I live in Shanghai, a city which regularly inspires rave reviews from visiting pundits. They raid the thesaurus, filling their descriptions with adjectives: vibrant! energetic! buzzing! But the one that stands out as the most over-used of all is “post-modern”. Shanghai, we are told, is post-modern, ultra post-modern, or even, beyond post-modern.
Now, there is no doubt that my home city is energetic, vibrant and all that. But it is absolutely not post-modern. Shanghai is still struggling to become a 20th-century city; it is still building subway lines, freeways, office towers and apartment blocks, feats that most cities accomplished decades ago. Shanghai is just another city that is modernising in conventional ways. Post-modern can only happen after the construction is finished.
Which brings us to Vancouver. This jewel of a little town is everything Shanghai is not. Vancouver is quiet, clean and user-friendly; it is small, charming and liberal, with personal freedoms so pronounced that they offend even their American neighbours. The place is very well planned – a cityscape like this doesn’t happen by chance – with huge pieces of prime real estate devoted to parkland and public use. All these features qualify Vancouver as post-modern.
Then, there are the pathways that define the city, linking its restaurants and hotels with urban neighbourhoods, sandy beaches and forested parks. These paths put people on their feet or on their bikes, and they take traffic off the streets and remove stress from people’s lives. The paths are supplemented by small ferries that serve key waterfront sites, making cars even less of a necessity.
Visitors from outside the city rave about these walking paths, downtown parks and tiny, frequent ferry services. That shows you how rare these features are. Restfulness is a big topic in the West these days, where people are rediscovering the need for natural beauty and peace in their daily lives. By virtue of its fine planning and its lucky location, Vancouver delivers restfulness in droves. “Visitors always appreciate how calm Vancouver is,” says Wendy Underwood, manager of international travel media relations for Tourism Vancouver. “We like to think of ourselves as a big metropolis, but we’re not.”
Some of the city’s restful serenity is mere luck. Rainy weather aside, the place is blessed with a fine location. The green peaks and deep ocean inlets on the north side of town deliver a healthy dose of natural beauty, and to the west and south are more bays, rivers and tree-covered islands. Talk about good feng shui.
But good luck is just one of the ingredients; the other one is foresight. Vancouver is the North American poster child for good urban planning. Cities like this don’t just happen; they are created, and the process is far from easy. For example, think of Hong Kong Island – there, the entire waterfront has been snatched by developers, with nary a seaside sidewalk, let alone some park space, for the city’s residents. In Vancouver, it is just the opposite: the people have defeated the developers. Sightlines to the sea have been vigorously protected, and most major downtown streets deliver welcome views of the blue oceans and forested peaks that make the city so unique.
Huge swathes of downtown waterfront are public property, a ring of prime real estate devoted to greenery and beaches, to children and dogs and vacationers. David Lam Park, Sunset Beach, English Bay Beach and many others all sit on to-die-for real estate, to say nothing of Stanley Park, a 405-hectare chunk of wild parkland that is as big as downtown itself. It takes foresight and courage, especially with property prices rocketing skyward, to tell developers and banks and corporations to keep their hands off the public heritage. But there it is, for everyone to enjoy.
The best way to see post-modern Vancouver is on one of these wonderful foot and bicycle paths, which effortlessly link the downtown neighbourhoods: Chinatown, Gastown, Coal Harbour, the West End and Yaletown. Get yourself a bike, or a good pair of walking shoes, and join the people of Vancouver in their daily life.
Each of these neighbourhoods has a unique character, as do Granville Street with its nightclubs, Robson Street with its high-end shopping and Granville Island with its public market. The best bet is to choose a couple of neighbourhoods and explore. Chinatown hasn’t changed much over the years: it is still an old-school Asian district where an older generation of immigrants lives and shops, and it still serves the best barbecue pork and beef-noodle soup around. Nearby Gastown, formerly a semi-derelict tourist area, is quickly acquiring more upscale bars, restaurants and boutiques.
