|- | align=center colspan=Deuce style="background:#ffffff;" ||- |- |Members of Parliament | Libby Davies, Ujjal Dosanjh, David Emerson, Hedy Fry, Stephen Owen |- |Members of the Legislative Assembly | Gordon Campbell, David Chudnovsky, Adrian Dix, Colin Hansen, Jenny Kwan, Lorne Mayencourt, Wally Oppal, Gregor Robertson, Shane Simpson, Carole Taylor |- |Mayor | Larry Campbell |- |City Manager | Judy Rogers |- |Governing Body | Vancouver City Council |- | Latitude:
Longitude: |49°16′ N
123°7′ W |- | Land area | (city) 114.67 km² (metropolitan) 2,878.52 km² |- | Population
City
2004 est
Cdn. Mun. Rank:
Area:
2004 eastern time:
Cdn. CMA Rank:
|

583,296
Ranked 8th

2,132,824
Ranked 3rd |- | Unemployment rate | Sestet.2% |} Vancouver (pronounced ) occurs as Canadian city in the province of British Columbia. These are a big metropolitan centre around american Canada & third big in the country. A city's people is 545,671 & that of the area is 2,186,965 (2001 nosecount). [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/popdwell/Table-CMA-C.cfm?T=1&SR=1&CMA=933&S=3&O=D] Vancouver is one of a cities of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and of a big geographic vicinity usually called the Lower Mainland of BC. A todays city manager is Larry Campbell, Coalition of Progressive Electors (see List of Mayors of Vancouver). Vancouver is a persons city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, 2005 Grey Cup, the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship, the 2006 United Nations World Urban Forum and a 2007 Memorial Cup.

Geography and location

Vancouver is placed at , in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8), and a Pacific Maritime Ecozone. These are adjacent to the Strait of Georgia, a water that is shielded from either a Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. A city itself forms section of the Burrard Peninsula, lying between Burrard Inlet to a north & the Fraser River to the south.

A few unacquainted a regiin buy it disconcerting that Vancouver doesn't lie on Vancouver Island. Nevertheless, each a city & a isl& (and their U.S. counterpart) are named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver of Great Britain, who explored the region in 1792.

Vancouver has an front yard of 114.67km² (44 sq. miles). Vancouver has each flat & cragged areas. When these come about surrounded by a lake, city lands are comparatively unhampered open running off water system except for two or three lakes. Early records indicate that there might use been when several when fifty lakes & streams, lakes, and wells throughout within Vancouver. Referable urban developments, presently there are merely tetrad heading lakes noticed in a city (understand Bodies of water in Vancouver).

A City of Vancouver is composed of East Vancouver, the West Side & downtown areas. Inside both one areas come little, distinct neighbourhoods that reflect a ethnic diversity for which Vancouver is noted. Note that West Vancouver & N Vancouver come non section of the City of Vancouver however are placed nearby.

History

An primaeval personal injury settlement known as Xwméthkwyiem, ("Musqueam"—from either masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea"), touching a mouth of the Fraser River dates back to at least 3,000 years ago. Vancouver's ecosystem, with its abundant plant & fleshly life, will bring the wealth of food & materials that use at times in all probability supported humans for all over 10,000 years. At a instance of number 1 European call for, a Musqueam & Squamish peoples experienced villages in the areas around present-contemporary Vancouver. There exists besides grounds to believe of a third class action, the Tsleil'wauthuth, root of now's Burrard Band around North Vancouver. These were Coast Salish First Nations sharing cultural traits by owning population in the Fraser Valley and Northern Washington. Hun'qumi'num', a downriver accent of the Halkomelem language was the most common language of the native community at Musqueam on the Fraser Flow of any stream on the south side of in todays world's city. A Squamish & their kin a Tsleil-Waututh or even Burrard Band, spoke the different, though related language, Skwxwú7mesh, which is similar to Sechelt and as well spoken at the Squamish United states's more independent people centre at a town of Squamish. A best known member of Vancouver's native community is indubitably a late Chief Dan George of the Burrard Band.

the Native peoples of the Northwest Coast got achieved the super high level of ethnic complexness for a food gathering base. When Bruce Macdonald notes inside Vancouver: the ocular history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..." Winter villages, inside what is at present called Vancouver, were comprised of big plankhouses processed of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings known as potlatches were common in a summertime & winter months whenever the spirit powers move. These ceremonies were an crucial section of the mixer & spiritual life of the humans.

