Chinatown, Vancouver
Use it or lose it.
Wandering Around Chinatown
I really like Chinatown. Helen and
have our favorite haunts for breakfast or buying groceries.
We had an afternoon free so we decided to go for a walk around the
neighborhood before we picked up steamed buns.
Wandering around, we were a little sad for
the neighborhood. The city really is marching towards
chinatown and I'm not sure how much longer the land can stay as it
is. To make matters worse, many of the workers in Chinatown
are older than average for retail and I suspect their core clients
are going the same way. Eventually the demographics will
erode the neighborhood.
We were reminded that if you want to keep a neighborhood, you need
to patronize it.
Chinatown Night Market
Example number one of use it or lose
it. I don't know which had a night market first, Richmond or
Chinatown. Due to a contract dispute, Richmond got two night
markets. Surrey added a night market. The night market
in Chinatown is now gone. I remember some spectacular sunset
evening in at the Chinatown night market - it brought people to
the neighborhood.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden
The garden does really great job of decorating for
the winter solstice lantern festival. It is by far
their busiest day of the year (often the walk ways are so
cramed you can't take photos).
We wandered around the garden for two plus hours and
thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
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New Years Parades
The Chinese New Years parade in Chinatown
is probably the largest event of the year - certainly the largest
crowds I have ever seen in a Chinatown. The Parade has a mix
of attractions - politicians, beauty contest winners and corporate
floats as well as the more traditional lion dancing, dragon
chasing the pearl of wisdom and community clubs. I have
visited in
2006,
2015,
2017,
2018,
2019 and
2020
The kids really liked the dancing lions
and the dragons. Getting parking and a nice place to sit is
always a challenge (the crowds don't always behave well), but it's
certainly worth trying to see the show.
Tags: Vancouver Chinatown(20), Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden(17), lantern(11), parade(7), garden(5), dragon(5)
People: Nara(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Photos of Vancouver > Vancouver Chinatown
From: John Harvey Photo > Vancouver Chinatown
Last Modified Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 23:55:17 Edit
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