The hottest downtown neighbourhood is Yaletown, a waterfront district which has surged into the city’s consciousness as the epicentre of all things hip. Our walking tour of downtown started here, then jumped onto a ferry to Granville island and another ferry to Sunset Beach before proceeding along the West End streets and waterfront as far as our legs, or our bicycles, carried us.
But first, Yaletown. Surrounded by condos and filled with restaurants, tiny hotels, pubs, parks and bookstores, the area captures the essence of Vancouver. In its distant past, this was a warehouse district and its low-rise brick buildings and spacious loading docks have been retained, and make perfect patios for sun-drenched dining.
And, this being Vancouver, every patio is perpetually filled with carefree revellers. Some are visitors – tourism to the city has skyrocketed, despite the strong Canadian dollar – but plenty are locals. In good weather, the cheerful diners and drinkers lounge on the Yaletown patios all day, every day. “Yaletown doesn’t have the ‘five-past-five’ syndrome, when everybody leaves after work and goes somewhere else,” says Erin Forber, sales co-ordinator of Opus Hotel, a boutique property in the heart of Yaletown.
Naturally, Yaletown didn’t happen by chance. “Yaletown is a good example of what the city planners have done with Vancouver,” says Underwood. “You have boutiques, restaurants, pubs, bookstores and clubs, but you also have services, like post offices, banks and grocery stores.” In other words, unlike most downtown neighbourhoods in North America, people live here.
The whole 20-block Yaletown area is crammed with entertainment: throw a rock in any direction and it’ll hit a brewpub, seafood restaurant, or coffee shop. For example, Yaletown Brewery will serve you a cappicola and mushroom pizza, or a teriyaki salmon burger with wasabi mayo and pickled ginger, along with a hopped-up home-brewed IPA. At the other end of the spectrum is Goldfish, a fancy seafood fusion joint that is the talk of the town. Think grilled halibut with coconut turmeric sauce, and kaffir lime mojitos, and you won’t be far wrong.
The spiritual heart of Yaletown is David Lam Park, a huge patch of green space which fronts the water and is filled with playgrounds and public art. Little boats pull up to the park from time to time; these are the sea buses, which ferry folks around False Creek, connecting Yaletown to Granville Island, Sunset Beach, Vanier Park and a few other places.
The trip to Granville Island takes about 10 minutes and stops at the public market, a vast warren of fresh seafood, handmade candy and local produce, fish and chips, brewpubs and so on. The place is alive with street music, public performances, art classes and throngs of visitors soaking up its seaside location. Of particular interest is Edible British Columbia, a lush stall which sells only local produce, as well as organising cooking demonstrations, walking tours, kayaking trips and other bespoke concierge services. “They can help you really experience the local culinary scene,” says Underwood.
Ah yes, the local culinary scene. It is hard to recommend restaurants in Vancouver because there are so many, and of such variety. But they do share something in common: most are reasonably priced, says foodie Tom Curry, a long-time Vancouver resident. “Fine dining here is still pretty cheap. London, San Francisco and New York are still far more expensive.”
Vancouver is famous for seafood, of course, particularly halibut, salmon, dungeness crab, and fat scallops and oysters. But when it comes to cooking, it all gets mixed up, says Curry. “Everyone talks about West Coast cuisine, but what is that?” he asks. “Lots of restaurants claim to be West Coast, and seafood is traditional here, and most of it is very good. But Vancouver is an immigrant town. Most Greek restaurants are run by Turks, and most sushi restaurants are managed by Chinese. So the food changes here. The ingredients are different, and the diners are different. In Vancouver, the West Coast has its imprint on every style of food.”
Low prices aside, Vancouver has its other food-related quirks. For example, the 100-Mile Diet, which is now the North American diet du jour, was invented in Vancouver. Yes, adherents can only eat local food, nothing from beyond 100 miles. Raincity Grill, on Denman and Davie in the West End, is one of the originators of the menu; C Restaurant, another upscale seafood palace, stresses sustainable fishing and buys single-river salmon and scallops from local fishermen.
