Vancouver Is Fast Emerging as One of the Most Unusual of North American Cities

Americans traveling to large Canadian cities in the eastern two-thirds of that country, often complain that the atmosphere isn't much different from what they know at home. They can never make that statement about Vancouver. Fully 50% of the population of Vancouver is now Asian (32% are Chinese), another few percentage points are accounted for by recent talented, well-educated immigrants from other countries, and no one can fail to notice the difference in lifestyles, atmosphere, and physical decor resulting from that ethnic diversity. Canada has shown us all how to benefit from an enlightened immigration policy designed to attract fresh new blood from other lands.

[image error] Photo Caption: Vancouver skyline. bogdanbrato/Frommers.com Community

It all began in the late 1980s, when the British handover of Hong Kong to China persuaded a large number of affluent Hong Kong Chinese to move to Vancouver. The Canadian government gave support to that movement by promising speeded-up procedures for obtaining Canadian citizenship to Hong Kong'ers who purchased land for homes in Vancouver. Most of the earliest immigrants settled in a suburb of Vancouver called Richmond, which then proceeded to become 92% Chinese. My daughter Pauline, who traveled to Vancouver last week, visited Richmond and was stunned and exhilarated by the evidence of dynamic Chinese leadership in developing that area. The prosperous, thriving Richmond is covered with the most extraordinary restaurants and shops (Taiwanese food is the latest favorite), including grocery stores housing gigantic tanks of crabs as large as your head and fish as long as the torso of a six-year-old child.

Since my own recent stay in Vancouver was only about a year ago, I can confirm Pauline's reactions to the city, which is also filled with extraordinary musems, theatres, superb shopping, a Canada Place dock where cruiseships leave for Alaska, a highly esteemed, in-city university, and many more outstanding facilities. But what mostly marks Vancouver is its population of bright young Asians, the children primarily of those immigrants from Hong Kong of two dozen years ago. As you walk along the streets, you can not fail to encounter them, and you will be impressed with their smart, optimistic attitudes.

If you have never been there, you might want to consider a trip.