Gastown, Vancouver’s oldest quarter, was the original site of the city’s first industry and the famous saloon of ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton, after whom the district was named. Extensive renovations during the 1960s were designed to convert the run-down, neglected remains of this historic district into a tourist haven. There are some handsome old buildings that are perfect venues for bars and restaurants, and the cobblestoned streets lead off to hidden alcoves and mews that are undeniably quaint. A string of tacky souvenir stores and the area’s over-hyped Steam Clock sadly pander to the tour-bus brigade, yet the area is also incongruously emerging as the city’s hotspot for nightclubs and contains the greatest concentration of antique/ curiosity stores, retro clothes boutiques, commercial art galleries and purveyors of quality First Nations crafts. In a strange tug-of-war, Vancouver’s seediest quarter, East Side, lies immediately adjacent to the overtly touristy Gastown. Over a century ago, when the city’s first streetcars connected Gastown to a newly emerging business district along Granville, Hastings Street entered a decline that has led to its current rating as Canada’s lowest- income postal district. Despite several attempts to clean up the area, the blocks east of Cambie are lined with derelict buildings and closed shops, peopled by bums, addicts, drug-dealers and prostitutes. True to Vancouver’s predominantly Pacific Rim persona, the streets of Chinatown are lined with noisy shops selling the kind of weird and wonderful ingredients only the Chinese would know how to cook: unusual fruits, tanks full of obscure shellfish, dubious parts of a pig’s anatomy, huge barrels full of tiny dried fish or shrimp. The main sight is the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the first authentic Ming Classical garden built since 1492, and the first ever outside China. SightsGastown The heart of Gastown is Water Street which contains the much- touted Steam Clock. In 1977 clockmaker Ray Saunders decided that the underground steam pipes that heat local buildings could also be used to power a clock, and constructed one to prove it. At 5 m tall, this is not as imposing as one expects, though its four-sided glass face, 20-kg gold-plated pendulum and Gothic-style roof are attractive enough. Every 15 minutes it entertains tourists by tooting and erupting in a cloud of steam. Further east at the junction of Water, Powell and Alexander streets is the charming Maple Leaf Square. A statue of Gassy Jack standing on a whisky barrel is a work of imagination on the part of sculptor Vern Simpson, as no-one knows what the Yorkshireman looked like beyond a description of his complexion being ‘muddy purple’. Opposite is the thin curved end of the wedge-shaped Hotel Europe (1909), the first reinforced-concrete building in Vancouver and certainly one of its most attractive constructions. Behind Gassy Jack is the site of his second saloon after the 1886 fire. Made from Chinese bricks used as ballast in sailing vessels, the Byrne’s Block is Vancouver’s oldest brick building. Secreted behind it is Gaoler’s Mews, an atmospheric little courtyard full of trees, old-fashioned lampposts, park benches and a sundial. East Side The corner of Hastings and Main has become notorious as the focal point for the sad and sleazy underworld. The recent grizzly multiple murder of women from the East Side has once again shone the media’s spotlight on this notorious quarter, which mayor Larry Campbell has vowed to clean up. Nevertheless, this strangely compelling district is safe enough to wander through even at night, and contains some of the last remaining examples of neon in Vancouver. It’s also the focus of a few ‘smoke-friendly’ cafés that are touting Vancouver as the New Amsterdam, and contains some interesting and wonderfully eclectic buildings. The 19th-century French Classical-style Dominion Building at 207 West Hastings is one of the city’s most attractive pieces of architecture, with an elaborately decorated red-brick and yellow terracotta veneer and a distinctive beaux-arts-style roof. In 1910 this, the British Empire’s highest structure, stood opposite Vancouver’s public focus, Victory Square, now run-down and nicknamed ‘Pigeon Park’. Two years later its record height was topped by the nearby Sun Tower at 100 West Pender. As a publicity stunt in 1920, Houdini suspended himself from its green copper roof. Just east of Main at 280 Cordova is the Firehall Arts Centre, and at No 303 is St James Anglican Church, a fine structure that com- bines touches of the Romanesque, Gothic, Byzantine and modern. Chinatown The Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street, T 6897133, $7.50, $5 concessions, Chinatown’s star attraction, is an authentic Ming Classical garden created by 52 experts flown in, along with most of the raw materials, from Suzhou, China’s ‘City of Gardens’. It is a carefully planned world of symmetry and balance, simplicity and symbolism. There are walls within walls, courtyards within courtyards, pavilions, halls, bridges and covered galleries. Guided tours, included in the admission fee, are essential for an understanding of the Taoist rinciples at work. The Chinese Cultural Centre, 555 Columbia Street, T 6588865, http://www.cccvan.com, Tue-Sun 1100 to 1700. $3, $2 concessions, an ugly concrete building with a colourful gate, is very much geared towards the local Chinese community rather than tourists, but it does contain a museum with some interesting artefacts and information for those who want to know more about the history of Vancouver’s Chinese community. The permanent exhibition From Generation to Generation tells the story of Canadian Chinese from the Gold Rush to the present. There are also temporary exhibits, and a collection dedicated to the Chinese Canadian Military. Tours of Chinatown, daily Jun-Sep 1000-1400, $10, $8 senior, $2.50 child, make much of the novel Sam Kee Building at 8 West Pender. Legend has it that when the fledgling city appropriated most of Chang Toy’s 9-m lot for street widening, his neighbour expected to get the remaining 1.8 m at a bargain price. To frustrate him, Toy constructed the world’s skinniest building and put a popular bath-house in the basement. Known as ‘Slender on Pender’, it is 1.8 m wide, 30 m long and two storeys high. More intriguing is the widely substantiated rumour that the whole of Chinatown is riddled with secret underground tunnels. Ask the tour guide for their angle on this mystery. The sights and smells of Chinatown are at their most intense in the open-air Night Market, 200 Keefer Street, summer Fri-Sun 1830-2300. Consider eating here too, the restaurants are as good as you’ll ever find outside China; at the very least try a curried beef bun from one of the bakeries.
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