Vancouver: Urban Sophistication and Untamed Nature on Your Doorstep

Vancouver may seem like a strange choice for a column about short breaks from Beijing. Yet, with 10-hour direct flights on Air Canada or Air China, both of which offer frequent discount fares as low as RMB 3,000 return, a trip to Canada can work out cheaper than flights to Bangkok. Add easily accessible skiing and hiking, reasonably priced eating and drinking, and a cosmopolitan art and music scene, and you may find yourself wondering why you haven’t already visited.

What to do
One of the great joys of the Pacific Northwest region of Canada and the US is its wide-open spaces, something which Vancouver has in abundance, even within walking distance of downtown. Magnificent Stanley Park offers 1,000 acres of trails, lakes, and attractions – stray off the main paths and you’ll find it hard to believe you are in the center of a major city. Don’t miss the First Nations totem poles, accompanied by fascinating information about the First Nations families who lived in the Stanley Park area as recently as the 1930s. Tracing the edge of Stanley Park is the Seawall, the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path at 28km. The route is divided into two sections, one for walkers and runners, and one for cyclists. Once you understand how closely outdoor exercise is ingrained in the local psyche you’ll understand why athleisure brand Lululemon was founded in Vancouver (you can still visit the brand’s original store at 2101 West 4th Ave in Kitsilano).

If you’d prefer a more downtown experience (or want to reward yourself after a long day of alfresco exercise), take a brief ferry ride across False Creek to Granville Island, a former industrial site that has been reinvented as a trendy neighborhood full of restaurants, shops, and galleries. The main draw is Granville Island Public Market, which is packed with stalls selling local produce and craft foods. One of the most popular spots is Lee’s Donuts, which has been a staple of the market for nearly 40 years.

What to eat
Vancouver is a truly multicultural city, a fact reflected in the city’s many and varied restaurants, where chefs blend their own culinary traditions with seafood and produce from around British Columbia. Take stylish Pidgin, for example, where the menu seamlessly blends Asian and French influences and the prix fixe is great value at CAD 55 per person. Another inexpensive way to sample the city’s excellent dining scene is to head for happy hour at farm-to-table restaurant Wildebeest, when you can order up interesting plates like pan-roasted mussels from Saltspring Island for CAD 12 and pints of local ales for CAD 5. For something a little more casual, Vancouver’s best sandwiches can be found at Meat & Bread, where they have perfected the art of roast pork with crispy crackling. Grab one to go and eat it after a walk around Stanley Park.

Where to stay
Socially conscious Skwachàys Lodge has 18 suites designed by First Nations artists, whose work is also available to peruse and purchase in the gallery on the ground floor. It’s a boutique experience at a surprisingly reasonable price (rooms from CAD 189 per night). The hotel is within easy walking distance of the landmarks in Gastown and Chinatown. If you want to stay in an actual landmark, splash out on The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, located in an iconic castle-like edifice in the heart of downtown, opened by visiting UK royals in 1939. Its timeless elegance comes with all the modern comforts one would expect from any Fairmont Hotel.

Further afield
If Stanley Park isn’t outdoorsy enough for you, the North Shore suburb of Vancouver (around a 30-minute drive away) offers skiing and other alpine activities on Grouse Mountain, hikes through temperate rainforests, and photo ops on the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Keen skiers might consider making the one-and-a-half-hour drive to Whistler. If you have access to a car, you could also consider crossing the border into the US and driving the two-and-half-hours to Seattle (note that the border crossing will add anything from a few minutes to a few hours to your journey time), where you can enjoy freshly caught seafood and a glass of local Washington wine at one of the restaurants and bars in Pike Place Market.

Photo: Wikimedia