"Canuck City" Vancouver by Ramonq

click: Canadian folk music

There's something about the air in Vancouver. It's crisp and clean for such a big city. Vancouver is the most populous city in the province of British Columbia and it's now the third largest in Canada. It is an efficient and modern First World city with the most spectacular surroundings a city could ever have. On its west are the straits that lead to the Pacific Ocean, and around it are verdant forests, islets and snowcapped mountains. This city has it all, that it earned the accolade as: "The world's most livable city", and I fully agree.

Downtown Vancouver

The city grew around the fine natural harbour north of the Fraser River delta and the city centre is laid out in grid pattern which makes it simple to explore for outsiders who get lost easily. Downtown Vancouver looks like any affluent North American cities. Modern glass skyscrapers and spacious shopping malls are mixed with older concrete civic buildings along its wide streets and footpaths. The most impressive building in Central Vancouver is the City Hall which was completed in 1936. It has many beautiful well-maintained parks and Stanley Park, just north of the city centre is the most popular.

A popular place to visit is the colonial village-looking section called the Gastown which has a charming rustic history. Apparently a rather chatty British chap named John Deighton canoed into Burrard Inlet and settled here. He founded this village and its residents named it Gastown after Deighton, who was quite popular and was given a nickname of "Gassy Jack" because of his incessant talkativeness. Enterprising Deighton set up a successful saloon for the thirsty lumberjacks, mill workers and gold prospectors who had settled in the town. From a one-pub town, Gastown flourished and the area saw lots of small shops and various services Thanks to Gassy Jack, Vancouver became a viable town and a few Vancourites would say that he was Vancouver's founding father because he initiated the city's prosperity.

Vancouver is a young city compared to some of the cities I've visited, although the area was inhabited by the First Nations tribes when Vancouver was covered with dense forest for thousands of years. A few British and Spanish explorers such as Captain Cook and Jose Narvaez visited the area in the late 18th century. The city was named after the British explorer Captain George Vancouver who mapped the region. Europeans started to settle around the area which spawned industries such as lumber, fishing, fur, and farming. The discovery of gold, brought in more settlers and the town of Vancouver grew more and more prosperous. Despite the devastating fire in 1886 which virtually destroyed the entire downton, Vancouver rebuilt itself. The harbour city's importance was highlighted after the Panama Canal was built and the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in Vancouver.

Vancouver has become Canada's gateway to the Pacific. Once isolated from the rest of the world, Vancouver is now very much part of the globalisation scene. It's part of the Pacific Rim trading route, and many Asians, particularly Hong Kong Chinese, have changed the complexion of the city. But the city has its fair share of problems that bedevil Western cities. Drugs, petty crime and homelessness are in the headlines of newspapers in this otherwise NorthWest Pacific Paradise. The relatively-mild Canadian winter in Vancouver has attracted hundreds of homeless people across Canada and they can be seen begging on the streets. Vancouver has grown up and it's now facing grown-up problems.

• Pros:Superb sceneries
• Cons:beggars on streets
• In a nutshell:A city with Natural wonders