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WHAT'S DOING IN VANCOUVER
By MOIRA FARROW; MOIRA FARROW IS A REPORTER FOR THE VANCOUVER SUN.
LEAD: Fresh flowers and firecrackers will brighten February in Vancouver, British Columbia, when the city's Chinese community throws a party. The event is called Spring Festival, and its highlight is the celebration of the Chinese New Year, Feb. 17, with a lion dance and costume parade through one of the largest Chinese communities in North
Fresh flowers and firecrackers will brighten February in Vancouver, British Columbia, when the city's Chinese community throws a party. The event is called Spring Festival, and its highlight is the celebration of the Chinese New Year, Feb. 17, with a lion dance and costume parade through one of the largest Chinese communities in North America.
The Chinese first came to western Canada in 1858 in search of gold. Today there are more than 100,000 Chinese-Canadians living in or around the Pacific Coast city. In recent years the long-established Chinese community has been boosted by many new arrivals from Hong Kong, who are leaving in anticipation of the transfer of the British territory to China in 1997.
Spring Festival, which runs from Feb. 6 to 28, will include a flower market and children's art show. The New Year celebration (call 604-687-0729 for details) marks the start of the Year of the Dragon, and the streets of Chinatown will explode with firecrackers to scare away evil spirits.
Antique light fixtures, widened sidewalks and pagoda-style telephone booths have helped in recent years to give Chinatown a special setting. The Chinese have done the rest. Vegetable stores spill out onto the sidewalk laden with bok choy (cabbage) and dung gwa (winter melon). Herb shops are crammed with jars of unidentifiable substances alleged to cure any ailment under the sun. And the vivid reds and yellows of store canopies alongside flashing neon signs make a kaleidoscope on the darkest winter day. But that bustling street scene is not the heart of the district. That label has now been placed, with great pride, on a garden of serene beauty that opened last year on the edge of Chinatown.
The Sun Yat-sen Garden, behind high white walls, is the first, full-size classical Chinese garden to be built outside China. Named for the revolutionary who led the overthrow of the imperial system in 1911 and who helped to establish the Chinese Republic, the garden was built with donations from individuals, corporations and governments. Construction was done by 52 workmen from Suzhou who used traditional methods and tools. Even in the rain, it's a lovely place. A waterfall splashes, wind rustles the bamboo, and its tranquility defies the traffic outside the walls. The garden unfolds like a landscape painting scroll of rockeries, evergreens, pebblestone paving and pools of jade green water teeming with goldfish.
The garden (578 Carrall Street; 604-689-7133) is open daily from 10 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. during the winter. Admission is $2.25, $1.50 for older people, students and children. And there's a gift shop where you can buy anything from a silk rug for $1,500 to a bar of sandalwood soap for 45 cents. (Prices throughout are given in United States dollars.) Also unique to Chinatown is what is claimed to be the narrowest commercial building in the world. Only six feet wide, the Sam Kee building, 8 West Pender Street, was recently fronted by a 100-foot-long lighted sidewalk of glass blocks; it has become a magnet for tourist cameras. THE MOUNTAINS
The glory of the city of 1.2 million is its setting: the 4,000-foot peaks of the Coast Mountains drop steeply to a natural harbor. Ten sandy beaches are within easy reach - some by foot, others by bus or car - of the city center, and they are a playground for sailors and windsurfers almost year round.
The city's mild, wet winter has an average low temperature of around 35 degrees in January, but skiers should not abandon hope. The mountains that tower over the city, Grouse and Seymour, provide good skiing only a 20-minute drive from downtown.
At Grouse (604-986-6262 for snow report) a daily lift ticket is about $17, at Seymour (604-986-3444 for snow report) about $12.
And 80 miles north is a two-mountain ski resort rapidly making an international name.
Whistler and Blackcomb mountains (604-932-4191 for snow alongside an Alpine-style village, offer 10,000 vertical feet of skiing on 180 marked runs with 26 lifts.
A day pass on either peak costs $24 and, with luck, skiing lasts well into spring. For accommodations, contact Central Reservations Service, Whistler, British Columbia V0N 1B0 (604-932-4222).
Blackcomb invested $25 million in new facilities this year, including three express lifts that whisk skiers to the mountaintop in 14 minutes rather than 45 on the old lifts. A transfer to the Seventh Heaven Express then takes a mere six minutes to reach powder country.
With 22 hotels and condominiums in the village and more under construction, the resort is turning into a year-round destination with a golf course, tennis courts, hiking trails, fishing and windsurfing. CITY SIGHTS
In Vancouver the first-time visitor might head to Stanley Park, a five-minute cab ride a mile west of the downtown area. The park, a 1,000-acre-peninsula, combines near-wilderness forest, beaches, formal rose gardens, a waterlily lake and an excellent aquarium. The park is circled by an eight-mile seawall walk and one can rent a bike ($3.50 to $4.50 an hour) at the park entrance.
Granville Island, also a peninsula, is beside the inner city lagoon of False Creek. The island is a mixture of art and industry with a waterfront food market, theaters, restaurants and boats. For a good, inexpensive lunch one can buy a bagel with smoked salmon and cheese, and sit in the sun watching the jugglers and waving at the passing yachts.
