A taste of culture and history in Vancouver's Chinatown

VANCOUVER, B.C. — On a dreary winter day, the normally bustling sidewalks of Chinatown were almost empty, and its walled Chinese garden echoed to the footsteps of just a handful of visitors.

Most people had taken refuge in Chinatown's dozens of restaurants and shops, sheltered behind steamed-up windows as rain lashed the streets.

But in the emptiness, it was easier to envisage Chinatown's past, to look up at the old-fashioned buildings, embellished with recessed balconies and ornate railings, that have sheltered Chinese immigrants for more than a century.

These days, Chinatown, a neighborhood of about 10 square blocks on the east edge of downtown Vancouver, is a tourist attraction and an eating and shopping destination for locals. One of its biggest days of the year is coming up Feb. 13, with a noontime parade and an all-day festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The annual parade usually draws thousands of people.

"Get here a good hour before for a good spot for the parade," advises Erika Korstrom, an administrator at Chinatown's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. The garden will host other New Year's festivities that day in its courtyards and pavilions, including demonstrations of calligraphy, tai chi and traditional Chinese music. And the nearby International Village, a trendy multi-story shopping mall with escalators stretching across an airy atrium, will have music and vendors' booths.

Long history

The Chinese have a long history in British Columbia. Nineteenth-century immigrants helped build the province, toiling on railroads and in mines, canneries and logging camps. For decades, many found a home, and a refuge from sometimes fierce discrimination, in Vancouver's Chinatown.

These days, Canadians of Chinese heritage, including recent and affluent immigrants from Hong Kong, are about 18 percent of Greater Vancouver's population. They're immersed in every aspect of Vancouver life, and trendy new Asian-oriented malls and restaurants are found throughout the city and suburbs. But the original Chinatown gives a glimpse of daily life and history, thanks to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, some small museums and its century-old buildings.

Vancouver's Chinatown is bigger and livelier than Seattle's Chinatown/International District. But it's had tough times over the years as the city's grittiest neighborhood borders it to the north; along East Hastings Street there are blocks of rundown rooming houses, raunchy bars and drug-dealing.

Chinatown stores were closing and shoppers and diners were heading to newer Asian-oriented malls and restaurants in the suburbs, especially Richmond in the past decade. But the city and community groups have poured cash, security and other improvements into Chinatown to revive it.

These days, Chinatown's main streets — East Pender and Keefer on either side of Main — are lined with shops and restaurants. When it isn't pouring rain, the sidewalks are busy with shoppers and sightseers.

In Chinatown's traditional pharmacies, stern-faced men concoct herbal medicines, carefully weighing dried herbs on hand scales. Food shops have mounds of vegetables and seafood so fresh it's practically still moving. Video stores offer the latest Hong Kong action films. And household/knick knack shops dot the neighborhood; I spent a happy half-hour browsing in the Fuling store (formerly called K.K. Co., 148 E. Pender St., 604-683-8666), a small shop piled high with everything from incense and household altars to woks and dishes.

What almost everyone does in Chinatown is eat. There's a restaurant for every taste and budget. Some seat hundreds, with extended families clustered at big, round tables. At the smaller and very popular Hon's Wun Tun House (268 Keefer St., 604-688-0871), massive bowls of soup or noodles cost $4 to $8.

For something lighter, stop at one of Chinatown's half-dozen storefront bakeries; a coconut bun or steamed pork bun and tea costs about a dollar. For more fashionable drinks, including bubble teas (flavored, milky tea with little pearls of tapioca) and lattes, head to the Golden Crown Coffee Tea House (138 E. Pender St, 604-688-2282). It has a few tables and lots of books in its adjoining bookshop.

True tea lovers, and the merely curious, should make a beeline for Chinatown's Ten Ren Tea Co., (550 Main St., 604-684-1566) where elegant saleswomen wait by shelves of everyday and rare teas, including oolong teas that cost more than $100 a pound. Connoisseurs can sit with staff at a low table to sample and discuss teas.

For more soulful sustenance, stroll through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (578 Carrall St., 604-662-3207, www.vancouverchinesegarden.com). It's modeled after classical gardens built in the Chinese city of Suzhou during the Ming Dynasty (mid 14th to 17th centuries) and is named in honor of Sun Yat-Sen, a revolutionary leader who visited Vancouver and in 1911 became the first president of modern China.

At any time of year, the garden is one of Chinatown's main attractions; more than 90,000 people visit annually and it's crowded in summer with tour groups oohing and ahhing at the carved woodwork and the meticulously-placed limestone rocks and pines that symbolize China's wild landscapes.

But on a dreary winter day, I had the garden almost to myself. It was a peaceful, cultural oasis in the heart of the city.

Kristin Jackson: 206-464-2271 or kjackson@seattletimes.com