Walking Vancouver. John Lee

heritage buildings. The entrance often obscured by a regular coterie of dodgy characters, the old Carnegie Library now acts as the area’s main community center. This is not a corner where you’ll want to stay for long, but do look for the splendid stained glass window of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton, a reminder of the days when this grand sandstone edifice, built in 1903 with funds given by U.S. industrialist Andrew Carnegie, was the city’s first public library and also the site of the original Vancouver Museum. • Since you’re not lingering here, turn left along Main St. and head north to the large police station building. Cross to the other side of Main, then make a right on E. Cordova St. The police officers wandering around here will likely make you feel a little easier about that expensive camera nestled in your backpack, but that’s not the reason for coming here. • Continue walking east on E. Cordova and, on your right, you’ll soon come to arguably the city’s best off-the-beaten-path attraction. Occupying a spooky former coroner’s building, the Vancouver Police Centennial Museum uses archival photos and eye-opening artifacts to illuminate the city’s crime-fighting history. Head up to the second floor galleries and you’ll come face-to-face with confiscated homemade weapons, counterfeit currency and a mothballed autopsy room that’s not for the faint-hearted. It includes stainless steel dissection tables, surgical tools, and a wall of glass-encased tissue samples including brain slivers and bullet-wounded hearts. The museum also offers an excellent summer walking tour that delves deeper into the area’s murky crime history. • After the museum, keep going east on E. Cordova and check out the preserved old firehall at the intersection with Gore Ave. Built in 1906, this handsome red-doored, brick edifice was the city’s leading fire station for decades, quelling blazes across the region. In 1975, the firemen moved out and the Firehall Arts Center was born, becoming one of Vancouver’s most enduring and successful venues for avant-garde theatre and dance productions. Its season starts in the fall and its clientele are usually among Vancouver’s most artsy: you can rub shoulders with them in the brick-lined lobby bar. • Stay for a show or turn right and head south for one block to E. Hastings. Turn left onto E. Hastings and stroll for one block, crossing over Dunlevy Ave. Consider a brewpub beer at Pat’s Pub in the Patricia Hotel here. You can toast your day in the city’s grungiest neighborhood before hopping back on the number 10 bus outside. You’ll be back in the heart of Vancouver’s more salubrious downtown district within a few minutes.

      POINTS OF INTEREST

      Cannabis Culture Headquarters 307 W. Hastings St., 604-682-1172

      Dominion Building 207 W. Hastings St.

      Victory Square cnr of W. Hastings St. and Cambie St.

      Save-On-Meats 43 W. Hastings St., 604-683-7761

      Pigeon Park cnr of W. Hastings St. and Carrall St.

      Radio Station Café 101 E. Hastings St., 604-684-8494

      Wanted—Lost Found Canadian 436 Columbia St., 604-633-0178

      Pantages Theatre 152 E. Hastings St.

      Carnegie Centre 401 Main St.

      Vancouver Police Centennial Museum 240 E. Cordova St., 604-665-3346

      Firehall Arts Centre 280 E. Cordova St., 604-689-0926

      Pat’s Pub 403 E. Hastings St., 604-255-4301

      Downtown Eastside wall painting

      ROUTE SUMMARY

1.		Start on W. Hastings St., just before the intersection with Cambie St.
2.		Cross on W. Hastings St. to Victory Square.
3.		Cross east on Cambie St. and continue east along W. Hastings St.
4.		Continue east along W. Hastings St. and cross to the other side at the intersection with Carrall St.
5.		Continue east along E. Hastings St. and turn right onto Columbia St.
6.		Return to E. Hastings St. and turn right, continuing east to the intersection with Main St.
7.		Turn left on Main St. then take the next right onto E. Cordova St.
8.		Continue east on E. Cordova St. to the intersection with Gore Ave.
9.		Head south one block on Gore Ave. and turn left on E. Hastings St.

      Heritage neon sign in the Downtown Eastside

      6 CHINATOWN: TECHNICOLOR HISTORY STROLL

      BOUNDARIES: Taylor St., W./E. Pender St., Gore Ave., Keefer St.

      DISTANCE: ½ mile/¾ kilometre

      DIFFICULTY: Easy

      PARKING: There’s a parking lot at W. Pender’s International Village shopping mall near the Chinatown Millennium Gate. There’s also metered street parking along W./E. Pender.

      PUBLIC TRANSIT: Buses 19 and 22 run along Pender St., 8, 10, 16, and 20 roll along adjoining W./E. Hastings St. SkyTrain Stadium station is also nearby

      One of North America’s largest Chinatowns is also one of Vancouver’s oldest and most storied neighborhoods. While latter-day Asian immigrants are now more likely to call Richmond home, this is where the earliest Chinese settled in the 1880s. Most came for jobs in BC’s sawmills, canneries and railway construction. Soon a colorful and clamorous enclave of shops, businesses, theatres and rooming houses sprang up where the predominantly male populace lived—due to a controversial head tax on Chinese immigrants, few could afford to bring their families along. With such a high concentration of single men, Chinatown soon gained a reputation for brothels and opium dens. Many Vancouverites disapproved, though some secretly continued to patronize the illicit attractions. Not all attacks were verbal: a concerted effort by groups organized to drive them out sometimes erupted into violence. Strolling Chinatown today, you’ll find plenty of reminders that this is arguably Vancouver’s most intact heritage neighborhood—plus a full menu of bustling stores and eateries.

•	You’ll start on W. Pender St., near the intersection with Taylor St. The Chinatown Millennium Gate looming over you here was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in 2002. It stands on a site