restaurant which has a children's play area inside for rainy days.
The rest of Cartwright Street is lined with art studios. galleries and craft shops, and leads east to the Granville Island Hotel.
Continue east to the Granville Island Hotel and the Sea Village.
5. SEA VILLAGE
On the north shore, near a big rusting crane overhead, is a fleet of floating homes, many with skylights and patios hidden with plants and flowers. The Sea Village is a private residential complex, but walk part way down the ramp to see the colourful collection of rural mailboxes.
Continue along the boardwalk northwest to the Emily Carr College of Art & Design.
6. EMILY CARR COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Here, big windows reveal students at work. Visitors are welcome to view the student art exhibits in the foyer. Next door is the Ocean Cement factory, which somehow seems to belong and makes the area more interesting. Beyond a few more craft shops along the shore is the ferry dock.
Active visitors can sign up for classes at the art studios, enjoy a reading from West Coast Psychics above the Arts Club Lounge, go parasailing over English Bay, or rent a one-or two-seater kayak to paddle up False Creek past the floating homes to the Science Centre.
Return to the ferry.
PASSPORT'S ILLUSTRATED TRAVEL GUIDE TO VANCOUVER & BRITISH COLUMBIA (BOOK)
AREAS OF VANCOUVER Pages 18,19
Greater Vancouver is bounded by the North Shore mountains to the north, the Strait of Georgia to the west and the American border to the south. As more people move to the city, the fertile farmlands of the Fraser Valley to the east are fast being replaced by suburban development.
DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER
In addition to the main business and shopping area, the city centre has several different sections. Gastown, the renovated original part of the city, contains souvenir shops, restaurants and art galleries. Robson Street has several blocks of upmarket shops and restaurants resembling Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, Chinatown has a colourful collection of shops and restaurants especially lively at weekends. Yaletown is an area of old warehouses, recently renovated to house restaurants, galleries and artists, architects and designers.
As a result of large-scale immigration, various ethnic enclaves have developed in Vancouver, and shops and restaurants have opened to cater to their tastes. There are also a lot of East Indians along the southern end of Main Street, Greeks along West Broadway, Germans on Fraser Street, and Italians on Commercial Drive and around Hastings and Nanaimo streets. There is a tiny Japantown on Powell Street and an equally small French-language pocket on West 16th Avenue.
The city's economic watershed is often held to be Cambie Street. To oversimplify, west of that north-south route live physicians, architects, business executives and college professors; east are sawmill workers, waitresses and factory workers.
KERRISDALE
Gentrification in recent years has polished the image of this neighbourhood, which is now smarter and shinier than Kitsilano to the North.
KITSILANO
Kitsilano, especially along West Fourth Avenue, was once a hotbed of the hippy era, with its pot smokers, tie-dyers, vegetarians, protesters and peaceniks. It is still the most laid-back neighbourhood in town.
SHAUGHNESSY
In the wealthy neighbourhood, streets lined with towering trees curve around imposing mansions. Shaughnessy was established by the Canadian Pacific Railway a century ago as a residential enclave for executives. In the poorest section, in downtown eastside with Hastings and Carrall streets as its hub, a vigorous group of residents is fighting to improve conditions.
SUBURBIA
Nearly two dozen suburbs surround Vancouver. Richmond, the site of the Vancouver International Airport, is a rapidly growing city to the south. Surrey, a huge municipality on the south side of the Fraser River, is growing rapidly, partly due to the recent extension of the Sky Train rapid transit. The southern part of Surrey is very attractive, with dairy farms dotted around the green rolling hills.
A quiet, high-income, no-industry residential area, West Vancouver is among the most agreeable suburbs.
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