Tuesday 25 July 2006
Highlights: Missing bag, Visiting China Town

With only the spare clothes in my day pack and a promise by British Airways my bag will be shuttled to me today I set out to explore Vancouver.

Fighting jetlag I visited the Chinese area of the city.   Reds, yellows and dragons are everywhere.   The area is massive in size a result of the Canadian government bringing in soon many Chinese to create the cross Canadian Railways so long ago.

During the construction Chinese man were used to take the explosives into difficult areas, lots of times they died.   In the 1920s the government put a $50 charge on Chinese to stay in Canada, later increasing it to $500 per person (about the cost of 2 houses in those days).   It was only in 1949 that local Chinese were granted citizenship rights after a campaign that highlighted the fact they basically built the railway (which really created Canada) and fought under the Canadian flag in 2 World Wars.

It’s amazing more people don’t hate the Western World. I also had a little time to walk around the CBD and a little bit of Stanley Park and the coastline.   Vancouver is an incredible city, full of people who want to help when you seem lost.  Returning to my hostel I found my backpack had not shown up yet.   At 11.30 pm I gave up and went to bed in my clothes.