Vancouver Chinatown: A Pictorial Walking Tour

Today was the "Chinatown Festival" so I decided to check it out. There was a walking tour run by volunteers which cost $5 per person and the most interesting thing is that they bring you inside to see the Chinese Associations.

All pictures can be view at full resolution, click and enjoy!

There are 3 parts to this post.

Part 1: Chinese Canadian Military Museum

Part 2: Inside the Chinese Benevolent Association

Part 3: The Streets of Chinatown

Here is the Google Map showing the places I visited:





Direct Link to the Google Map for full size viewing


Part 1: The Chinese Canadian Military Museum

It is located on the 2nd floor of the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum building, and almost not advertised outside at all. Its VERY small, only ONE room. I don't even think a lot of locals know that it exists. The museum commemorates the Chinese people who volunteered to fight for Canada in World War II despite the fact that they were denied citizenship by the Canadian government.

Link to Official Museum Site

Osaka: Streetscapes, Sanyo Electric HQ

(Updated: June 1, 2013 with high resolution photos)

This is the 2nd part of my Osaka series. Previously, I posted a section on the Osaka waterfront...more than 1 year ago...(man, I have been lazy in posting), here is the link to that:

Part 1: Osaka Waterfront

I took these pictures on the same day, Mar. 30, 06.

After visiting the Osaka waterfront, I decided to go hunt out the headquarters of major electronics companies in the Kansai region. I wanted to visit the Panasonic headquarters/factory, but this time I had not done my homework, I did not book in advance, and therefore was not able to go. Instead I found that Sanyo Electric had its headquarters in Osaka, so why not visit their site and see what was there?

Other factories and headquarters of companies that I visited:

Toyota Headquarters and Auto Assembly Plant in Nagoya

Nissan Auto Assembly Plant in Yokosuka (suburb of Tokyo)

Front Gate of Nintendo HQ (scroll down...unfortunately, visitors are NOT allowed, there was a sign IN ENGLISH at the security desk!)

Side note: The good thing about Japan is that large companies are more than willing to let you visit their plants/factories (unlike in security paranoid North America where there isn't even a viewing deck at the airport for looking at planes). Its pretty interesting that a lot of the products that they export to the rest of the world is developed at these places. At the Nissan plant, we were the only ones there and they hired an interpreter just for our group of 2!

Studio Ghibli Art Musuem

(Updated: July 13, 2013 with high resolution photos)

On June 29, 2006, my friends and I visited the Ghibli Museum. The museum (aka. Mitaka's Forest Ghibli Art Museum) is located in the suburbs of Tokyo. It is about 15 minutes by train on the JR Chuo Line (aka "Suicide Line", the line alignment is almost totally straight) from Shinjuku Station.

Unfortunately, you are NOT allowed to take pictures inside the museum, only outside, so that is what I have.

Also you can't just show up and buy tickets at the museum, if you are in Japan, you need to buy your tickets in advance from a Lawsons convenience store using their electronic ticket machine. If visiting from overseas you could either buy them from overseas (check official website) or if you know Japanese or some Japanese or if you are able to copy the name of the Ghibli Museum onto a piece of paper, you could go to the Lawsons convenience store and ask a clerk (using a lot of hand gestures?) that you want tickets to this museum. But be warned, the museum is kind of popular and may be fully booked a week in advance.

Vancouver Skyline

If there are any regular visitors left...this page is not dead, I still got lots of stuff to upload. Just busy with work and sometimes lazy.

Vancouver skyline from east to west.

Building with clock, City Hall:



Ball building = Science World:

Aug. 8, 06: Kunming, Stone Forest, Lijiang

Because of getting a job related to my field after so long search, there is a massive update of my blog.

Kunming in Yunnan Province relative to the rest of China and more well known cities:



Kunming, Lijiang, and Stone Forest relative to each other on the map:



Kunming normal city street:

Trip to Victoria, BC, last Labour Day Weekend (Sept. 2-4, 06)

These are some pictures from when I went to Victoria, BC (the provincial capital of the Province of British Columbia) with my cousins but was too lazy to post until now.

Map of the "Lower Mainland" of British Columbia, Victoria is about an hour ferry ride from Vancouver.



There isn't that much to see in Victoria, a day trip would be enough, but we stayed overnight...a big mistake because there was not much to do after seeing the couple of attractions.

The entrance to the Parliament Buildings, people are queuing up for the free tour.

Pictures from My Alma Mater (UBC)

From the Rose Garden at the Northern End of the campus:

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Countdown Clock

Here are some pictures of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics countdown clock that I took in February but was too lazy to do anything until now.

Interesting fact: Because there are so many hoodlums (aka. crazy special interest groups, "anti-poverty group") here that oppose the games, this is the only Olympic countdown clock that requires a security guard to be present 24 hours a day. Despite that, it was still vandalized a couple of weeks ago...

The clock is located in a square in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was once a former courthouse.

Dec. 23, 06: (Formal) Education Finished...Also Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

On Nov. 23, 06, my university education came to a close after 4 years of academic hell and 1 year of "easy" (compared to engineering courses, 3 hours a day of language courses + 1.5 hour one way commute is not hard) study abroad in Japan.

Some pictures from the ceremony, it was approximately 1 hour long, and started at a weird time at 1pm on a Wednesday. Even the graduatation ceremonies at UBC seem like they are mass produced like the courses.

Aug. 4, 06: The "Long Road" to Kunming: A Trip Report

The is the first day on our 5 day tour of Yunnan province, we joined a tour group in Hong Kong.

Where Kunming is, relative to the major cities of China, the capital of Yunnan Province.



The road to the Hong Kong airport, there was a typhoon the other day...

The container ports to left probably ships all your "Made in China" mechandise all over the world.