|
Advertising info:
|
|
|
|
Vancouver Economy
Vancouver is not all pleasure, however. Business growth continues apace in Canada's third largest and fastest-growing city, much of its prosperity stemming from a port so laden with the raw materials of the Canadian interior – lumber, wheat and minerals – that it now outranks New York as North America's largest port, handling more dry tonnage than the West Coast ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego put together. The port in turn owes its prominence to Vancouver's much-trumpeted position as a gateway to the Far East, and its increasingly pivotal role in the new global market of the Pacific Rim. This lucrative realignment is strengthened by a two-way flow in traffic: in the past decade Vancouver has been inundated with Hong Kong Chinese (the so-called "yacht people"), an influx which has pushed up property prices and slightly strained the city's reputation as an ethnically integrated metropolis.
Much of the city's earlier immigration focused on Vancouver's extraordinary Chinatown, just one of a number of ethnic enclaves – Italian, Greek, Indian and Japanese in particular – which lend the city a refreshingly gritty quality that belies its sleek, modern reputation. So too do the city's semi-derelict eastern districts, whose worldly lowlife characters, addicts and hustlers are shockingly at odds with the glitzy lifestyles pursued in the lush residential neighbourhoods. Low rents and Vancouver's cosmopolitan young have also nurtured an unexpected counterculture, at least for the time being, distinguished by varied restaurants, secondhand shops, avant-garde galleries, clubs and bars – spots where you'll probably have more fun than in many a Canadian city. And at the top of the scale there are restaurants as good – and as varied – as any in North America.
These days Vancouver is more dynamic than ever, its growth and energy almost palpable as you walk the streets. In just five years, between 1987 and 1992, the city's population increased by an extraordinary seventeen per cent. Over the next decade it's expected to grow by as much as fifty per cent. The downtown population, currently around 521,000, is the fastest-growing on the continent. In response the downtown area is spreading – visibly – to the older and previously run-down districts to the southeast of the old city core. Recent development is symbolized by a superb library and performing arts complex which constitutes the most expensive capital project ever undertaken in the city. Real estate here is now more expensive than Toronto, and in 1990 the city became North America's largest film and TV production centre after Los Angeles and New York; The X Files is just the most famous of the many movies and programmes that have been made here. Yet, in the peculiar way that seems second nature to Canadians, the boom is being handled in a manner that's enhancing rather than compromising the city's beguiling combination of pleasure, culture, business and natural beauty.
_____________________________________________
Editor:Yang Yang
Date:01-30-01
e-mail: crystal0804@hotmail.com
Chinatown Yellowpage - Add To
HOME
|
|
Terms You Are Always Confused With
China Travel [Introducing China]
[Chinese Cuisine Guide]
[Chinese Shopping Guide]
[Chinese Festival Guide]
[Ancient China]
[Beijing]
[Shanghai (2)]
[The Great Wall of China]
[Provices Map & Guide]
[Provices Guide 2 ] new
[Books On China]
[China Columns]
[Doing Business in China]
[Laws and Regulations]
[China Market]
[China Map]
Stalwart Web Design - (713)822-0925
China Travel China Tours China Vacations
China Visa, Chinese Visa
Moped Motor Scooter
More ...
your sponsorship ...
|