Spanish Captaaround Jose Maria Narvaez was a 1st European to choose a Strait of Georgia in 1791. In the below month, 1792, the British naval Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) from King's Lynn in Norfolk joined the Spanish expedition based at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island's west coast and further explored the Strait of Georgia, as well as the Puget Sound in the present day Seattle area.

Lumbering was a early industry along Burrard Inlet, now a places of Vancouver's haven. A foremost sawmill began operating around 1863 at Moodyville (around 1915, renamed "North Vancouver"). A 1st exportation of lumber took place around 1865; this lumber was shipped to Australia. Inside 1865, a 1st sawmill on the in the south shore of Burrard Inlet, Stamp's Mill, began operations around what would in the future get Vancouver.

The previous flow of any stream pilot, John (Jack) Deighton, install the microscopic (Xxiv' x Xii')saloon on the beach just about the mile west of the sawmill inside 1867. His place was popular & a easily-worn trail between the mill & saloon was presently established - this is in todays world's Alexander Street. Deighton's nickname, Gassy Jack, pass off because he was referred to as quite a utterer or even "gassy". a total of men began dwelling touching a saloon & the "settlement" quickly became called Gassy's town. Within 1870, the compound government of British Columbia took notice of the growing cash settlement & sent a surveyor to lay out an official townsite called Granville. Granville was known as for a British Compound Secretary, the Earl of Granville, though everyone however known as it Gassy's Town, late shortened to Gastown.

A fresh town was placed in one of a better natural harbours in the globe & for this understanding it was selected per Canadian Pacific Railway as their terminus. A transcontinental railway was accredited per government of Canada under a leadership of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald and was a condition of British Columbia joining confederation in 1871. (A CPR president, William Van Horne, decided that Granville wasn't such a great title for the recently terminus & strongly recommended "Vancouver" would exist as the better title withinside section because population in Toronto knew in which Vancouver Island was but experienced there are no idea of in which Granville was. Under its freshly title a city was incorporated in April 6, 1886. 3 months late, inside June 13, a outstanding blaze destroyed virtually all of the city along the quaggy shores of Burrard Inlet in twenty-xxv proceedings.

Items recovered quickly when a fire. A 1st regular transcontinental train from either Montreal arrived at a irregular terminus at Port Moody in July 1886, and service to Vancouver itself began around Can 1887. That month Vancouver's people was 5,000, by 1892 it reached 15,000 & by 1900 it was 100,000.

A fire which destroyed a city wwhen in time considered to exist as beneficial, as a city was rebuilt by using modern a water system, electricity & trolley systems.

Scenery

Vancouver is internationally celebrated for preserving its natural beauty inside a metropolis. Vancouver is personal to one of Northerly United states's big urban parks, Stanley Park. a city hwhen all the urban agreeableness of a major city, too as real life access to the Pacific Ocean & the mountains of the Pacific Coast Range. Real-estate is largely limited per encompassing mountains & a lake. a Northerly Shore mountains dominate a city landscape, & in a clear day scenic aspect include the inactive snow-capped volcano Mount Baker in the State of Washington to the southeast; Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to a west & southwest and the Sunshine Coast to the northwest. A televise views of the city & its environment use manufactured it illustrious for its beauty.

Skyline

While speaking of Vancouver's skyline, these are crucial to note that there are as a matter of fact 3 different skylines within Vancouver by owning real count of high-rise buildings. Them virtually all large skylines, typically featured inside post card, come peradventure a review of southern shore of Burrard Inlet & northern shore of False Creek. A skyline of southern shore of Burrard Inlet is buildings of Coal Harbour, & buildings along a Waterfront Road. It includes a few of the city's virtually all celebrated architectural masterpieces like Canada Place, Harbour Centre, a Marine Building, & Shaw Center. A skyline of northern shore of False Creek include southern part of West Prevent, a 3 bridges connecting to Vancouver Downtown (Granville, Cambie & Burrard Bridge), Yaletown, Concord Pacific Place (Northward United states of america's big residential condominium design), & noted attractions prefer General Motors Place & Science Globe. A third & less usually referred skyline around Vancouver includes buildings that line along a Broadway Corridor at False Creek south. This division of the city, although good deal additional "mid-rise" than Business district (norm building height ranging from either 50m-80m), contains a select few of the city's big government buildings, like Vancouver General Hospital (Twenty-third tallest hospital in the globe) & Vancouver City Hall. Later, False Creek south should play the other crucial role in the city's skyline when a emptied industrial land within Southeast False Creek is developed in the coming years.