Single-river salmon? 100-Mile Diets? Even the city’s excesses – in the tourist districts, anyway – seem harmless and eccentric in an affluent, West Coast sort of way. Single river salmon must be Vancouver’s answer to the single malt whiskies and estate-bottled wines that other places boast about. By the way, all the food in Granville Island is trans-fat free. There’s probably not a trans-fat to be found anywhere north of the US border.
Next, we jump the sea bus from Granville Island to Sunset Beach, a west-facing strip of parkland filled with frisbees, dogs, roller skaters, bike riders and tai-chi practitioners. Our trail is a long one, more than 40km; it passes through the beaches of Kitsilano, on the West Side, then loops down False Creek to Science World, then back through Yaletown and Sunset Beach and English Bay beach and on into Stanley Park. Or you can skip Stanley Park and move straight on to Coal Harbour, land of yachts, and home to Lift, with its fabulous views of the mountains and expensive seafood. And from there, it makes a virtuous loop back to the Heritage District and Gastown and Chinatown.
This is the heart of Vancouver, this ring of trail which winds along the city’s beaches and bays, loops into Stanley Park, through fields of grass, and stands of cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir, and back. Pick any part of the trail, start exploring, and rest assured: close as you may feel to Mother Nature, you will never be more than 10 minutes from refreshment, liquid, seafood or otherwise.
Wood for the trees
Capilano Suspension Bridge can support two fully loaded Boeing B747s, says the brochure, and a giant Douglas fir crashed onto it last year and did no damage. But today, the bridge faces a much bigger challenge: it is groaning and creaking under the weight of countless American tourists. The Capilano River is 75 metres below, and perched in a nearby cedar tree is a bald eagle, undeterred by the crowds.
I am having trouble concentrating on the scenery, though, because with this many people on it the bridge is rocking and swaying like Aretha Franklin. But a few minutes later, all is well. I have reached the far side, and entered the calm, shady rainforest, under the welcoming boughs of the signature northwest conifers: red cedar, Douglas fir and hemlock. One of Vancouver’s many virtues is its nearness to the mountains, especially the green peaks that loom above the north end of town. Capilano Bridge is nestled in those peaks, just 15 minutes from downtown, and it provides a quick taste of wild British Columbia, plus home-made fudge, grilled salmon and native souvenirs.
The bridge has spanned this gorge since 1889, but the spectacular Treetops Adventure, a series of pathways suspended high above the forest floor, opened just four years ago. The swaying pathways are hitched to giant Douglas firs, and we feel like hobbits as we stroll beneath the forest giants. From on high, the forest looks very different: alder and vine maples fight for sunlight on the forest floor, and beneath them, staking out the last remaining open spots, are sword ferns and mosses, growing on soft carpets of hemlock needles.
There is also a Cliff Walk, which leans far out over the river, plus eco-tours, totem poles and helpful signs explaining the area’s ecology, animals and history. And, inevitably, there is the return trip on the bridge itself, still swaying under the weight of the summertime tourists. It’s all part of the fun at Capilano Bridge.
Useful Websites
Tourism Vancouver, at 200 Burrard Street, is much more than a collection of brochures. Here, along with the excellent free advice, you can change money, book tours and hotels, and buy theatre and music tickets (including half-price tickets to same-day events) or even a See Vancouver card, complete with microchip, which gets you into various attractions. For more information, visit tourismvancouver.com.
Factbox
- C Restaurant 2-1600 Howe Street; tel +1 604 681 1164; crestaurant.com
- Edible British Columbia Unit 565, 1689 Johnston Street, Granville Island; tel +1 604 662 3606; edible-britishcolumbia.com
- Goldfish Pacific Kitchen 1118 Mainland Street; tel +1 604 689 8318; goldfishpacifickitchen.com
- Raincity Grill 1193 Denman Street; tel +1 604 685 7337; raincitygrill.com
- Yaletown Brewing Company 1111 Mainland Street, tel 604 681 2739
