Gastown & Chinatown
Start: Canada Place.
Finish: Maple Tree Square.
Time: 2 to 4 hours, not including shopping, eating, and sightseeing stops.
Best Time: Any day during business hours, but Chinatown is particularly active in the mornings. If you arrive before noon, you can indulge in dim sum at many of the restaurants.
Worst Time: Chinatown's dead after 6pm, except on weekends in the summer, when they close a few streets to traffic and hold a traditional Asian Night Market from 6:30 to 11pm.
Chinatown and Gastown are two of Vancouver's most fascinating neighborhoods. Gastown has history and great old-fashioned architecture. Chinatown has all that plus the buzz of modern-day Cantonese commerce. One small travel advisory, however: The two neighborhoods border on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside -- otherwise known as skid road -- an area of taverns and cheap rooming hotels that is troubled by alcoholism and drug use. While there is very little actual danger for outsiders, there is a good chance of stumbling across a scary-looking down-and-outer here and there, particularly around Pigeon Park at the corner of Carrall and Hastings streets. The tour route has been designed to avoid these areas.
Begin the tour at:
1. 999 Canada Place
With its five tall Teflon sails and bowsprit jutting out into Burrard Inlet, Canada Place is supposed to look like a great sailing ship. Some folks see it, some don't. Inside it's a hotel, cruise ship terminal, and convention center. Around the outside there's a promenade with plaques at regular intervals explaining the sights or providing historical tidbits.
To follow the promenade, start by the fountain with the flags of Canada's provinces and territories just above it and head north out along the walkway. (Note: An ongoing expansion of the cruise ship may block your access to the end of the pier. If so, proceed directly to stop 2.) At the far end of the pier -- the prow -- a pair of bronze lions point up and out toward a pair of peaks on the North Shore also called the Lions (supposedly for their resemblance to the Landseer Lions in Trafalgar Sq., but mostly because the local morality squad wanted to eliminate forever the name given the peaks by the rough-minded early settlers -- Sheila's Paps). Turn and look back over the railway tracks: The line of low-rise older buildings just beyond the railway tracks is Gastown.
To continue the tour, walk back toward shore along the promenade, drop down the steps, turn left, and curve along the sidewalk until you pass the Aqua Riva restaurant. Then turn left and go up the steps and walk along an elevated pathway until you see a large wooden abstract sculpture. You're now at 200 Granville St. in:
2. Granville Square
Had some forward-looking politicians and developers had their way, all of Gastown and Chinatown would have been replaced by towers and plazas like the one you see here at 200 Granville. The plans had been drawn up and the bulldozers were set to move around 1970 when a coalition of hippies, heritage lovers, and Chinatown merchants took to the barricades in revolt. This building was the only one ever built, and the plan was abandoned soon afterwards.
At the east side of the plaza is a set of stairs leading down to 601 W. Cordova St. at:
3. Waterfront Station
Though this beaux arts edifice was converted to the SeaBus terminal in the 1970s (SkyTrain was added in 1986), this building still shows its origins as the CPR's Vancouver passenger-rail terminal. Look up high on the walls and you can see oil paintings depicting scenes you might see as you take the train across Canada -- much easier then than now. On the main floor there's a Starbucks and some tourist shops.
Leave by the front doors, turn left, and wander east onto the cobblestones of Water Street, Gastown's main thoroughfare. The Landing, at 375 Water St., is home to some high-end retail stores and offices, including the office of the B.C. Film Commission (tel. 604/660-2732), where you can pick up a list of the film and TV productions being shot in the city. There's also a truly fine brewpub on the basement floor called Steamworks (tel. 604/689-2739). Like most of Gastown's buildings, the Landing was built in the boom years between the Great Fire of 1886 and World War I. Klondike gold fueled much of the construction. As you walk along, note the Magasin Building at 322 Water St. Each of the column capitals bears the bronze head of a Gastown notable, among them Ray Saunders, the man who designed the:
4. Steam Clock
A quirky kind of timepiece, the Steam Clock gives a breathy rendition of the Westminster Chimes every 15 minutes. It draws its power from the city's underground steam-heat system. A plaque on the base of the clock explains the mechanics of it all.
