Desert Leaf: Vancouver, City of the 2010 Olympics

Vancouver, City of the 2010 Olympics

Mary L. Peachin

As the clock ticks down, Vancouver, a city ranked tops for visiting or living, has been transformed. Sparkling lit five circles, the international Olympic symbol greets athletes and visitors when they arrive at Vancouver’s International Airport, and, again, in the downtown area overlooking Coal Harbour and Burrard Inlet.

Floating adjacent to venerable Stanley Park, a floating barge supporting the circle symbols highlight the magnificent view between downtown, the Lion’s Gate Bridge, and the snow-capped Coast Mountains. They will beam from February 12^th when the torch is lit during the 2010 Opening Ceremony until the closing of March’s Paralympic Winter Games.

Seven years ago, the International Olympic Committee proclaimed Vancouver as the 2010 Winter Games host city. Three years ago, an official digital countdown clock ticking “1,095 days to go” was unveiled in Georgia Street Plaza at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It’s down to SEVENTEEN days!

During the past seven years, the city’s transformation city has encompassed preparing, renovating and building venues in Whistler and Cypress, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver’s downtown Pacific Coliseum, and Richmond’s Olympic Oval.
This doesn’t include the new ten mile $1.9 billion Canada Line with sixteen stations that link the airport, Richmond and metropolitan and downtown Vancouver or the improved 250 mile Sea to Sky Highway 99 to Whistler. The provincial government invested approximately $600,000 to straighten the weaving corridor to increase the road’s safety, reliability, and capacity.

Finishing touches are being put on an entire Olympic Village that edges False Creek. These condo buildings were sold to private buyers with the understanding that they would first house Olympic athletes.

For seventeen days and nights, the 2010 Olympics will capture most of Vancouver. There will be day long competitions followed by award ceremonies, and all night parties with major celebrities. Royalty from around the world will come and visitors will pay a high price for tickets that include transportation. They will be no parking venues.

Yes, the Olympics are a major draw for the city, but Vancouver is also a place worth visiting for its own attractions. Whether you take time during the Olympics or return for a summer visit, there are multiple attractions not to mention some of the world’s finest ethnic cuisine.

Visitors will be spellbound by downtown Vancouver’s high rise glass architecture, the majority designed with multiple water features and sculpture. The city slopes toward Coal Harbour where thirty ships a day, both cargo and cruise, enter North America’s second largest port. The thrust of floatplanes churn watery runways as they transport business commuters and visitors between Victoria and the Gulf Islands.

The 180-degree city view overlooks the craggy snow-capped peaks of Vancouver’s Coast range, the greenery of Stanley Park, and Lions Gate Bridge, the gateway to Olympic venues in Whistler and at Cypress Mountain.

City streets echo multicultural languages conversations. Thousands of people wearing cruise-line name tags tour Vancouver before boarding ships to Alaska. Many will frequent the cobblestone streets of historical Gastown, waiting for the quarter-hour soundings of the picture-perfect steam clock or head to Chinatown to marvel at street-side open markets or visit the classical Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen Chinese garden.

In the heart of the city, Stanley Park encompasses 1,000 acres of cedar, hemlock and fir trees. It is surrounded by a six-mile seawall divided for runners, roller bladders, and bicycles. The path begins at Burrard Inlet in Coal Harbor circling to the Park’s south side English Bay Beach before continuing along False Creek when there is a ferry boat to Granville market, or a path eastward to New Westminster near Richmond and Vancouver International Airport.

Granville Island, known as an oversized interior farmers’ market, offers the finest in produce, seafood, meat, and other delicacies. Its food court features international cuisine. Down a nearby alley, The Lobster Man sells all kind of live seafood, including fresh Dungeness crabs, oysters, and clams.

The newly opened Canada Line now provides easy access to affluent suburb of Richmond, venue of the Richmond Skating Oval. Sixty percent Asian-Canadian, Richmond’s Golden Village commercial district is noted for its Asian-themed Hong Kong-like shopping malls. Aberdeen Centre, the largest of the malls, features everything from a Ferrari-Maserati dealership to the popular Japanese $2.00 Daiso store. Yaohan Centre is noted for its Osaka supermarket.

A more spiritual outing is following the Highway to Heaven, a stretch of road along No. 5 Road. Some of its religious buildings including Lingyen Mountain Buddhist Temple, a Taiwanese nunnery, Christian and Jewish schools and churches, Gurdwara Nanak Niwas Sikh Temple, and Jami’a Sunni Muslim Mosque.

International Buddhist Kuan Yin Temple, the second largest Buddhist temple in North America, authentic Chinese palatial style architecture is designed similar to Beijing’s Forbidden City. Golden tiles top its two-tiered flared eaves roof. It is landscaped with courtyards of classical Chinese lotus ponds gardens, gazebos, rocky landscapes, and a stone bridge.

Vancouver is a city of many cultures and days can be spent exploring each of them. Festivals abound during summer months, but this February, Vancouver hosts the biggest of them all, the 2010 Olympics.

If you go:

Vancouver International Airport is served by many airlines including America West, Alaska, United, Delta, British Airways, and Air Canada.

BC Ferries operates from Seattle. (1-888-BCFERRY)

For a complete city guide, go to www.tourismvancouver.com—one of the best city sites on the Web.

Hotels

Delta Pinnacle
1-800-268-1133
www.deltahotels.com

Sutton Place Hotel
www.suttonplace.com
info@suttonplace.com

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
hvcreservations@fairmont.com
www.hotelvancouver.com

Wedgewood Hotel
1-800-663-0666
info@wedgewoodhotel.com
www.wedgewoodhotel.com

Restaurants

CinCin Restaurant & Bar
www.cin-cin.com

Zin (Pacific Palisades Hotel)
www.zin-restaurant.com