Chinatown, Vancouver

The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park

Our last stop on our Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour was Vancouver’s Chinatown. The bus dropped us off near the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and Park, and since the admission to the public park was free, we decided to take some time and walk around it for a while.

The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Park is valued for its historical, social, cultural and design elements. The garden, complemented by the park, is a rare example of a Chinese cultural landscape in Canada and honors Sun Yat-Sen, who was instrumental for his role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the 1911 Revolution in the People's Republic of China. When a freeway system threatened to cut through the historic Chinatown, the garden and park were created as an effort to reclaim the neighborhood.

Walking around the park was a tranquil experience, as we wove our way around the Chinese flora, symbolic sculptures, a large fishpond, and a small pagoda. Just the free park alone was incredibly beautiful, so we can only imagine what the garden offered!

Vancouver’s Chinatown’s is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Vancouver. Its history comes from the thousands of Chinese laborers who were brought to Canada to work on building the transcontinental railroad. When the railroad was finally completed in 1885, many of the workers settled in this area. Despite the discrimination these immigrants endured, Chinatown has become a bustling neighborhood known for its flourishing food scene, which includes traditional Asian bakeries, dim sum restaurants and hip cocktail bars.

Like many Chinatowns in North America, Vancouver’s Chinatown has been hit hard by economic downturns, gentrification, an opioid crisis, and more recently, the COVID pandemic However, locals are working hard to revitalize the neighborhood.

We thought the streetlights around Chinatown were neat!

We walked for a little while around Chinatown before hopping back on the bus to make our way to the airport. We had hoped to find some vegan sweet treats there, but unfortunately most of the bakeries seemed to be closed for the day. Visiting Vancouver’s Chinatown was an intriguing cultural experience, and visiting the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park was definitely worth the stop.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour we did, click here.