Carry on down, past Hills Indian Crafts (165 Water St.), where Bill Clinton picked up a little bear statuette as a gift for you-know-who. Cross to the south side of the street at Abbot Street and continue on Water Street until you come to the Gaoler's Mews building (12 Water St.). Duck in through the passageway and:
Take a Break--The name Gaoler's Mews refers to Vancouver's very first jail, which was built on this site. When that burned to the ground in the 1886 fire, the jail was replaced by a fire hall. The current structure was built as a parking garage but was renovated in the 1970s into a remarkably pleasant complex joined to a common courtyard/atrium. The Black Cat Coffee has fine coffee, while the Paprika Cottage Restaurant offers more substantial fare. For excellent beer and superior food, however, try the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall St. (tel. 604/688-9779), accessible either via its back solarium -- facing onto the mews -- or by going out through the far passageway onto Carrall Street. You have to come this way eventually in order to reach:
5. Maple Tree Square
A historic spot, Maple Tree Square is where Vancouver first began. The statue by the maple tree (not the original one, but a replacement tree planted in more or less the same spot) is of Gassy Jack Deighton, a riverboat captain and innkeeper who erected Vancouver's first significant structure -- a saloon -- in 1867. Deighton got the nickname Gassy thanks to his propensity for jawing on at length (gassing, as it was known) about whatever topic happened to spring to mind. In 1870, when the town was officially incorporated as Granville, it was home to exactly six businesses: a hotel, two stores, and three saloons. Most folks called it Gastown, after Jack.
Just a half block south of the statue is a little laneway with the rather foreboding name of Blood Alley. So far as I can ascertain, nothing too nefarious ever happened here; the name appears to have been invented to appeal to tourists. Strangely, however, there's nothing much to see in this sanguine spot.
Continue south on Carrall Street to W. Cordova, turn right and walk 1 block west until you reach Abbot Street. Turn left and walk 2 blocks south down Abbot, crossing W. Hastings Street and stopping at W. Pender Street, where you get a great view of the:
6. Sun Tower
At 500 Beatty St., it was the tallest building in the British Empire when it was built in 1911 to house the publishing empire of one Louis D. Taylor, publisher of Vancouver World. Not only was the building big, it was also slightly scandalous, thanks to the nine half-nude caryatids that gracefully support the cornice halfway up the building. Unfortunately, the girls couldn't bear the debt load with quite the same aplomb; three years later Louis D. was forced to sell.
Cross Pender Street and continue on Abbot Street, rounding the curve of the building on your right-hand side until you come to the entrance of 179 Keefer Place at:
7. T&T Supermarket
So you've seen supermarkets? Unless your hometown is Hong Kong or Singapore, you haven't seen one like this. Just have a gander at the seafood display inside the doors: king crab, scallops, three different kinds of oysters, lobster, geoduck, all alive, some pinching mad. Farther in is a host of wondrous products for sale, including strange Asian fruits like rambutan, lychee, and the pungent durian. Browse at will, maybe pick up something you don't recognize, and have an impromptu picnic in nearby Andy Livingstone Park.
Outside, walk 1 block east on Keefer Street to Taylor Street. The park is to your right, but to continue the tour turn left. Walk 1 block back up to Pender Street, then turn right and walk 1 more block. Now you're in Chinatown, an area distinguished architecturally by tall narrow buildings with recessed balconies; commercially by a profusion of vegetable and apothecary shops; and culturally by the sheer exuberance of immigrant life.
First stop, at 8 W. Pender St., is the:
8. Sam Kee Building
The world's thinnest office building -- just shy of 1.5m deep (4 ft. 11 in. to be exact) -- was Sam Kee's way of thumbing his nose at both the city and his greedy next-door neighbor. In 1912, the city expropriated most of Kee's land in order to widen Pender Street, but refused to compensate him for the tiny leftover strip. Kee's neighbor, meanwhile, hoped to pick up the leftover sliver dirt-cheap. The building was Kee's response. Huge bay windows helped maximize the available space, as did the extension of the basement well out underneath the sidewalk (note the glass blocks in the pavement). The building is now home to Jack Chow insurance.
