The official opening of the Prospect Point Signal Station in Stanley Park. It was installed to regulate all shipping in and out of Vancouver’s harbour. The two-storey structure was also called South Head, Calamity Point, Observation Point and Prospect Bluff. The station was made redundant by the construction of the Lions Gate Bridge, which opened in 1938. According to SquamishAtlas.com, the placename for the south end of where the Lions Gate Bridge sits is “Sch’ílhus”
View from the Prospect Point Signal Station in 1938 when the Lions Gate Bridge was under construction. James Crookall photo. Archives # CVA 260-833
August 3, 1923 – Great Pacific Highway
You could now drive on cement (a smooth, unbroken highway) from Vancouver to California along the Great Pacific Highway, which officially opened. It’s still known as the PacHighway crossing today, between Surrey and Blaine. You can find a historical stone marker on the corner of 176th Street and Highway 10 that marks the occasion.
Also in 1923
After the peninsula of what we now call Stanley Park was designated as a park, the City of Vancouver branded the families that lived there as squatters and applied pressure on them to leave. The “Squatter’s Eviction Trial” (1923) forced remaining Indigenous families to leave their homes and traditional land.
The Ballantyne Pier terminal was constructed to help with dock shortages. It was built in the Beaux-Arts style and began as a storage shed as part of a quartet of identical buildings.
Aerial view of Ballantyne Pier in the 1940s. Archives # Air P29.3
The BC Government approved contracts to complete buildings at UBC, following The Great Trek and the student-run “Build the University” campaign in 1922. The Science building (today part of the Chemistry building), the Library, a power plant, and nine “semi-permanent” buildings (Arts, Agriculture, Applied Science, Administration, the Auditorium, and four laboratory/workshop buildings) most of which are still in use today.
The Lantern City returns to light up the new year featuring pieces from Indigenous and South Asian artists at three sites across the city. Ringing in the Year of the Rabbit, these lanterns will also highlight Vancouver’s beautifully diverse communities.
The Lantern City 2021
The Lantern City
Visit these stunning installations at the following locations:
Lost in Nature – Coastal Lunar Lanterns Location: Jack Poole Plaza Dates:January 20 to February 15, 2023 Artists: Ovila Mailhot (Nlaka’pamux & Sto:lo Nation); George Littlechild (Plains Cree); Walis Labai / Diingwuu Wu (Sediq Tribe); Arucangli Rusagelet (Paiwan Tribe)
The Cycle – Forever Young Location: Ocean Art Works (Granville Island) Dates: January 20 to February 20, 2023 Artists: Arts Umbrella – Patrick O’Neill; Rachel Smith (Kwakwa’kawakw & Wuikinuxv First Nations); Jessie Sohpaul (South Asian); Richard Hunt (Kwakwa’kawakw)
Our Wonderland – We Are Family Location: šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square (North of the Vancouver Art Gallery) Dates: January 20 to February 7, 2023 Artists: Arty Guava (Malaysian Canadian); Angela Aujla (South Asian Canadian); Phyllis Poitras-Jarrett (Métis); Ocean Hyland & Jesse Recalma (Tsleil-Waututh Nation & Qualicum First Nation)
LunarFest presented the first edition of these lantern installations as Coastal Lunar Lanterns a few years ago and thanks to interest from both artists and the public, it has expanded to more sites than ever across Vancouver as Lantern City. “The plan is always about engaging artists who don’t always celebrate the Lunar New Year, but who are passionate about sharing their stories with one of the most important Asian traditions,” say organizers. In 2021 there were lanterns at English Bay, and at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s north plaza. Last year, the program expanded to Granville Island.
Follow The Lantern City on Instagram and Facebook for more information.
Now in its 13th year, the Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival will feature over 140 hot chocolate designs featured at 95 locations. Try out some new neighbourhoods, and experience as many of these exciting, time-limited flavours as you can January 14 – February 14, 2023.
(L to R) Honolulu Coffee, Super Veloce, Honolulu Coffee (Bottom) Giovane
Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival 2023
When it launched in 2011, The Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival was the first city-wide initiative in the world to use hot chocolate beverage as a way to support small, local business. Now bigger and better than ever, it features the region’s best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes and ice cream makers joining forces to make the humble hot chocolate hotter than it has ever been before.
Flavours & Chocolate Creations Galore
Sort your search by gluten free, dairy free, vegan option, and by which places are open late or have takeout/dine-in. View the full List of 140+ Flavours & Location Map »
AtGiovane Caffè (1049 W Cordova St & 418 W Georgia), the modern take on an Italian coffee bar, you can try these two flavour: The Mandorlata Calda has rich cocoa powder and creamy almond butter. With a hint of cinnamon, topped with cinnamon sprinkles and crushed almond bits, the drink highlights the traditional Italian Almond flavour. Served with a side cantucci cookie. And the second option is the Amarena Calda, a dark chocolate cherry-infused hot chocolate made with plant-based milks, topped with chantilly cream and dusted with chocolate shavings. This drink is a nod to the Italian Tartofu – served with a vanilla amaretto cookie.
Super Veloce (in the lobby of the Shaw Tower) will have the Testa Arancione (shown in photo above) which features house-made sugar-free orange zest syrup with cocoa powder and steamed almond milk, topped with vegan coconut cream and fresh orange zest. The drink comes with a Coconut Rocher Protein ball for some extra energy. Their second offering is the Miura SV/ Alfa Romeo Farina, a Macadamia Maca Dark Hot chocolate topped with cocoa and maca, served with a Pistachio Power Ball.
