Strolling Vancouver's Chinatown

It's a drizzly day in early November, we've ridden Amtrak from Bellingham to Vancouver for the heck of it and have a couple of hours to kill after lunch, so we walk a couple of blocks to find ourselves in one of the largest largest Chinatowns in North America, a place we've visited many times over the years.

Avoiding the glances of street people and averting our eyes from downtown Eastside denizens "shooting up" down the alleys, we traverse Main and Hastings, one of the most notorious corners in Canada. We can't help but wonder what Andrew Carnegie would think if he could catch the views from the steps of the library building he donated to Vancouver 'way back when in the early 1900s.

Enough of the gloom... Today is our day simply to wander. It's so easy to think we're in Hong Kong, except for the fact it's a lot less crowded here.

Kathy finds her favorite brand of Thai fish sauce to import back to the US later.

On the other hand, trying to bring back meat and poultry might be impossible. Oh shucks!

We enjoy the signs too.

We top off our Chinatown visit with a stroll through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, or, more precisely, the park located adjacent to the garden.

It's laid out in that clever Asian way that gives the impression of spaciousness and seclusion in a compact area. It also reminds us that it's time to get our own yard ready for winter.