Just behind the Sam Kee Building is the forlorn-looking Shanghai Alley, which just 40 years ago was jam-packed with stores, restaurants, a pawnshop, a theater, rooming houses, and a public bath. More interesting is the Chinese Freemason's building, just across the street at 1 W. Pender. The building could be a metaphor for the Chinese experience in Canada. On predominantly Anglo Carrall Street, the building is the picture of Victorian conformity. On the Pender Street side, on the other hand, the structure is exuberantly Chinese.
One block farther east on Pender Street is the:
9. Chinese Cultural Centre/Dr. Sun Yat-sen Gardens
A modern building with an impressive traditional gate, the cultural center provides services and programs for the neighborhood's thousands of Chinese-speaking residents. Through the smaller inner gate, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden is well worth a visit. The only full-size classical Chinese garden outside China, it was modeled after a Ming Period (1368-1644) scholar's retreat in the Chinese city of Suzhou.
Exit the gardens by the gate on the right-hand (east) side, then turn left and you'll find the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives at 555 Columbia St.
From here, go back up to Pender and turn right and continue going east, peeking in here and there to explore apothecaries like Vitality Enterprises at 126 E. Pender. At Main Street, turn right and walk south 1 block to Keefer Street and:
Take a Break--Though it's Canada's largest Chinese restaurant, Floata Seafood Restaurant, 400-180 Keefer St. (tel. 604/602-0368), isn't easy to find. In classic Hong Kong restaurant style, it's on the third floor of a bright red shopping plaza/parking garage. Time your arrival for midmorning dim sum (a kind of moving Chinese smorgasbord) if you can, and enjoy!
To continue the tour, stroll east on Keefer Street. The New Chong Lung Seafood and Meat Market at the corner of Gore and Keefer streets is also worth a look. The market stocks geoduck, salmon, and that local favorite, bullfrog. All (except the frogs) are available for shipping anywhere in the world.
Turn left and walk 1 block north up Gore to 296 E. Pender St. to find the:
10. Kuomintang Building
Though often a mystery to outsiders, politics was and remains an important part of life in Chinatown. Vancouver was long a stronghold of the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT). The party's founder, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, stayed in Vancouver for a time raising funds. In 1920, the party erected this building to serve as its Western Canadian headquarters. When the rival Chinese Communist party emerged victorious from the Chinese civil war in 1949, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan. Note the Taiwanese flags on the roof.
Go north on Gore for 2 more blocks and you come to 303 E. Cordova St., where stands:
11. St. James Anglican Church
Architect Adrian Gilbert Scott had designed a cathedral in Cairo before getting this commission, and it shows. Step inside to experience a hushed and beautiful gloom. One block east on Pender, the Vancouver Police Museum in the former Coroner's Court (240 E. Cordova) is well worth a visit. Among other displays, the museum has the autopsy pictures of Errol Flynn, who died in Vancouver in 1959 in the arms of his 17-year-old personal assistant.
Back on Gore Street, walk north, passing by Sunrise market (cheapest veggies in town) to Alexander Street. Turn left and walk 1 block west on Alexander to the:
12. Crab Park Overpass
City Hall calls it Portside Park, and that's how it appears on the map, but to everyone else it's Crab Park. It was created after long and vigorous lobbying by eastside activists, who reasoned that poor downtown residents had as much right to beach access as anyone else. The park itself is pleasant enough, though perhaps not worth the trouble of walking all the way up and over the overpass. What is worthwhile, however, is walking halfway up to where two stone Chinese lions stand guard. From here, you can look back at Canada Place -- where the tour started -- or at the container port and fish plant to your right.
To bring the tour to an end, return back to Alexander Street and walk 2 blocks west back to Maple Tree Square (stop 5).
