Fu-Manchu with Number One wife, visited the West End and environs of Vancouver, British Columbia, located on the west coast of Canada. What follows is his humble report.

Accommodation

English Bay Inn, is a bed and breakfast establishment owned and operated by Bob Chapin who will make you welcome with glasses of sherry and a short talk about where to go and what to do in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, adjacent to Stanley Park.

Accommodations at English Bay Inn are very comfortable consisting of snug rooms and larger suites, a few of which look onto a small walled garden at the rear of the house, overlooked by the surrounding high-rise apartments. Each morning Bob Chapin provides an ample breakfast at a table set for ten, where you can listen to opera, chat with the other guests, and be served by Bob who answers questions and tells stories of the town. Bob has lived in the house for twenty years and been an innkeeper for nine, before which he was a teacher of English Literature.

West End

Bob said that the West End is perfectly safe to walk around in, even at two o'clock in the morning. Vancouver does have a problem with increased heroin addiction which translates to an increase in property crime usually confined to the smashing of car windows and the stealing of anything in the car that might provide funds for the addict's next fix. Visitors are advised not to leave anything visible in the car that might attract attention, even an empty shopping bag. As it happened, Fu-Manchu had no problem despite being warned by the car rental company that insurance is needed since Vancouver has a reputation for smash and grabbing from automobiles. Best thing to do is to park the car in one of the spaces available in the alley behind the inn and go everywhere on foot or by public transport. Beggars are polite, look well-fed, well-dressed, and able bodied; they will desist their importunate patter if ignored. Vancouver has a pleasing absence of sirens, and a general air of peace and quiet; the West End is residential and boasts the densest population of high-rise living, greater than that found in New York.

Eating

The Fish House Restaurant in Stanley Park is five minutes walk down the street. Despite a name that evokes a picture of a dockside gutting shed, the Fish House is a good restaurant with reasonable prices. A preprandial¹ stroll along the seafront of English Bay helps work up an appetite. Canadians in BC are by nature reticent, polite and somewhat indecisive, in marked contrast to America where sudden familiarity is customary, yet the waiter at the Fish House was solicitous and wrote down the names of several places where it was worth eating.

Youthful Impressions

Immediate impression was of Vancouver being a town of young people, but this may be coloured by the demographics of the West End. Bob Chapin explained that the population is made up of mainly young single people, couples, and older folk. As soon as children are born families want to move from their apartments to a house with grounds in which the children can play.

Cosmopolitan Tolerance

Vancouver is cosmopolitan in composition and tolerant. Tolerance and the inherent feeling of safety makes Vancouver attractive to homosexual² persons wishing to live in less bigoted and narrow-minded surroundings.

Getting About

Footpaths are divided to accommodate both pedestrians and those going on roller-blades and bicycles; pedestrians should avoid encroaching on bicycle paths as the bikers do get a bit shirty, and vice versa. Public transportation is good by trolley bus and there is a useful mix of commercial and residential property that puts everything within walking, cycling, or roller-blading distance. Many people use roller-blades as a means of transport.

Anthropometrics

People in general are very fit and healthy with well-developed leg and gluteal³ muscles; the callipygous⁴ display their charms with form-fitting trousers that are put on and off with the help of a zippered seam, this in marked contrast to steatopygous⁵ Heffalumps⁶ clad in elasticated sweat-pants who succeed in looking like a sack of King Edward potatoes. Cool sea breezes and the moist atmosphere puts a sparkle in the eyes of the inhabitants and roses in the cheeks of the young girls.

Industry

High-tech industries abound and a lot of computer work is done from home. Vancouver supports a motion picture and television industry. Until recently the popular X-files television series was produced there, it being a cheaper location than Los Angeles. It is not unusual to see film crews at work as Fu-Manchu saw on Jerico Beach, across the water from English Bay.

Real Estate

There is evidence of land clearance and development on the lower slopes of the mountains rising to the north with apartment buildings going up overlooking the sea and Vancouver Island to the west. Apartments can be had reasonably priced at about a dollar per square foot, Canadian, and can go up in price to hundreds of dollars. Most apartments have balconies on which to sit and enjoy the air.

