raggedy13
Dec 7, 2008, 8:34 PM
I never get tired of reading positive reviews of Vancouver:
Vancouver's melting pot makes a terrific cultural stew
By Arthur Frommer | King Features Syndicate
December 7, 2008
In February 2010, the world will be watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and marveling at the emergence of a metropolis that, in some respects, is comparable to Beijing in its modernity and ethnic makeup. As amazing as it may seem, a new census likely will show nearly 23 percent of the city's population to be of Chinese origin.
I arrived in Vancouver recently and was immediately impressed by the city's Asian aspect. At the airport, bilingual signs are in English and Chinese. As you stroll the streets, you are struck by the number of well-dressed, confident young people of Chinese origin. These are the children of those tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents who left that city in the 1980s in anticipation of the British handover to China that took place in 1997. They were prosperous, talented businesspeople who immediately established a center for Chinese culture in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond and then spread to all parts of the city.
On Robson Street, in the center of downtown, one of the largest Chinese restaurants I have ever seen (Hon's Wun-Tun House) is patronized by hundreds of Chinese Canadians (and savvy tourists) who watch a regiment of Chinese chefs working at breakneck pace from a giant elevated kitchen at one side of the room, split into meat-preparing and vegetarian-preparing sections. The fact that Hon's has been compelled to prepare vegetarian meals for half its guests is a tipoff to the attitudes of Vancouver's youthful population.
But Vancouver isn't solely Chinese; a full 50 percent of the population speaks a language other than English as their childhood tongue. There's a huge Punjabi population (Anglo-Indian) that supports an immense section of Indian commerce, a large number of Somalis from Africa, a large number of Iraqis who were granted asylum here and a heavy contingent of other people of Muslim descent whose women stroll the streets in trendy, attractive, silk head scarves. Vancouver is the way it is because Canada welcomes the arrival of immigrants moving here for political reasons.
One morning, in the Globe and Mail slipped under the door of our hotel room in Banff (we traveled from Vancouver and Kamloops in British Columbia to Calgary and Banff in Alberta, and then went to Lake Louise), there was a front-page announcement by the premier of Canada that the government will ease and encourage the granting of permanent-residency visas to immigrants who have come here on temporary work permits and have proved their worth to the state. Canada is encouraging Immigration as a means of adding vibrancy to its society, preparing a path to citizenship for all the Indian, Chinese, Somali, Iraqi and other immigrants in its midst.
And from all appearances, that diverse population has brought immense prosperity to a city with low unemployment, astonishing construction activity, new convention centers, new parks, new skyscrapers rising up everywhere, vibrant retail activity. Vancouver reportedly is the fastest-growing city in Canada, developing at a greater pace than even the cities of adjoining Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) that are benefiting so much from the extraction of oil from tar sands in the area north of Ft. McHenry.
Immigration. It was refreshing to hear the subject discussed intelligently and without prejudice. And it was delightful to spend the day in Vancouver's giant Stanley Park, watching Chinese and Indian and Muslim families all enjoying the sun and the picnics and mingling together without tension.
We'll all be watching scenes from Vancouver in February 2010.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-frommer-vancouver-1207__r_t_dec07,0,6420476.story
Vancouver's melting pot makes a terrific cultural stew
By Arthur Frommer | King Features Syndicate
December 7, 2008
In February 2010, the world will be watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and marveling at the emergence of a metropolis that, in some respects, is comparable to Beijing in its modernity and ethnic makeup. As amazing as it may seem, a new census likely will show nearly 23 percent of the city's population to be of Chinese origin.
I arrived in Vancouver recently and was immediately impressed by the city's Asian aspect. At the airport, bilingual signs are in English and Chinese. As you stroll the streets, you are struck by the number of well-dressed, confident young people of Chinese origin. These are the children of those tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents who left that city in the 1980s in anticipation of the British handover to China that took place in 1997. They were prosperous, talented businesspeople who immediately established a center for Chinese culture in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond and then spread to all parts of the city.
On Robson Street, in the center of downtown, one of the largest Chinese restaurants I have ever seen (Hon's Wun-Tun House) is patronized by hundreds of Chinese Canadians (and savvy tourists) who watch a regiment of Chinese chefs working at breakneck pace from a giant elevated kitchen at one side of the room, split into meat-preparing and vegetarian-preparing sections. The fact that Hon's has been compelled to prepare vegetarian meals for half its guests is a tipoff to the attitudes of Vancouver's youthful population.
But Vancouver isn't solely Chinese; a full 50 percent of the population speaks a language other than English as their childhood tongue. There's a huge Punjabi population (Anglo-Indian) that supports an immense section of Indian commerce, a large number of Somalis from Africa, a large number of Iraqis who were granted asylum here and a heavy contingent of other people of Muslim descent whose women stroll the streets in trendy, attractive, silk head scarves. Vancouver is the way it is because Canada welcomes the arrival of immigrants moving here for political reasons.
One morning, in the Globe and Mail slipped under the door of our hotel room in Banff (we traveled from Vancouver and Kamloops in British Columbia to Calgary and Banff in Alberta, and then went to Lake Louise), there was a front-page announcement by the premier of Canada that the government will ease and encourage the granting of permanent-residency visas to immigrants who have come here on temporary work permits and have proved their worth to the state. Canada is encouraging Immigration as a means of adding vibrancy to its society, preparing a path to citizenship for all the Indian, Chinese, Somali, Iraqi and other immigrants in its midst.
And from all appearances, that diverse population has brought immense prosperity to a city with low unemployment, astonishing construction activity, new convention centers, new parks, new skyscrapers rising up everywhere, vibrant retail activity. Vancouver reportedly is the fastest-growing city in Canada, developing at a greater pace than even the cities of adjoining Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) that are benefiting so much from the extraction of oil from tar sands in the area north of Ft. McHenry.
Immigration. It was refreshing to hear the subject discussed intelligently and without prejudice. And it was delightful to spend the day in Vancouver's giant Stanley Park, watching Chinese and Indian and Muslim families all enjoying the sun and the picnics and mingling together without tension.
We'll all be watching scenes from Vancouver in February 2010.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-frommer-vancouver-1207__r_t_dec07,0,6420476.story