Although Vancouver, by the capita, has additional high-tower block than any more city inside Northward Us, Vancouver's skyline is comparatively "mid-rise" by American standards. Virtually all buildings inside Business district have a height of as much as 90m-130m, using a tallest skyscrapers about 150m tall. This is the effect of the nonindulgent height restriction that is in situ to protect mountain views.

the Watch Protectiin Guidelines were approved in December 12, 1989 & amended on December 11, 1990, establishing the total of watch corridors in the business district sustaining height restricts to protect views of the in the north shore mountains from either a kind of locations south of the downtown peninsula. All over a month, a learn from protection guideline got succeeded inside preserving mountain views, notwithstanding, various humans use at times commented that Vancouver's skyline is okay, flat & deficiency ocular interest. Several agreed that there is a require for a select few taller buildings that reflect Vancouver's contemporary image. Others come caring all about proposals for very much higher buildings. Several come caring that a natural setting &, particularly, a in the north shore mountains can be compromised when tall buildings proliferate. Within response to these concerns & the want to the clear City policy for looking for buildings that exceed todays height restricts, Council directed staff to undertake a Skyline Learn.

Inside 1997, a Downtown Vancouver Skyline Survey concluded that Vancouver's skyline would gain from either the addition of a handful of buildings exceeding todays height restricts to add ocular interest to Vancouver's skyline. This led to the General Policy in Higher Buildings. the 1997 learn noted that a chance for such buildings were restricted due to a limited total of big development web sites in the business district. There were at least 5 web web sites identified in which buildings exceeding a 450 foot height set boundaries come conceivable & at least 2 sites in a north-west corner of the Central Business District in which heights as much as 400 feet (exceeding the 300 foot limit) may become considered. Eight years late, 5 of the 7 identified web sites for even higher buildings keep around been developed or come in the development application run.

Presently, an Urban Project Panel has been install for a purpose of reviewing building proposals & rezoning applications in the downtown region (especially people that significantly exceed the todays height restricts).

Climate
Vancouver's climate is outstandingly moderate by American standards; when Victoria, these are a 2nd warmly major city inside Canada when you took a wintertime, which explains how come it is ranked when the second virtually all desirable climate inside Canada. Summer months come usually sunny & dry, temperatures moderationist, sustaining a day-after-day uttermost averaging 22°C around July & August. Spring & fall come ordinarily rainy & cool. Rainside is frequent in wintertime. Snow occurs in a circumferent mountains however less typically confused level, though there are winters where the city receives plenty snow to drive school closures. A day-to-day norm temperature inside January is 6°C however these are non rare to view it climb when high when 15°C or even dip when sale when -10°C. Such "cold spells" ordinarily occur annually or even 2. Blizzards come uncommon however may incapacitate lot of the Lower berth Mainland. Of these withinside 1996 resulted around ended Sixty cm of snow in Vancouver. A rules was responsible hundreds to thousands dollars of damage.

Although Vancouver is popularly referred to as a showery city, exclusively 166 years by the month keep close at h& mensurable precipitation on the average, and 289 years by the season stand mensurable sunshine. In point of fact, each major city from either Quebec City eastbound to St. John's gets further annual precipitation than Vancouver. For two or three nights touching a summer solstice each June, the northern sky remains slightly lit per sun, & over night lives exclusively astir Half a dozen hours.

The wide range of plant mintage including several exotics may be uncovered growing inside Vancouver thanks to the modest climate. A more and more popular Chinese Windmill Palm which can develop when high when Forty feet occurs as most common sight inside numbers of areas, especially in the city's West Prevent & beach neighbourhoods.

Air Pollution

There exists never any shortage of opinion that air pollution is receiving worse above any major city. Nevertheless, air quality in a greater Vancouver front yard has improved all over the previous many decades, due largely to actions by various levels of government (e.g. improved car efficiency, cleaner fuels).

Despite such efforts, important challenges remain due to the significant people & economic incubation that is estimated for the area, also when findings that health impacts occur potentially at todays air quality levels (c.f. recent studies per [http://www.bc.lung.ca/ BC Lung Association ]).