Celebrities

On the seafront at English Bay there is a tall building with a large pine tree growing on the roof, above a structure that looks like the discus-shaped hull of the Starship Enterprise; you may be led to believe that Leonard Nimoy lives there. A powerful telescope mounted on the roof of a nearby building revealed a bearded chappie hacking at a computer in a room on that floor.

Ethnic Tension

A tension exists between occidental Vancouverites and the large Cantonese population from Hong Kong who took up residence in city prior to British return of Hong Kong to China. Wealthy Chinese came and bought up most of the property at any price asked. As a consequence most of the high-rise property is now owned by Chinese and many old houses were demolished to make way for modern concrete blockhouses. Vancouverites sold their city and are not happy with their new masters. In the event, Chinese takeover of Hong Kong was perceived as less onerous than anticipated and now many of the wealthy refugees have returned home leaving behind vacant premises that they refuse to sell. Chinese have a different attitude to property that tends to profits while keeping maintenance to a minimum.

Meet the Locals

Walk by way of the sea wall widdershins⁷ around Stanley Park, a matter of six or seven miles along paved footpaths. Leave from the Inn by nine o'clock and be in time for lunch at the Tea House Restaurant in Stanley Park overlooking the bay and its shipping. On the way keep an eye open for sealions basking on the rocks offshore. We were saluted by an elderly man, neat in his dress and wearing a necktie tied in a full-windsor knot; this gentleman was well into his eighth decade, foxed⁸ by the maculae⁹ of age but spry, slender and out for his daily constitutional; he had arrived in Canada from the Netherlands when he was an infant one year old; in his opinion the Chinese should be welcome to live in the country; before parting company, with a lift of his hat, he sang acapella the refrain from the old song K-K-K-Katie.

Sightseeing

Vancouver is a largish city with many outlying areas, consequently there is an ample number of things to see and do. A few of these Fu-Manchu discusses here.

Granville Market

Visit Granville Market, a defunct industrial district renovated as a pedestrian precinct with covered markets containing a cornucopia of produce and products. In the open-air buskers go through their evolutions; they are auditioned, licensed, and paid by the city.

Endowment Lands & UBC

Drive out to the Endowment Lands where development is prohibited in perpetuity and take a look at the University of British Columbia (UBC), home to the museum of anthropology, reputed to be the best museum of its type in the world. Walk out onto the pier at Jerico Beach, and see the city across the water spread out from the sea back into the foothills of Mount Seymour.

Sylvia Hotel

Walk up to the Sylvia Hotel and into the lobby where you can see some panoramic photographs of the area taken in 1919, when the Sylvia was the only tall building. The Sylvia exhibits a faded glory, dwarfed by the newer construction.

Lynn Canyon & Twin Falls

Drive out through North Vancouver to Lynn Canyon and Twin Falls and walk in the silence of the woods of cedar, hemlock and spruce. North Vancouver is wetter due to the rising ground and moist onshore air; it too appears to be a good place to live with verdant neighbourhoods and newer, attractive, high-rise apartments with spacious balconies and floor to ceiling glass panels commanding excellent views in all directions, especially since the buildings are located on high ground above the city proper.

Mount Seymour

Take lunch in North Vancouver at the Tomahawk Restaurant, an eatery patronised by local people, and then drive to the top of Mount Seymour for a broader view of the surrounding land. Mount Seymour is a matter of fifteen or twenty minutes drive from town and the transition from urban to rural is very quick.

Downtown to Ice Cream

Descending the Mount drive through downtown Vancouver, Gas Town, and the Robson Centre. Get directions to the Casa de Gelato otherwise known as the International Ice Cream Factory there to taste Pernod and basil flavoured ice cream, one of several score weird and wonderful flavours.

Conclusion

Vancouver is a very livable place, an older world Britain with modern American conveniences mixed with Canadian charm.