One of the many neighborhoods worth a visit in Vancouver, Canada is Chinatown.  Over the years, many of the cities Asian population has moved out of the city to the suburb of Richmond, however the neighborhood remains delicately charming and relatively non-touristy.  As in many large cities in North America, the cultures are eclectic and varied, each one with their own Chinatown.  The Canadian Chinatown is one of the largest on the continent.

Many of the rental properties in this neighborhood and those surrounding are in good hands with TransGlobe Property Management, and the sense of community is carried over from the streets of the neighborhoods to the buildings and the businesses themselves.  In Canada, many of the Asian population are Cantonese speaking and for them now, Chinatown is the place to go to do their shopping.

For those populations as well as everyone else, this is one of the best districts to go out to dinner.  This is one of the neighborhoods which was founded and settled at the same time the city was, by many of the migrant workers who came in to construct the Canadian Pacific Railroad.   During this time, the tension between the races was such that there were walls built that surrounded Chinatown for security.

By the 1950’s the area had fallen into shambles, and couple of decades later, during the 1970’s the city had considered tearing it all down completely and building a highway.  But the public protested and the neighborhood was rebuilt.  TransGlobe Property Management and others renovated the existing structures, and it remains one of the many wonderful neighborhoods to spend some time in when traveling through the city of Vancouver.  The neighborhood is filled with restaurants and market places and the culture of the many who were there when the city was born.

Gertie’s husband Will was being transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina. This was going to be quite a change for Gertie who had lived her entire life in Tucson, Arizona. She even went to college there and settled in the mid sized desert town thinking she might live there her entire life. All she could remember about Charlotte, she had never even been there before, was how nice all of the people sounded on the phone. This makes more sense when it is put in context with her job because she worked for in the customer service department of a major retail store through most of high school. She had many people call in from Charlotte and they were always extremely polite and she thought they were some of the nicest people she spoke with.

This memory was all she knew of her new home so she and Will planned a two week vacation in Charlotte since they weren’t going to be moving there for another year. Gertie made their reservations in one of the Charlotte luxury hotels and paid careful attention to the disposition of the person on the other end of the phone helping her. Sure enough, she was very friendly sounding. One the plane flight Will began to talk about the early significance of Charlotte to the country’s development and this intrigued Gertie a great deal. And as they began their final descent into the city Gertie was stunned by the beautiful skyline.

As if to emphasize the historical significance of the city, which Will knew would impress his wife, he took her on an excursion the following morning and brought her to where James K. Polk, the eleventh President of the United States, had been born. The replica of his family home inspired Gertie’s curiosity and interest and she was sure that she would enjoy all these historic elements of Charlotte and the region. They enjoyed a quiet picnic out in nature and Gertie considered how different the geography and climate was from the desert. The next day they spent in the Mint Museum of Art and Gertie had a great time and enjoyed the permanent collection. They had lunch in a beautiful sidewalk café and Gertie knew as she sipped her tea that she was going to be happy there.