Driving Downtown – Vancouver 4K – Canada



Driving Downtown – Vancouver BC Canada – Season 1 Episode 22.
Starting Point: Granville St .
Vancouver, officially the City of Vancouver, is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality.[1] The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,[1] the second largest city on the United States–Canada border, and the most populous in Western Canada. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English.[4][5] Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. The City of Vancouver encompasses a land area of about 114 square kilometres, giving it a population density of about 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per square mile). Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality, and the fourth most densely populated city with over 250,000 residents in North America, behind New York City, San Francisco,[6] and Mexico City.

The original settlement, named Gastown, grew up on clearcuts on the west edge of the Hastings Mill logging sawmill’s property, where a makeshift tavern had been set up on a plank between two stumps and the proprietor, Gassy Jack, persuaded the curious millworkers to build him a tavern, on 1 July 1867. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west. Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B.I. (“B.I” standing for “Burrard Inlet”). As part of the land and political deal whereby the area of the townsite was made the railhead of the CPR, it was renamed “Vancouver” and incorporated shortly thereafter as a city, in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and Europe.[7][8] As of 2009, Port Metro Vancouver is the busiest and largest port in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America.[9] While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry.[10] Major film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Greater Vancouver and nearby areas into one of the largest film production centres in North America,[11][12] earning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North.[13][14][15]

Vancouver is consistently named as one of the top five worldwide cities for livability and quality of life,[16][17] and the Economist Intelligence Unit acknowledged it as the first city to rank among the top-ten of the world’s most liveable cities[18] for five consecutive years.[19] Vancouver has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, UN Habitat I, Expo 86, the World Police and Fire Games in 1989 and 2009; and the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics which were held in Vancouver and Whistler, a resort community 125 km (78 mi) north of the city.[20] In 2014, following thirty years in California, the annual TED conference made Vancouver its indefinite home. Several matches of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup were played in Vancouver, including the final at BC Place Stadium.[21]

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Tour of English Bay Beach, Vancouver, BC



English Bay, located in the Westend of Vancouver, BC Canada, is a popular beach park for locals and tourists alike. The long stretch of beach starts at the edge of Second Beach seawall in Stanley Park up to and including Sunset Beach to the West. It’s bustling with sunbathers, swimmers, buskers, food vendors, bicyclists, volleyballers and rollerbladers amongst pets and pedestrians.

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Stanley Park at Vancouver

You don’t have to walk far from downtown Vancouver to enjoy a forest setting, Stanley Park is a stone’s throw away with 50 foot high cedars, that woodsy smell in the air, and endless trails to enjoy. Vancouverites can take a stroll on their lunch break and feel like they’ve escaped to the woods.

For the residents of downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park offers a myriad of weekend options, from roller blading to biking, hiking, a day at the beach, zoo, or an evening in a fine dining restaurant nestled in the woods. Of course, this plays into the healthy Vancouver lifestyle and environmental conscience of the city. Should an unwitting real estate developer make the unforgivable error of suggesting the development of Stanley Park, he would find himself and his company on a fast track out of the city, helped along by even his own peers.

The Vancouver Zoo makes its home in the centre of Stanley Park, complete with an aquarium, wide range of exotic animals, and high standards of care for the animals and mammals it keeps. Despite this care, it often finds itself the target of environmentalists and animal welfare critics, who oppose the captivity of animals altogether.

Lining the rim of Stanley Park is an endless beach, though much of it is not the type of beach you’d want to spend the day at, some parts have had white, fine sand brought in(Vancouver does not naturally have white sand), and have been cleared of the large, sharp boulders that so often accompany Canadian beaches. Canada is by nature a rough land, jagged, and precipitous, not soft and inviting. This lends itself to a rugged beauty only a Canadian can appreciate.

Five miles of seawall offer the perfect venue for roller bladers, cyclists, and joggers who can not only run for miles without having to turn around, but enjoy a 360 degree view of Vancouver and its majestic setting in the process. Vancouver is a “dog-friendly” city, so there’s no shortage of canines on the seawall, however, they have their own lane and although Vancouverites love dogs, they have a very short fuse for dogs which exhibit violent tendencies. Even muzzled dogs, should they act aggressively, their owners will no doubt receive their share of public disdain.

 

 

The Vancouver lifestyle is well understood by Vancouverites, it’s talked about, bragged about, written about, and blogged about. Vancouver is a fitness town, many of its inhabitants are marathon runners and few are smokers. Lighting up a cigarette on a public street is accepted because it’s legal, but doing so will often get you stares and people taking a wide berth around you to avoid your smoke. Those who smoke in Vancouver are well aware of the culture, and have grown a thick skin and learned to laugh it off, since there’s no fighting it.

This culture makes up Vancouver’s identity, and that identity is engrained in the mindset of every Vancouverite through local newsletters and blogs, which are very popular with Vancouverites. Vancouver blogs usually focus on lifestyle issues, or food and entertainment, since these are closest to the heart of Vancouver’s 2 million people. A good Vancouver blogger stays abreast of the latest restaurant openings, cultural events, and environmental causes. Among these is Stanley Park, which symbolizes the priorities and values of Vancouverites, a garden of Eden in the heart of the city.

Source by vancouverfinancial