Photo Walk 18 – China Town, Vancouver

I am surprised that I have not visited Chinatown in Vancouver more frequently.  Today I had fun.

Going to Chinatown is a bit like traveling back in time.  The shops, the smell, the people, etc. all remind me part of my childhood and where I used to grow up.  Of course it is not exactly the same because I didn’t grow up in Chinatown here in Vancouver, but nonetheless, it is a bit nostalgic.

There are some pretty unique buildings in Chinatown.  They don’t remind me of the buildings I grew up with.  But they are not the typical Vancouver style either.

Chinatown is decorated with lots of red color.  Even this construction site has red walkways around it.

The Chinese characters = Chinatown historical area.

Like Chinatown in other cities, Vancouver Chinatown is not without its garbage problem.  But overall, I have to say it is pretty clean.

Chinatown is near downtown Vancouver.  You can literally walk from Chinatown to downtown in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Chinatown has lots of shops on the street level.

As expected, we found shops selling souvenirs, and as we walked by here we heard the sound of mahjong upstairs.  That was not expected :)

Apart from souvenirs, there are also shops selling Chinese style furniture and home decor.  This one portraits itself as a trendy home furnishing store from China.

We are actually more interested in traditional Chinese goods, like the good old lanterns.  Should have gotten some for the mid-autumn festival.

Apart from decorations, there are a lot of Chinese dried food stores.

And Chinese medicine stores.  The styles of these stores never change and it is a good thing.  That is part of the time travel experience :)

Even though we have a lot of Chinese restaurants and Hong Kong style cafes in Richmond, we still find those in Chinatown quite amusing.

Like this one, they have fresh Chinese steamed buns coming out from their kitchen every 5 to 10 minutes.  The lineup to get fresh Chinese steamed buns was very long and long lasting!  It was so fun to see the crowd of people going for buns and Chinese deserts in this store.  And from observing the way the servers pack the buns into the takeout boxes, I think they can easily pack 8 to 10 steamed buns in one box.  Look, the guy in yellow is walking out with probably 50 buns in his hands!

Related posts:

• Photo Walk 19 – Sun Yat-Sen Park and Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver
• Photo Walk 9 – Top of Vancouver
• Photo Walk 13 – Downtown Vancouver in Autumn
• Photo Walk 1 – Downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park and Vancouver Convention Centre
• Photo Walk 4 – International Buddhist Society, Richmond
• Photo Walk 10 – Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver
• Photo Walk 20 – Whytecliff Park, West Vancouver
• Photo Walk 21 – Autumn Leaves in Vancouver