Vancouver, British Columbia, is a city of neighborhoods. When you walk around this city, look at the faces. It’s like being in the lobby of the United Nations. The city is, in fact, arguably the most international city on the continent, exceeded only by New York in its ethnic diversity. Whole sections of the city and suburbs have become ethnic centers with large populations of East Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Greeks, and other cultural origins giving the city its unique international flavor.

A large part of the city’s character is due to borrowing and exhibiting the myths and mythologies from the aboriginal peoples that were inhabitants of the region thousands of years ago. Put it all together and you have a veneer of a casual play ethic, where residents and visitors alike can enjoy it to the hilt.

And no part of the city is as distinct as Chinatown's six-block region - two blocks east and south of Gastown. It’s the most visible of Vancouver’s complex cultural mix that has distinct regions - Italian (along Commercial Drive), Greek (on West Broadway), and Indo-Pakistani (near Main and 49th).  

It's impossible to just stroll through Chinatown. Rather, when you walk its six-block region you ooze your way through the crowds and your senses become excited. The smells of outdoor vegetable stalls, meat shops with their hanging ducks, restaurants, and pastry shops float in the air without restriction. Stop here, quickly turn there. See things that you’ve never witnessed outside Asia. Your neck will make more moves than a boxer’s, dodging to avoid quick jabs.
 
The narrow sidewalks throughout Chinatown are vibrant with humanity, elbow to elbow in a crowded swirl of chatter and haggling over prices no matter what the time of day or night.  East Pender, in the heart of the district, transports you thousands of miles within the space of a few blocks. Walk in a store front of any of the crowded specialty shops, and you’ll find everything from mysterious Oriental herbal remedies to finely lacquered pots, jade, carved wood and embroidered dresses. Ming Wo at 23 E. Pender is a local legend for its hard-to-find kitchen items.

A small Chinese settlement had already developed at Shanghai Alley near what are now Pender and Carrall Streets, when the City of Vancouver was incorporated in 1886. Soon, it started to develop along the shores of False Creek adjacent to Gastown. Though Victoria was the more important of the two cities then, Vancouver was dubbed "Salt Water City" by the Chinese and was their favorite city for settlement.
 
The typical Chinatown building at that time was a two-storey wooden structure with a storefront on the ground floor and the residence and meeting rooms tucked in on the second floor The area was often cramped, run-down and dirty.

Many of the buildings now standing in the commercial and tourist centre were built by different clan associations in the early 1980s. The architecture of these three-storey brick buildings with recessed balconies and decorative metal railings were modeled after structures in Southern China.
 
The Sam Kee Building at Carrall and Pender streets is the narrowest in the world at 1.8 meters by 30 meters (5.9 ft. x 98.3 ft.) and the Chinese Cultural Centre is marked by an enormous red gateway. Pender Street is lined with Mandarin, Cantonese, and Szechwan restaurants - take your pick - and shops selling wickerwork, bamboo bird cages and countless examples of jade jewelry.
 
In a neighborhood that sometimes overwhelms the palate with an abundance of restaurants, one stands out simply for its physical presence. The Floata Seafood Restaurant at 180 Keefer St., is Canada’s largest with some 1,000 seats. Try the lobster in cream sauce or the braised mushrooms with mustard greens.

But, if there’s one element that defines Chinatown, it’s the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden (vancouverchinesegarden.com ). In the heart of Chinatown, this classic Ming Dynasty garden was created with the help of 52 artisans from Suzhou, China's foremost garden city. It’s not just a place to witness pretty flowers, but a garden in which you have to work your mind. Sit and watch, think Asian and try to explore what’s in your heart.

The Toaist balance between yin and yang - light and shadow, smooth and rough, large and small - creates perfect harmony in pebbled patios, moon-gates, lattice windows, see-through shrubbery, placid jade pools and craggy grey limestone. Rocks, wood, plants and water are used with remarkable, deceptive simplicity. Everything is in perfect symmetry.

After the dazzle of Chinatown, the gardens are passive with an impressive collection of soft colors, greens and stony grays with milky jade water ponds.