Honolulu Coffee (888 Nelson St, 2098 W 41st Ave, 97 W 2nd) has crafted two whimsical and tantalizing creations set to whisk Vancouverites away for a sweet escape: The Donut – A donut-shaped hot chocolate using 70% dark chocolate mixed with a single shot of espresso and finished with a sea salt cream cheese frosty topping. (Can be made decaf, but cannot be non-dairy). The drink is paired with a donut-shaped fudge chocolate cake glazed with refreshing raspberry icing. And Raincouver– This fun, 70% dark hot chocolate comes with pink Himalayan salt melting a cloud of suspended cotton candy.
Enjoy these and many, many more!
Enter The Fest’s Contest
Enter into the festival’s Instagram contest for sweet, sweet prizes, consisting of gift certificates valued at $1,500 from participating chocolate makers and cafes. Tag your hot chocolate photos with #HCFphotocontest on Instagram and you could be enjoying chocolatey treats all year long. Winners will be drawn and announced on Valentine’s Day.
With a huge dragon, lion dancers, drumming, and firecrackers, Vancouver’s annual Chinese New Year Parade (January 22, 2023) attracts more than 100,000 spectators to Canada’s largest historic Chinatown. It’s the best-known display of authentic Chinese culture in this ultra-diverse British Columbia city.
Yet that’s just a small taste. This is a great time for exploring local Chinese art, food, and history more deeply. Vancouver just elected its first Chinese-Canadian mayor (Ken Sim) in its 136-year history, and close to 20 percent of the city’s growing population has Chinese heritage. Your options are endless.
Celebrate Chinese New Year in Vancouver and Richmond
Chinatown Storytelling Centre exhibit. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.
Artifacts ranging from Chinese gold prospectors’ tools to Cantonese opera costumes catch the eye at this dynamic attraction. Get a snapshot of yourself inside a replica of pioneering Chinatown photographer Yucho Chow’s studio. The centre also recently hosted the launch of a new TELUS docuseries called House Special. Hosted by Jackie Kai Ellis, it examines the Chinese-Canadian experience via the lens of small-town Chinese restaurants.
Visit Foo Hung Curios, the gift shop at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.
Also on Pender Street, the completed Chinese-Canadian Museum – the first of its kind in Canada – is slated to open this summer.
Nearby, the 1986-completed Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden commemorates the legacy of the 20th-century “father of modern China.” This tranquil Suzhou-style scholar’s garden – facing a water lily-covered pond – showcases a pagoda, moon-shaped gates, and surreal limestone rocks imported from China, aligned on Taoist principles.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden. Miss604 photo.
A guided Chinatown tour with historian Judy Lam Maxwell cultivates a deeper appreciation for these gritty neighbourhood streets. “I love going to the heritage buildings and meeting the older people playing mahjong,” says Maxwell, a third-generation Vancouverite of Hong Kong and Scottish heritage.
She points out the restored green facade of the Mah Society of North America building and reveals how to reach the Blnd Tgr Dumplings secret back room. At the 1981-founded Treasure Green Tea Company, a tea ritual with owner Olivia Chan memorably features a tiny clay frog spurting hot water.
Chinese Food in Downtown Vancouver
For high-end Chinatown cuisine, the award-winning, 2010-launched Bao Bei entices with small plates like marinated eggplant and lamb potstickers, washed down with a non-alcoholic Hong Zhi cocktail (grapefruit, yuzu, lime, soda, ginger).
Shanghai River. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.
Beyond Chinatown, you can enjoy an overnight getaway at the new 147-room Paradox Hotel, which offers panoramic views of Stanley Park and Coal Harbour. This swanky, 60-storey tower adjoins Mott-32. The superb contemporary Chinese restaurant, whose intimately lit booths adorned with bird cages evoke 1940’s Shanghai, shines with hot and sour soup dumplings, king prawns with garlic, and Peking duck carved tableside.
Dig Into Richmond’s Chinese Food Scene
Melanie Jue can attest to just how awesome Richmond’s food scene is. The Chinese-Canadian, Richmond-raised hockey coach, who played professionally in China, explains: “In a condensed geographical location, you’ll find all styles of Chinese food, from Szechuan-style to Hong-Kong-style to Beijing-style.”
Richmond Public Market food court (8260 Westminster Hwy). Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.
Hundreds of Chinese restaurants await near No. 3 Road. Here, the teeming energy of an Asian metropolis juxtaposes with the natural beauty of the distant North Shore Mountains. For food-lovers, it’s easy to get around on foot, by car, or via the Canada Line train. Delicacies are modestly priced as they’re mouthwatering.
Check out the pork stomach soup with gingko nuts at Bamboo Grove, the steamed pork and shrimp dumplings at Jade Seafood Restaurant, or the salted egg yolk custard double-baked croissants at Little Fox Bakehouse, to name just a few options.
The first full weekend of the new year is here, and while there aren’t many events happening, it might be a good time to check out those winter activities you haven’t got to yet like Canyon Lights, Lights at Lafarge, or skating at Robson Square. Find these and many more things to do in Vancouver this weekend listed below:
Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend January 6-8, 2023
