Pete McMartin: A ‘centre of gravity’ stuck in the past, is there really a need to save nostalgic Chinatown?
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, June 18, 2016
For a dispiriting exercise, read the reviews of Vancouver’s Chinatown on the travel website TripAdvisor.
“Not safe, not what you want to see.”
“This place sucked.”
“Sad part of town.”
“DO NOT GO HERE.”
And on and on. Of the 495 TripAdvisor reviews of Chinatown, the largest number of them — 115 — gave it the worst possible rating of “terrible.” Another 79 rated it “poor.” The weight of opinion seemed to say that, as a tourist destination, most found Chinatown a disappointment. Read more…
Grocery shopping in Vancouver’s Chinatown was once a major reason for going there, but as Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang says: ‘You can get Chinese groceries on every street corner. I don’t have to go back to Chinatown like in the old days.’
JENELLE SCHNEIDER / VANCOUVER SUN