A Greater Vancouver Regional District makes available real-period air quality measure across their [http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/aqi/ Air Quality Index ]. Information from either just about Twenty stations come updated apiece hour.

Living
Vancouver occurs as relaxed city by owning numerous diversions & easily access to outdoor activities like camping, cycling, camping, & skiing. There is a lively ethnic scene. the few keep close at hand known as it a "city of neighbourhoods", to each one by owning its have distinctive character.

Vancouver may be an expensive city, when housing price levels come a greatest inside Canada. Various strategies aim to lessen housing costs. These include cooperative housing, suites, increased density & smart growth. Nonetheless, when using numerous more cities on the west coast of Northerly Us, homelessness occurs when concern, as is the growing gap between rich & unfortunate.

Vancouver's humans density on the downtown peninsula is when high when 20,000 people by the square km. the density of the city itself is third greatest of any metropolitan centre within N United states, when Just released York City & San Francisco (it should become noted that a handful of cities in the New York Metropolitan Area are more densely populated than Vancouver). City planners in a late 1950s & Sixties deliberately encouraged the development of high-rise condominium towers in the West End downtown neighbourhood, which has resulted around the compact, walkable & transit/bike friendly urban core. a major downtown condominium construction boom throughout a late 1990s (within a main from either the vast capital be due Hong Kong immigrants anterior to the h&-across) and early 2000s has resulted in real-estate values gaining up to 10-15% by the season.

Vancouver was reported around 2004 to develop a third-greatest crime rate within Canada. A equivalent report noted that Vancouver's violent-crime rate was moo however its property-crime rate (part the effect of white plague centred in the Downtown Eastside) was second just to Tampa, Florida in North Us. One of a usual property crimes housebreaking the Vancouver vicinity is auto break-in; so visitant come advised to conceal 100% things left in their car, & to apply auto-theft protection hardware.

Ethnic groups
Vancouver is personal to humans of several ethnic backgrounds & religions. Chinese is by far, the big seeable ethnic minority class action in the city. Vancouver contains a 2nd big Chinatown in North America (fallowing San Francisco's), and many multicultural neighbourhoods such as the Punjabi Market, Little Italy, Greektown, Japantown, Commercial Drive, and Koreatown which is developing synergy around Robson and Denman Streets in the West End. Street signs bilingual inside English & Chinese or even Punjabi may be seen at these centres of ethnic concentration.

Before a hand-on top of Hong Kong to China in 1997, numbers of immigrants from either Hong Kong mass produced Vancouver their front yard, yielding it a controversial nickname "HongCouver". This continued the tradition of immigrants flocking from either around the world, to call for Vancouver house. Statistics Canada data shows that 17% of the approximately Two million population sleep in the area come ethnic Chinese. More important Asian ethnic groups inside Vancouver come Vietnamese, Filipino, Cambodian, and Taiwanese.

Very much of the European population consists of persons whose origins last back to the U.K. when it was a first ancestry based on data from either a 2001 Nose count, & until recently it was a truism that British Columbians by owning UK ancestry virtually all in all probability own that directly from a British Isles, like than via Ontario or even the Maritime Provinces. More European groups consist of German, Dutch, French [of both European and Canadian origin], Ukrainians, Italians, Yugoslavs, Greeks, and of late many Russians and Poles.

There exists besides a sizeable community of primal humans inside Vancouver when well as in a encompassing metropolitan area, using the symptom that Vancouver is the big native community in the province, albeit an unincorporated of these (i personally.e. non as a band government). There exists an equally-prominent or even big Metis contingent, using these existence the mix of traditional "real" Metis from either a Prairies & others whose mixed native/non-native ancestry qualifies the children legally when Metis.

Ethnic origin

European: 1,200,01Or even 63.5% Chinese: 332,56Or even Xvii.6% Other Asian: 161,145 or Eighter from decatur.5% Filipino: 54,28Or even Ii.8% mixed ethnicity: 44,68Or even Two.3% (according to lone reactions)

Just about half a people is of Christian background, the brobdingnagian majority of the children existence technically Protestant, although Vancouver, like a rest of British Columbia, has a super sale rate of church attendance in comparison a rest of the continent & the brobdingnagian majority of the people doesn't practice religion seriously. A Sikh, Hindu, and Buddhist populations are too super big, & inside a growing Muslim population there is a large contingent of Ismaili Muslims who use settled in the area resulting their expulsion from either Uganda.

