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Top 20 Vancouver Experiences That Make Awesome Gifts (#11)

By Sasha Leung, Vancouver Foodie Tours, March 8, 2022

At Vancouver Foodie Tours, we’re proud ambassadors of the city we work and play in. Which means when we’re looking for gifts, we choose Vancouver experiences over “things”. If you’re looking for a Vancouver Experience Gift, you’ve come to the right place.

Why should you give an experience instead of a physical gift? When you gift an experience, you are creating memories that can last a lifetime. And if you join them in the experience, that means more time for you to connect.

Vancouver’s diverse cultural & physical landscape makes it the ideal place to get out and explore! In this list, we’ve included some great insider tips, popular attractions, and unknown experiences. Whether you’re a local or a visitor, you’ll find something in Vancouver that will capture the occasion. Even if you’re not looking for a gift, this list gives you a lot of inventive ideas on things to do in Vancouver…Read More

‘Intolerable’ hate incidents continue to rise in Vancouver: police

By Amy Smart, Jul 17, 2020, Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Reported “hate incidents” have more than doubled this year in Vancouver and police say offenders are targeting the city’s Asian community as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Insp. Dale Weidman, incident commander for the Vancouver Police Department’s new hate crime project team, said the department has identified 155 hate-associated reports this year, up from 69 over the same time in 2019.

The city’s Asian community is seeing more than nine times the number of incidents at 66 compared with seven last year, he said.

“It’s an alarming increase and I want to assure you that the department takes these things very seriously,” Weidman said. …read more

A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past the boarded up shops along Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, Monday, May 4, 2020. Reported “hate incidents” have more than doubled this year in Vancouver and police say offenders are targeting the city’s Asian community as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

How these ‘bright stars’ are ‘creating space for the community’ in Vancouver’s changing Chinatown

Showwei Chu, CBC radio, The Current, Feb 12, 2020

In search of connection to Chinatown, these advocates are helping build intergenerational communities.

Yuly Chan says she became a community organizer in Vancouver’s Chinatown as a way to honour her late father, an immigrant from Venezuela who was very involved with the community.

“Chinatown was a place that provided me and my family a lot of support and a sense of community as immigrants to Canada,” said Chan, 33.

In 2015, she volunteered with the Chinatown Concern Group, a seniors group that started a petition calling for a moratorium on condo developments in Chinatown and organized a city hall rally.

“It was really kind of a big turning point for the community because you’ve had this group of Chinese seniors storm city hall, and you’ve never seen that before,” she said. Read more…

Observers say Chinatown started seeing a new wave of young activists and advocates in the historic neighbourhood around the time a controversial condo proposal was being considered at 105 Keefer St. (CBC)

The politics of banning shark fin in Vancouver

Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier, MAY 7, 2019

Remember that day long ago when then-city councillor Kerry Jang stood up in the council chamber with two packages of shark fin in his hands?

Maybe you don’t.

I do because I happened to be there. Something about working for a living. It was September 2012.

The packages belonged to Jang’s mother and were purchased more than 40 years ago. Their original price was $14 each. Apparently, the fin is now worth several hundred dollars. Read more…

The City of Vancouver is waiting to see whether a bill will be passed in Ottawa to ban shark fin before considering a Vancouver-only ban on the Asian delicacy. File photo Dan Toulgoet

Vancouver Chinatown: Council approves revisions reducing building size in historic area

DAN FUMANO, Vancouver Sun, July 10, 2018

Vancouver city council voted Tuesday afternoon to reduce the maximum size of buildings in the city’s Chinatown, changing course on policies adopted seven years ago.

While the zoning revisions had been supported by community advocates, some local property owners and development industry representatives had opposed the move.

The changes to Chinatown’s development policies were made in response to community concerns about the changing character and the pace of development, especially after 2011 development policies allowing taller, wider buildings, intended to revitalize the area. Read more…

Street scene in Vancouver’s Chinatown district. GERRY KAHRMANN / PNG

BC WANTS TO HONOUR VANCOUVER’S CHINATOWN AS UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Hamed Amiri, September 17, 2018 | 604NOW

The Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver are joining together to have Vancouver’s Chinatown designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site.

Both parties believe the area has outstanding universal value.

“Vancouver’s Chinatown is a powerful symbol of the resilience, determination and courage of generations of the Chinese community and people who have helped build this province,” said Premier John Horgan.

Source

Photo: HappyBarbers / 604 Now Flickr Pool

Heritage Vancouver releases 2018 top 10 watch list

Naoibh O’Connor, Vancouver Courier, MAY 17, 2018

The discussion around heritage is becoming increasingly complicated and perhaps nowhere is that better reflected than among some of the top finishers on Heritage Vancouver Society’s annual watch list that was released this week.

Heather Street Lands and the Fairmont Academy, a historic building that sits on the 21-acre property, earned the No. 1 spot, followed by Chinatown in second place. Neighbourhood businesses, meanwhile, landed in fifth position.

All three represent heritage values beyond just buildings.

Bill Yuen, the society’s executive director, says the organization wants to encourage the wider public to think beyond the traditional definition of heritage, which at one point focused largely on architecturally significant buildings, and to consider a fuller vision of heritage that includes aspects such as social and cultural history – areas that may have been under-represented in the past. Read more…

As Heritage Vancouver Society releases its annual Top 10 endangered sites list, executive director Bill Yuen says the organization encourages a wider view of heritage that includes social and cultural history like that found in Chinatown. Photo Dan Toulgoet

No more tall buildings in Chinatown suggested by Vancouver city planners

Carlito Pablo, The Georgia Straight, May 30th, 2018

Vancouver city staff are recommending in a report that tall buildings should no longer be allowed in Chinatown.

Staff have proposed a height limit of 90 feet on new developments in order to preserve the character of the historic neighbourhood.

This could mean that council has to revoke its 2011 decision that permitted developers to seek approval of rezoning applications for towers in areas south of Pender Street. Read more…

The City of Vancouver is taking action to calm speculation in Chinatown.

Andy Yan, the analyst who exposed Vancouver’s real estate disaster

Terry Glavin, Feb 14, 2018

Andy Yan is a 42-year-old East Vancouverite who came up out of the proud working class ranks of Van Tech high school, toiling on weekends in the kill tank at the old Hallmark Poultry Factory on Clark Drive. He set out on a career in urban regeneration and applied demographics that took him to projects in New Orleans, New York City and San Francisco.

Nowadays he’s the director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, and while he’s too modest to boast about it, along the way he’s picked up a couple of exceedingly rare civic distinctions. Read more…

‘Last second’ email on planning shocks, dismays Chinatown advocates

JOHN MACKIE, Vancouver Sun, April 26, 2018

On Sunday, Mayor Gregor Robertson delivered a formal apology to Vancouver’s Chinese residents for the city’s historical discrimination.

But even as Robertson spoke, a new controversy was erupting in Chinatown over the redevelopment of the historic neighbourhood.

Late Friday afternoon, the city sent out an email that recommended several changes to a Chinatown Planning Update that the city had released in March. Read more…

Historic buildings in the 100 block East Pender in Vancouver’s Chinatown. GERRY KAHRMANN / PNG