Chinatown, Vancouver

The Chinatown of Vancouver, British Columbia is the second largest Chinatown in West Coast North America (after Chinatown, San Francisco, which is arguably the largest in North America). North of Chinatown is the infamous Downtown Eastside while the Downtown Vancouver Central Business District is to the west. It remains a popular tourist attraction as well as one of the prominent symbols of institutionalized multiculturalism in Canada since the 1960s.

Related Topics:
West Coast North America - Chinatown, San Francisco - Downtown Eastside - Tourist attraction - Multiculturalism - Canada

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Chinatown still has many restaurants, banks, markets, and other shops catering to the local community. As with many Chinatowns, Chinatown is still heavily populated by immigrant old-timers.

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Chinatown had been overshadowed by the more modern and gleaming Hong Kong Chinese immigrant business district on No. 3 Road between Cambie Road and Westminster Hwy in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, British Columbia in the southern Lower Mainland. Scores of affluent Hong Kong immigrants have immigrated into the area since the 1980s. No. 3 Road contains several large malls. A shopping centre named Aberdeen Centre is named after the popular shopping district of Hong Kong. Richmond has also become reknowned for its good Cantonese seafood restaurants. T & T Supermarket operates a store there as well.

Related Topics:
Hong Kong Chinese - Richmond, British Columbia - Lower Mainland - Hong Kong - 1980s - T & T Supermarket

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Business leaders of Vancouver's Chinatown have attempted to counter the shopping centers of Richmond. However, Chinatown's location close to the skid row Downtown Eastside is less than advantageous.

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Today, Chinatown is in the midst of a renaissance as the downtown condo boom is encroaching on its limits. New enclaves of condos and apartment towers are being constructed as well as International Village, downtown's answer to the suburban Asian malls found in Richmond. The Millennium Gate promises that Chinatown will once again rise up to remain the centre of Chinese culture and prominence in Canada.

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Due to the large ethnic Chinese presence in the Vancouver area, especially represented by multigeneration Chinese Canadians and first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong, the city has become derogatively known as Hongcouver.

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