Travelog post for: Desmond

Next, we visited Chinatown.







This bell, called the West Han Dynasty Bell, is in Chinatown to commemorate Chinese history in Vancouver and marks the first Chinese settlement in the area.  It was a gift from Vancouver's sister city, Guangzhou in China, and it was modelled after a bell found in Guangzhou.



This building holds the world record for the narrowest building in the world.  It was built by a man known to Vancouverites as Sam Kee.  At one point he owned more land in the area, but the city demolished his building to widen the road, leaving him with a strip of land just under five feet in width.  Rather than sell what remained of his property for practically nothing, Sam had another building built, one that fit into the strip of land.  For years the building belonged to a silk merchant, but now it's leased by an insurance company. 







This building is the oldest in Chinatown.  It's being renovated to become condos, but they are going to keep the overall look the same.  All the floors were built at different times, and were all built in teh style at the time, so each one it a little different.  It was built by a man for his family.  He had lots of children and they all lived and went to school here.  This is also the first place in Canada where Mandarin was taught at a high school level.



In Chinatown there are many benevolant societies.  These were created to help Chinese who were descriminated against or had no where to stay find houses and jobs, and provide general support.  They were organized according to last name.  This is the Wong Benevolant Society, and it is the biggest because the last name Wong was the most common Chinese name at the time.



This is also a benevolant society, but it is home to three last names.  The Chins, the Wings and the Chungs decided to build one building housing all three because there were not enough for one building each.  Each name received one floor, which is why the building is so tall.



The is the Sun Yat-Sen Building and it was the Western headquarters of the Kuomintang, the opposing party to the Chinese Communist Party.  Sun Yat-Sen was the party leader.