A PANORAMA OF DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER IN THE EARLY MORNING. (From the corner of Terminal and Clarke.)
A PANORAMA OF DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER IN THE EARLY EVENING. (From the same location.)
VANCOUVER | MUSEUM | MUSEUM | COLLECTION |
|---|
Vancouver, B. C. Canada, has earned her nickname `Hollywood North’.
Though the workers in the Hollywood film industry in California, U.S. of A. try to prevent the movie moguls from taking their production dollars North, the truth is that L. A. (Las Angeles) is burned out.
How many times, you, who have never been to California, have watched a movie and expostulate, “Hey, that’s L. A.”
The background is unmistakable, it has been used so many times, and the cost is horrendous.
To avoid the cost, of moving equipment across the traffic sludge of the big metropolis, or building elaborate sets to have a fresh background, the production companies bring their dollars North.
Here, we offer them an unlimited range of backgrounds for outdoor shooting.
SUNSET FALSE CREEK CANADA PLACE FALSE CREEK Not just the bald barren hills of California, though we have that too, only five hours drive to the East is the world’s smallest desert.
Equal driving time to the West will take you to a Florida mangrove swamp. And even less time, to the North, will take you to an ice field, if you desire to film a snow scene in July.
Lakes abound within an hour or two of the downtown core, if you wish to do a water scene. Attesting to that is the revival of the Beachcombers series which was filmed on salt water, less than an hour from downtown Vancouver.
ART GALLERY GRANVILLE ST. B. C. HYDRO HOTEL VANCOUVER Though our city government seems to have forgotten, the city was founded on water based businesses and even though most of the shore line is being gobbled up for residential purposes we still boast the busiest seaplane base in the world with a plane taking off or landing, approximately, every three minutes from the very heart of the city’s financial district.
Not to be outdone, our International Airport, just across a major river, in the city of Richmond, sees the big jumbos arriving and departing with the same regularity.
Every major airline in the world makes a stop here, as do two major bus lines Greyhound and PCL (Pacific Coach Lines) and three trains; Amtrak from the U. S. of A., Via Rail from the Prairie and Eastern provinces, and Rocky Mountaineer Railtours.
Getting around Vancouver is quite easy. City busses, and a SkyTrain, a mostly above ground subway, run regularly.
That is, once you learn the street system.
Most of the streets go by names and in some places are grouped, such as trees, or the names of the provinces, but not alphabetically. And the numbering system of the Avenues, which mostly run East to West, takes a bit of getting used to as you need to subtract 1,600 from a house number to calculate the cross Ave.
Say you wanted to find 5700 Ash St. Take away 1,600 = 4100. The cross street would be 41 st Ave.
The reason for this is that 1 st Ave runs East to West and is approximately 16 blocks from the Salt water, depending on the curve of the shoreline.
The streets run North and South and it is interesting to stand on a street and watch the shadows disappear as the sun reaches high noon.
The numbering started on Main St. when the foot of Main was on the water. Of course now some of the water has been reclaimed, to form Crab Park, but the 000 block still starts at the foot of the bridge.
Now let me think about that, maybe it was Carrall St. because the East and West numbering starts with Carrall St. Except that Carrall becomes Quebec St. No, Carrall dead ends against the Indy race track, which abuts the waters of False Creek. South of False Cr. the numbers center on Ontario St.,
Damn, where did I put that street map?
Fear not, street maps are readily available, in hundreds of stores, and in several languages; German, Japanese, Chinese. Probably even in our second national language of French, but I wouldn’t count on it.
We don’t get a lot of tourists from France, or Quebec, nor do we have a very large population of French speaking people. Known in Canada as Francophones.
Most of our tourists come from: Germany; England; well, every country in the world, but mostly from the Orient.
Over fifty percent of the population in the greater Vancouver area is of Asian descent. Of that, more than 50 % is of Cantonese descent, mostly from around Hong Kong and Southern China.
Unlike San Francisco, California, U. S. of A. which is noted for its China Town, Vancouver’s China Town is very small with no night life. It is mostly a market place for the Oriental population which is scattered around the area and is actually larger than that of San Francisco which is concentrated in their China Town.
When I say every country in the world I mean just that. I seriously doubt that there is a country on this planet that doesn‘t have a least one of its citizens living in the Vancouver area.
Lest you get the wrong impression, there is more to Vancouver than film backgrounds. Vancouver’s second largest industry is tourism
And rightly so.
Known as the Pacific playground it offers every conceivable attraction for the visitor: from sunny, sandy beaches; to lovely parks; (Stanley Park is the largest civic park in the world.) skiing, cross country and downhill, within minutes of downtown; fishing; scuba diving; bike trails; wind surfing; sailing; shopping. You name it, Vancouver has it.
Just South of what are know as the North Shore Mountains, Cypress, Grouse, and Seymour, are a few lesser mountains, Burnaby, Little, etc.
Atop Little Mt. is a beautiful park, Queen Elizabeth Park.
Atop Burnaby mountain is a university, SFU (Simon Fraser University).
Atop the mountain to the South of that is a huge shopping complex, Metrotown.
200 hundred years ago, none of these structures existed.
Along the Pacific coast line, the Straight of Georgia is inundated with little bays, harbours , and river mouths.
Along these many shores, man built industries and homes.
These areas, as they grew, became interconnected with trails, roads, trams, which traveled for miles through forests from one community to the next.
STATUE CHURCH GRANDVIEW PARK APARTMENTS Eventually the trails became highways and freeways and the tram tracks became a SkyTrain and the trees, that once covered these mountains, became houses and skyscrapers.
Even in Stanley Park the trees are less than 100 years old as the area was logged off, to make railway ties.
