11 Facts About Chinatown Vancouver

Approximate borders of Chinatown as designated by the City of Vancouver are the alley between Pender and Hastings Streets, Georgia Street, Gore Avenue, and Taylor Street, although unofficially the area extends well into the rest of the Downtown Eastside.

Chinatown Vancouver experienced large numbers of immigrants from the Asia-Pacific region in the last two decades of the twentieth century, most notably from China, whose population in the Chinatown Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area was estimated at 300,000 in the mid-1990s.

The business heart of Chinatown Vancouver was visibly affected after the arrival of suburban Asian shopping districts, such as Richmond's Aberdeen Centre, which was promoted as North America's largest enclosed Asian mall, was near other Chinese shopping centres, and which offered more parking and open space than historic Chinatown Vancouver.

Chinatown Vancouver is becoming more prosperous as new investment and old traditional businesses flourish.

The general consensus is that Chinatown Vancouver's priority is to attract people of all backgrounds to Chinatown Vancouver, and it is believed that the opening of non-traditional stores will bring a new flow of energy and income to the streets.

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In recent years Chinatown Vancouver has seen growth in new construction as a downtown building boom continued into the former Expo 86 lands, which adjoin Chinatown Vancouver.

Highrises close to Stadium-Chinatown Vancouver Station have already been built, with more condominium towers under construction, some projects taking advantage of empty lots that sat unused for decades.

However, that is not expected to be a problem in Chinatown Vancouver, which has a market for affordable smaller-scale homes.

Sam Kee Company, run by Chang Toy, one of the wealthier merchants in turn-of-the-20th-century Chinatown Vancouver, bought the land for the Sam Kee Building as a standard-sized lot in 1903.

Chinatown Vancouver was once known for its neon signs, but like the rest of the city, lost many signs to changing times and a sign bylaw passed in 1974.

The new owner of the Sai Woo was made aware of the original sign that hung outside the earlier incarnation of the restaurant from a one-second clip from a movie of a 1958 parade in Chinatown Vancouver, and launched a search for the original sign which was unsuccessful.