We stayed in a hotel near the downtown. It is the most crammed hotel room I have ever seen :(. Saturday morning, we got up not too early and had Dim Sum at 新瑞华 in Richmond. The restaurant was highly recommended on the Travel board of mitbbs. I agree that it is very good. The price is not that expensive considering the average price in Vancouver.The first place we visited in Vancouver was Queen Elizabeth Park. It is the highest point in Vancouver. The highlight of the park is a conservatory, with various plants and free-fly birds, most of which I can’t name. We were able to recognize phalaenopsis spp (蝴蝶蘭) though:

There are also some parrots and other birds. Take a look at the picture gallery here . We also see several couples having their wedding ceremony in the park. It is said that this is the most popular place for weddings in Vancouver.Museum of Anthropology at UBC is our next stop. Sharon and other people strongly recommended this museum for its rich collection of native Indian cultural items. UBC is located in along the west coast. We drove along the north boundary of UBC on a road shaded by big trees before we arrived MOA. We took a tour by a staff in the museum. She introduced some basic facts about the native Americans in BC as well as the art works.

We strolled around in UBC campus after visiting the museum. The campus is very well organized. It spreads along the beach. There are great views of the sea at many places. I liked the old library, which is a very 16th century European building.After dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Richmond, we took a stroll in the downtown area. Vancouver in the evening is charming when the city lights are up. Salty breeze gently caresses the face bring the smell of the ocean. There are many bars in the downtown area. It was probably because of the weekend, a lot of people were lining up in front of the bars. Having lived in a small town, we haven’t seen such night life for long. It reminds me of Reno and Las Vegas. We walked all the way from downtown to Canada place.The next day is Sunday. We got up and drove to downtown area. I was worrying about parking but it turned out that it’s not a big problem on Sudays. There are plenty of parking garages (which they call parkades). We went to an Italian coffee shop called Caffe Artigiano. We have heard many praises for this shop when we were doing research before the trip. The lobby has a high ceiling. The tables are nice, with stone tops. We ordered some coffees and snacks and took a table to sit down. We were all amazed when our orders came. The coffee cups were snow white ceramics, very traditional coffee cups. The presentation of the coffee was fantastic. They used the creme to draw shapes on the top of the coffee. It’s a tree for mocha and a heart for latte.

The light in the room was tender although a little dark. The color of the ray was a little yellowish which I really like. So I took a picture of Tian sipping coffee. ISO is set to 1600 since I hate using flash light. I should haved used a longer focus and backed up more. But anyway, it wasn’t a very bad picture after all.We walked along Granville Street toward Habour center, passed Robson Square. We had lunch at the revolving restaurant at the top of Habour Center. The food was OK, not excellent. But the view was great. The whole downtown and the Coal Habour are under your nose. Mount Baker is also clearly visible in distance. BTW, the elevator to the top of the tower costs $10 but free with the buffet.

Our next stop would be the famous Capilano suspension bridge, located in the north of the city. It’s not very far from the downtown but there was a little traffic which took us about 20 minutes to get there. This is something so great about the city of Vancouver. It’s a urbanized area, but with all the forest and wilderness nearby, even within the city. Vancouver is a perfect example of combination of human and nature.The admission is expensive! About $24 per person. We were eligible for student rate, which is around $17, still not cheap. The bridge extends over a gorge. It isn’t swinging very much, not as exciting as I expected.

It was almost 6 when we were back to town. We then went to Granville Island. It’s actually a peninsula. We strolled around the seawall which meanders along False Creek. It was a little late. The famous public market closed soon after we got there. During the day, it would be a busy place. But we really enjoyed the scene of the city and the mountains from Granville Island.We were to leave Vancouver for Victoria the next morning. It would really be a pity if we didn’t visit the historical Gas Town. The Gas Town is where Vancouver has originated from. It’s so named because of the gas clock. The clock is still working! We also walked along the street a little. There are some small gift shops along the street. Interestingly, most of the shops have signs in Chinese even if the shop owners are not Chinese. It’s actually a universal phenomenon in Vancouver, Chinese is being widely used. On the contrary, as an official language, French doesn’t seem to be used anywhere. The only chance I had to practice my French was in a French restaurant later on Vancouver Island.

This concludes our visit to the city of Vancouver, although we would later come back and have a dinner before leaving.