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Vancouver's vibrant Chinatown - clustered mainly on Pender Street from Carrall to Gore and on Keefer Street from Main to Gore (buses #22 or #19 east from Pender, or #22 north from Burrard) - is a city apart. Vancouver's 100,000 or more Chinese make up one of North America's largest Chinatowns and are the city's oldest and largest ethnic group after the British-descended majority. Many crossed the Pacific in 1858 to join the Fraser Valley gold rush; others followed under contract to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Most stayed, only to find themselves being treated appallingly. Denied citizenship and legal rights until as late as 1947, the Chinese community sought safety and familiarity in a ghetto of their own, where clan associations and societies provided for new arrivals and the local poor - and helped build the distinctive houses of recessed balconies and ornamental roofs that have made the area a protected historic site. Unlike Gastown's gimmickry, Chinatown is all genuine - shops, hotels, markets, tiny restaurants and dim alleys vie for attention amidst an incessant hustle of jammed pavements and the buzz of Chinese conversation. Virtually every building replicates an Eastern model without a trace of self-consciousness, and written Chinese characters feature everywhere in preference to English. Striking and unexpected after downtown's high-rise glitz, the district brings you face to face with Vancouver's oft-touted multiculturalism, and helps explain why Hong Kong immigrants continue to be attrac-ted to the city. It is, however, a district with a distinct edge, and visitors should avoid the area's dingier streets at night and parts of East Hastings near Main Street just about any time. Apart from the obvious culinary temptations , Chinatown's main points of reference are its markets . Some of the best boast fearsome butchery displays and such edibles as live eels, flattened ducks, hundred-year-old eggs and other stuff you'll be happy not to identify. Check out the open-air night market at Main and Keefer streets (summer 6pm-midnight), a wonderful medley of sights. Keefer Street is bakery row, with lots of tempting stickies on offer like moon cakes and bao , steamed buns with a meat or sweet-bean filling. On the corner of Keefer and Main is the Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Company, with a vast range of teas, many promising cures for a variety of ailments (free tastings). In a similar vein, it's worth dropping into one of the local herbalists to browse amongst their panaceas: snakeskins, reindeer antlers, buffalo tongues, dried sea horses and bears' testicles are all available if you're feeling under the weather. Ming Wo, 23 E Pender, is a fantastic cookware shop, with probably every utensil ever devised, while China West, 41 E Pender, is packed with slippers, jackets, pens, cheap toys and the like. Most people also flock dutifully to the 1913 Sam Kee Building , at the corner of Carrall and Pender; at just 1.8m across, it's officially the world's narrowest building. Chinatown's chief cultural attraction is the small Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden , at 578 Carrall St near Pender Street, a 2.5-acre park billed as the first authentic, full-scale classical Chinese garden ever built outside China (May to mid-June 10am-6pm; mid-June to Aug 9.30am-7pm; Sept-April 10am-4.30pm; $6.50, includes free optional tours; tel 689-7133). Named after the founder of the first Chinese Republic, who was a frequent visitor to Vancouver, the park was created for the Expo '86 and cost $5.3 million, $500,000 of which came from the People's Republic accompanied by 52 artisans and 950 crates of materials. The latter included everything from limestone rocks from Taihu - whose jagged shapes are prized in this sort of garden - to the countless tiny pebbles that make up the intricate courtyard pavements. The whole thing is based on classical gardens developed in the city of Suzhou during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). China's horticultural emissaries, following traditional methods that didn't allow use of a single power tool, spent thirteen months in the city replicating a Suzhou Ming garden to achieve a subtle balance of Yin and Yang: small and large, soft and hard, flowing and immovable, light and dark. Every stone, pine and flower was carefully placed and has symbolic meaning. Hourly free guided tours on the half-hour explain the Taoist philosophy behind the carefully placed elements. At first glance it all seems a touch small and austere, and isn't helped by the preponderance of sponsors' nameplates and glimpses of the road, pub and high-rise outside. After a time, though, the chances are you'll find the garden working its calm and peaceful spell. Alongside the entrance to the gardens, the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum & Archives (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; $3; tel 687-0282), Chinatown's community focus and a sponsor of New Year festivities, offers classes and hosts changing exhibitions. It also has a museum - the first of its kind dedicated to Chinese-Canadian history - which focuses on early Chinese pioneers and Chinese veterans who served Canada in the two world wars. Next to the gardens and centre is a small and slightly threadbare Dr Sun Yat-Sen Park (free) which, though less worked than the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden, is still a pleasant place to take time out from Chinatown. Hours are the same as for the garden, and there's an alternative entrance on Columbia Street and Keefer.
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