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You soon get the hang of Vancouver's downtown district, an arena of streets and shopping malls centred on Robson Street . On hot summer evenings it's like a latter-day vision of la dolce vita - a dynamic meeting place crammed with bars, restaurants, late-night stores, and bronzed youths preening in bars or cafes, or ostentatiously cruising in open-topped cars. At other times a more sedate class hangs out on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery or glides in and out of the two big department stores, Eaton's and The Bay. Downtown's other principal thoroughfares are Burrard Street - all smart shops, hotels and offices - and Granville Street , partly pedestrainized with plenty of shops, and cinemas, but curiously seedy in places, especially at its southern end near the Granville Street Bridge. New development, however, is taking downtown's reach further east, and at some point in your stay you should try to catch the public library, opened in 1995, at 350 W Georgia, a focus of this growth and a striking piece of modern architecture to boot. For the best possible introduction to Vancouver, though, you should walk down to the waterfront and Canada Place , the Canadian pavilion for Expo '86, the huge world exhibition held in the city in 1986, and another architectural tour de force that houses a luxury hotel, cruise-ship terminal and two glitzy convention centres. For all its excess, however, it makes a superb viewpoint, with stunning vistas of the port, mountains, sea and buzzing boats, helocopters and float planes. The port activity, especially, is mesmerizing. One of the North America's busiest ports began by exporting timber in 1864 in the shape of fence pickets to Australia. Today it handles seventy million tonnes of cargo annually, turns over $40 billion in trade and processes 3000 ships a year from almost a hundred countries. Canada Place's design, and the manner in which it juts into the port, is meant to suggest a ship, and you can walk building's perimeter as if "on deck", stopping to read the boards that describe the immediate cityscape and the appropriate pages of its history. Inside are expensive shops, an unexceptional restaurant and an IMAX cinema ($9.50; tel 682-4629, www.imax.com/vancouver ); unfortunately, most of the films shown - often on boats, rock concerts and obscure wildlife - are a waste of a good screen. An alternative to Canada Place's vantage point, the nearby Harbour Centre Building at 555 W Hastings, is one of the city's tallest structures, and is known by locals either as the "urinal" or, more affectionately, the "hamburger", after its bulging upper storeys. On a fine day it's definitely worth paying to ride the stomach-churning, all-glass, SkyLift elevators that run up the side of the tower - 167m in a minute - to the fortieth-storey observation deck, known as "The Lookout!", with its staggering 360 degree views (daily: May-Sept 8.30am-10.30pm; Oct-April 9am-9pm; $9; tel 299-9000 ext 2626, www.harbourcentretower.com ). Admission is valid all day so you can return and look out over the bright lights of Vancouver at night. Much of the Expo site here and at otherpoints to the south and east has been levelled or is undergoing rigorous redevelopment, and to see its remaining sights requires a long walk from central downtown (take the SkyTrain or ferries from Granville Island instead). The geodesic dome is the main survivor, and has become a striking ciry landmark - but the museum it now houses, Science World at Quebec St-Terminal Avenue near Science World-Main St SkyTrain station - is something of a disappointment (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; Science World $11.75, OMNIMAX $10; combination tickets $14.75; tel 268-6363 or 443-7440, www.scienceworld.bc.ca . Probably only children, at whom the place seems largely aimed, will be satisfied by the various high-tech, hands-on displays, which include the opportunity to make thunderous amounts of noise on electronic instruments and drum machines. Galleries deal with all manner of science-related themes, but probably the best things here if you're an adult are the building itself and the vast screen of the OMNIMAX Cinema at the top of the dome - though as with the similar screen at Canada Place, only a limited range of quality movies have been produced to suit the format Another remnant of the Expo is the 60,000-seat BC Place Stadium , 1 Robson St (tours mid-June to early Sept every Tues & Fri at 11am and 1pm; $5; tel 661-7362, www.bcplacestadiium.com ), the world's largest air-inflated dome; unless you're there for a sporting event such as a BC Lions Canadian football game, the "mushroom" or "marshmallow in bondage", in popular parlance, isn't worth the bother. If you're heading to game, take the SkyTrain to Stadium station or buses #15 east on Robson or #17 on Burrard. Its thunder has also been slightly stolen by General Moters Place , a more recent 20,000-seat stadium (known locally as "The Garage") that's home to the Vancouver Canucks ice-hockey team and Vancouver Grizzlies NBA basketball team. For tickets and details of events call Ticketmaster (tel 280-3311).
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