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The future of Vancouver’s Middle Kingdom City

January 3rd, 2010 · 17 Comments

I’ve been writing about Chinatown for 15 years and it never fails to fascinate me, the way it resists what is happening anywhere else in the city and the way I learn something new, peel away another layer, every time I look at it again closely.

Last year, Chinatown went through a huge upheaval as talk of building towers in the historic neighbourhood brought various camps to the brink of war. The towers talk is receding — the last time I spoke with city planner Brent Toderian, he was talking about no buildings higher than 100 feet — but the angst remains and there’s a whole new layer of Chinatown fans who have entered the fray.

My story on this in Vancouver magazine this month.

By the way, the Bao Bei restaurant I refer to in here hasn’t opened yet, but I drove past it today and it looks very cool. “A Chinese bistro” is what the sign in the window said, I believe. It’s right across Keefer Street from the Floata Restaurant mall. The operator, Tannis Ling, has been until now working with Chambar, I discovered while snorkelling the Internet recently.

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