Chinatown, Vancouver
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The Chinatown of Vancouver, British Columbia is the second largest Chinatown in North America. North of Chinatown is the infamous Downtown Eastside while Downtown Vancouver Central Business District is to the west.
The Chinatown had been overshadowed by the more modern and gleaming Chinese Canadian 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 Hong Kong immigrants have immigrated into the area since the 1980s. A shopping centre named Aberdeen Centre is named after the popular shopping district of Hong Kong.
Today, Chinatown is in the midst of a renaissance as the condo boom of downtown is encroaching on the limits of Chinatown. New enclaves of condo 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.
Facts and Figures
- The 'China Gate' on Pender Street was donated to the City of Vancouver by the Government of China following Expo 86 where it was on display.
Notable
In addition to Han Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, Chinese Latin Americans have also settled in the Chinatown area. Most of them were from Peru, when Juan Velasco Alvarado began ruling, while others from Brazil, Mexico, and Nicaragua, when Sandino rule started.
External links
- Vancouver Chinatown Official Web Site (http://vancouverchinatown.ca/)
- Chinese Community Policing Center - part of the Vancouver Police Department (http://www.chinesecpc.com/)
- Mobile Chinatowns: the future of community in a global space of flows (http://www.whb.co.uk/socialissues/vol2vm.htm) - Academic paper by Vincent Miller conveying the differences between the old Vancouver Chinatown and the new Richmond.