Planning to visit Gastown and Chinatown in Vancouver? Read this first.

Here’s a public service announcement for all the Alaska cruise ship tourists visiting Vancouver this summer. Your cruise is promoting Gastown and Chinatown as must sees, but they’re not setting you up with the right expectations. So I will.

Gastown

Gastown is extremely tiny and compact. You only need 15 minutes to walk up and down its main historic street, Water Street. I’ve mapped it out, here. It’ll take longer if you want to go shopping in the souvenir stores, clothing shops, or home decor stores. There are some great bars and restaurants in Gastown. There are also some hidden secrets in the alleys and side streets. But my point is that it doesn’t take long to sightsee here.

The Steam clock, which is Gastown’s claim to fame, is a bit of a myth. It’s not historic, but it looks old. It was built in 1977. It runs on electricity, not on steam. The steam it emits is just for show. But that doesn’t stop the dozens of tourists standing around to take its picture! It’s really a quick photo op and nothing more.

Gastown and Chinatown are close to one another, but the worst part of Vancouver is located between them. While nothing will happen to you if you walk those three blocks between Gastown and Chinatown, you will definitely walk through an area known for its extreme homelessness, fentanyl addiction, open air drug use, and related illnesses. This area is known as the Downtown Eastside. Similar areas exist in downtown LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

Instead of walking through the Downtown Eastside along Carrall Street to get to Chinatown, head back west down Water Street to Richards Street. Then, walk south a few blocks up the hill to West Pender Street, then continue back east down West Pender to Chinatown. I’ve mapped it out, here. Consider it a 20 minute worthy detour. It’s still not the most glamourous part of Vancouver, but it’s a much better experience than the short cut along Carrall. You know you’ve arrived in Chinatown because you’ll walk through the Chinatown gates.

Don’t expect Chinatown to be where you find lots of Vancouver’s famous Chinese restaurants. Don’t expect it to be clean, cute, charming, or quaint in any way. Expect filth on the sidewalks and weird smells. Or down and out people walking around like zombies or passed out on the sidewalks. Anticipate the buildings to have graffiti and padlocked shutters over the doors and windows. Expect the shops to close their shutters by late afternoon. Yet, it’s not a lost cause.

Chinatown is legit. It’s wasn’t built as a tourist district. It’s not there to perform Orientalism. Chinatown’s the historic working class Chinese neighbourhood where Vancouver’s Chinese pioneers established themselves 140 years ago. You go to Chinatown to learn about Chinese Canadian history and the hardships Vancouver’s Chinese immigrants have faced.

If you’re a history lover, go earlier in the day and prioritize the new Chinese Canadian Museum and the Chinatown Storytelling Centre. Have lunch at Chinatown BBQ or New Town Bakery. Or book a guided walking tour with A Wok Around Chinatown. People rave about their tours and Bob, the tour guide, will ensure you only have a positive experience of Chinatown.

Chinatown’s also gentrifying. There are hip, popular restaurants and bars now like Kissa Tanto, Bao Bei, and Keefer Bar. However, Chinatown’s no longer where people go for Chinese restaurants. The bigger Chinese food scene is now outside of Chinatown, such as on Robson Street or in Richmond.

I do enjoy my visits to Chinatown because I understand it in its own context. But I’m not expecting it to be like a quaint cute inviting touristy Chinatown like San Francisco’s Chinatown. I go there and expect it to be run down, down and out, with some diamond in the rough gems, but also a lot of sadness. To see those gems, definitely take that walking tour I recommended above as they’ll guide you to the good places and you’ll avoid the worst of it.

I’m sharing these details because I have seen way too many Alaska cruise ship tourists wander into Chinatown with false expectations. I don’t know where the info comes from that Chinatown in Vancouver is a must, but cruise ships certainly do a good job of promoting it!