NIGHT LIFE
At night, Vancouver's affluent young people converge at Pelican Bay, a waterfront club inside the Granville Island Hotel (604-683-7373). This is where California North - as Vancouver likes to think of itself -dances the night away (the night begins around 9:30;
a cover charge of about $2 is charged weekends.) And long a night life favorite is Richard's on Richards (1036 Richards Street; 604-687-6794). There nearly always seems to be a well-turned-out lineup on the sidewalk waiting to get in to Richard's, where guests' cars are handed over to tuxedoed valets. (
Cover charges vary under $5, depending on the night of the week.)
EVENTS
Five buildings stuffed with 341 cars from the world's leading manufacturers will make up the Pacific International Automobile Show Jan. 15 to 24 at Exhibition Park in the east end of the city. For those who prefer floating to driving, there's the Vancouver International Boat Show from Feb. 3 to 7 at the B. C. Place Stadium (604-669-2300). Everything from a rowboat to a 50-foot yacht will be on view.
The Vancouver Opera Association (604-682-2871) will present three operas in English at the Queen Elizabeth Theater (Hamilton and Georgia). Leos Janacek's ''Cunning Little Vixen'' will be performed Jan. 30, Feb. 2, 4 and 6; Benjamin Britten's ''Turn of the Screw'' March 12, 15, 17 and 19, and Johann Strauss's ''Fledermaus'' April 30, May 3, 5 and 7. Tickets range from $13 to $39.
The Vancouver Symphony (604-684-9100) will be conducted for the first time by a woman, French-born Catherine Comet, now music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, March 13, 14 and 15 at the Orpheum (601 Smithe Street). On the program: Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Debussy's ''Afternoon of a Faun'' and Hindemith's ''Mathis der Maler'' The Hungarian pianist Annie Fischer will be soloist. Tickets range from $6 to $19.
HOTELS
With Expo 86's millions of visitors now a memory, Vancouver's hotels have been suffering. But the tourist wins because competition is fierce, making for moderate prices and excellent service.
In the luxury class, the venerable Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street; 604-684-3131 or 800-268-9143) will always be a survivor. Its green copper roof is a city landmark and its central location is great. Recently an indoor pool was added to give the elegant, old hotel all the essentials of contemporary life. Doubles range from about $50 to $90.
More moderately priced but lacking in nothing is O'Doul's Hotel (1300 Robson Street; 604-684-8461 or 800-663-5491). Set on a street of boutiques and specialty stores, O'Doul's is only a short walk from Stanley Park. Rooms include writing desks and three telephones. Doubles are about $60 to $85.
There are studio suites with queen-size beds and kitchenettes in the Pagebrook Hotel (1234 Hornby Street; 604-688-1234 or 800-663-1234). Suite rates go up from about $60 a night; children under 16 are free.
A 12-minute ride across the harbor by SeaBus ferry is the Lonsdale Quay Hotel (123 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver; 604-986-6111). The small waterfront hotel has gorgeous views; double rooms are about $70 to $95.
Visitors on a budget will get good value at the Greenbrier Apartment Hotel (1393 Robson Street; 604-683-4558), which lacks decor but has a location as good as O'Doul's. Doubles start at $30.
For tourist information and more accommodation possibilities, including bed and breakfast's, contact the Travel InfoCenter (562 Burrard Street; 604-683-2000).
RESTAURANTS
A fine new restaurant called the Prow may now have the best view in the city. The restaurant is in the northern end of Canada Place, a striking building topped with white sails that juts into the harbor like a sailing ship. It was Canada's pavilion at Expo; now it houses a trade and convention center. At the Prow (604-684-1339) dinner for two with wine costs about $50. The menu is likely to include mussel cream soup with Pernod and grilled swordfish in pink peppercorn and orange sauce.
Not quite so pricey and very lively is Joe Fortes (777 Thurlow Street; 604-669-1940). Situated in a neighborhood of boutiques, Joe Fortes is named for a long-dead local character and is known for its oyster bar and live piano music. Dinner and wine for two costs about $45; among recent menu choices have been roast boneless duck with pear sauce and a cheesecake made with sour cream.
Well within budget range is the fine Japanese food at Kibune Restaurant (1508 Yew; 604-734-5216). The tiny place, which is decorated with lots of wood, has miso-shiru soup for 75 cents, and a house specialty called yosenabe that contains everything from seafood and tofu to chicken and bamboo shoots ($5.25).
The range of Chinese food is wide. Downtown there's the elegant black and white decor at the Beijing (865 Hornby Street; 604-688-7788), where a meal for two with wine costs $45 to $65; among the dishes might be a soup of bird's nest and crabmeat ($19) or spicy Szechuan chicken hot pot ($7).
For bargain hunters in the midst of Chinatown, there is Hon's Wun-Tun House (524 Main Street; 604-688-7018). An order of the quick-fried steamed dumplings, which come in a tangy sauce, costs only a bit more than $2. There's no liquor license but for $8 two people can eat their fill.
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