Strolling through the, again, beautiful park, one can see the stumps of the majestic spruce, cedar, and fir that once stood so tall that they blocked out the sun.
This area, at one time, belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Co. The Southern part, around Vancouver Washington, became part of the United States of America.
To prevent the Northern part from becoming Yankee, the Canuck government, the great white fathers in the East, decided to build a railway linking the West Coast with the East Coast.
The result was the longest railroad in the world and the death of hundreds of Chinese.
Men from China were imported to do the grueling work of laying track. In
freezing winds, and boiling sun, they toiled under near slave conditions.
Poor food, poor, clothing. poor shelter, and poor pay, they dropped dead, or dropped out, along the tracks.
Many of those who dropped out stayed in whatever town they were in and consequently you can find a Chinese restaurant, or corner store, in virtually every little town across Canada.
Which brings to mind, the old joke, ` Why are there no Chinese players in the NHL (National Hockey League)?
Because, every time they get in a corner, they want to open a store.
Without access to original Chinese vegetables they invented their local versions of Chow Mein. Consequently you will find various versions of Chow Mein throughout the country.
In Vancouver I have searched and searched and only found one restaurant (actually in Coquitlam) that serves what I call Chow Mein. Soft noodles mixed with bean sprouts.
However, in Vancouver, and area, you will find, literally, hundreds of restaurants that will serve you authentic Cantonese or Sechuan style Chow Mein.
Many of those who survived the ordeal of building the CPR (Canadian pacific Railway) stayed in the Vancouver area and settled in what was to be Chinatown.
To supply the ties for the tracks and the logs for bridges the railway company brought in many males from India.
When the railroad was finished, many of these Indians, settled in the Vancouver area, or on Vancouver Island, and continued to work in the forest industry. Consequently many of our modern day logging companies and sawmills are owned by descendents of these workers.
Along about this time, mid 1800’s, gold was discovered in the Cariboo.
Within a few short weeks, men, and women, from every nation in the world arrived in B. C.
Many of these would die trying to find the yellow metal, few of them would find it in quantities sufficient to make them rich.
Of those who survived the harsh winters, and the fire that swept through the town of Barkerville, which at its hay day was the largest metropolis West of Chicago and North of San Francisco, many settled in little villages known as: Gastown; Hastings Mill; New Brighton; Stamps Landing, communities that would eventually expand until they touched each other and amalgamate into one, called, Vancouver.
CHINATOWN GASTOWN MODEL MUSEUM SEA WALL STANLEY PARK VANCOUVER * * * * * * * * * * * * * WEATHER IN VANCOUVER
RELATED WEB SITES To the Top of This PAGE
WHETHER IT’S AN AIRLINE TICKET, A STEREO, OR A COSMETIC
Thank you for visiting Bear's `Vancouver‘ , B. C. Canada Page.
Please come back and visit again.
CITY TRANSIT 
SKYTRAIN
Short Video. Takes a few seconds to load.
If you have sound, you can hear its metal wheels on the metal track.
THESE PHOTOS ARE NOW HISTORIC. THANKS TO OUR ILLUSTRIOUS CITY COUNCIL, THE INDY NO LONGER COMES TO VANCOUVER.
A PANORAMA OF THE EAST END OF FALSE CREEK. (From the same location.)
THE RACE TRACK CONTINUES IN FRONT OF THE APARTMENT BUILDINGS
TO THE FAR LEFT, THE CITY OF WEST VANCOUVER
IN THE BACKGROUND, (L-R) CYPRESS, & GROUSE MOUNTAINS,
IN THE WINTER, 2 SKI RESORTS.
A PANORAMA OF THE CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER. (From the city of Vancouver.)
IN THE BACKGROUND, (L-R) GROUSE & SEYMOUR MOUNTAINS,
IN THE WINTER, 2 SKI RESORTS.
ORBITZ
A Step Ahead
LIONS GATE BRIDGE - LOOKING NORTH TO GROUSE MOUNTAIN
BUILT IN THE DOMINION BRIDGE FACTORY IN BURNABY
B. C. WHICH ALSO BUILT THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
FOR SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA U. S. A.
SOME OF THE DOMINION BRIDGE BULDINGS,
NOW CALLED BRIDGES STUDIOS,
HOUSE ONE OF THE LARGEST SPECIAL EFFECTS STUDIOS IN THE WORLD
ENGLISH BAY, & CITY OF WEST VANCOUVER, AS SEEN
FROM THE LIONS GATE BRIDGE
AERIAL PHOTOS OF VANCOUVER
DEEP COVE
ENGLISH BAY
ENGLISH BAY
FALSE CREEK
FLEA MARKET
Model Boat and Train
Many Pages of
Pictures
TREV DEELEY
MOTORCYCLE COLLECTION:
A museum that’s not a museum
MARITIME
MUSEUM
MOLSON INDY
THIS LINK NO LONGER WORKS.
THANKS TO OUR ILLUSTRIOUS
CITY COUNCIL, THE INDY
NO LONGER COMES TO VANCOUVER
SEE VANCOUVER . COM
Vancouver
TOURISM VANCOUVER
VANCOUVER
The History Of
VANCOUVER AQUARIUM
Check the Web Cam
VCN
VANCOUVER COMMUNITY NETWORK
SPRACI
VANCOUVER MESSAGE BOARD
VANCOUVER PARK BOARD 
VIA RAIL
« Go back To My B. C. Page
« Go back To My CANADA Page
« Go back To My TRAVEL Page
« Go back To My HOME Page
QUICK AND EASY SHOPPING
FROM THE CONVENIENCE OF YOUR HOME
ON MY SHOPPERS’ PAGE
ORBITZ
A Step Ahead
VALUE LINE
Investment Research