Lifestyle

the city of Vancouver hwhen developed a reputation when tolerant city that is open to social experimentation & guide lifestyles likewise as existence unforced to choose guide drug policies. the city has adoptive a [http://www.vancouver.ca/fourpillars/ Four Pillars Drug Strategy], which combines harm reduction (e.g. needle exchanges, supervised injection web sites) by owning professional assistance, enforcement, & bar. the strategy is largely a response to autochthonous HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users in the city's Downtown Eastside front yard. A vicinity is characterized by entrenched poorness, a commercial sex trade, & an Helps epidemic that in a Nineties became the worst in the developed globe. A few community & sales person groups—like [http://www.fromgrieftoaction.org/ From Grief to Action] & [http://www.keepingthedooropen.com/ Keeping the Door Open]—come fostering public dialogue in the city all about farther choice to todays drug policies. A present city manager, Larry Campbell, come to professional withwithin 2002 in a portion because of his willingness to champion guide interventions for drug issues, like supervised injection web sites. Although these are technically illegal, Vancouver constabulary usually don't enforce marijuana possession laws, allowing many "marijuana cafes" to open. This has prompted a select few to nickname Vancouver a Amsterdam of Canada, or Vansterdam.

Vancouver has a bustling music & art scene, & one of the big gay communities in North United states. A city is comparatively unhampered racial tension; each ethnic class action is represented around each social class. A single symptom occurs as comparatively high rate of intermarriage; trans-ethnic couples come mundane in any front yard.

Merely half of Vancouver's people report to become Christian, one of a last-place rates in the united states. As much as 5% come Sikh, Tercet.7% Buddhist, & Two.6% Muslim.

Industry

Vancouver is Canada's big port and one of North America's major gateways for Pan-Pacific trade. A Port of Vancouver ranks number one inside N Us withinside number foreign exportation & besides first on the West Coast in amount payload volume. [http://www.portvancouver.com/media/port_facts.html]

"Hollywood North," when a city has been known as, hosts a production of around ten percent of Hollywood's movies. Numbers of U.S. television & films series come shot alone within Vancouver. This has part been because of the favourable Canadian dollar exchange rate. Many floatplane operators support each holidaymaker scenic flights & practical transport by having extensive operations when you took daylight hours.

Touristry occurs as vital industry to Vancouver. A Whistler-Blackcomb Resort, 126 kilometres Northward of Vancouver, is among a virtually all popular skiing resorts around North Us, & is a places of the downward-sloping cases in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour, and Cypress Mountain, each by using the kind of summertime & wintertime leisure activities, come inside the Thirty klick cause of downtown Vancouver & totally keep around bird's-eye views of Vancouver & a circumferent area. A city's many beaches, parks, waterfronts, & mountain background, combined using its multiethnic & multi-ethnic character, tons contribute to its unique appeal & style. Concluded the million population annually pass across Vancouver on the way to the cruise ship vacation, usually to Alaska.

As a major centre for the spherical forestry industry, Vancouver is host to numbers of international forestry conferences & cases, & a natural house of the massive BC forestry business. Corporations like Canfor and West Fraser Timber Co., the second and third largest lumber producers in the world, are headquartered in Vancouver.

A headquarters for HSBC Canada is located in Vancouver.

Canada's third big commerical suspire, Jim Pattison Class action is as well depending inside Vancouver.

Vancouver is likewise a major centre for a mining industry, by using the previous Vancouver Option Exchange (nowadays absorbed into the TSX Venture Exchange) notable as a big market within the globe for risk capital in microscopic to medium sized mining ventures. A extremely speculative Vancouver market wwhen every now & again criticised as as well risky and potentially scam-ridden, which somewhat tarnished its reputatiin, though a hanker term consequence on business has been negligible. Vancouver is the primary american ship loading point for sulphur refined in Alberta.

Because of its local universities & reputation for super high quality of life, Vancouver has the growing high-technology sector - including software system development. around addition, Vancouver is emerging as a globe leader in fuel cell technology, accounting for 70 percent of Canadians employed in the industry. A headquarters of Ballard Power Systems and the National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation are two located in Vancouver. [http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/clusters/vancouver_e.html]

A 1986 World Exposition was held in Vancouver.

Recreation

the modest climate of a city & close proximity to ocean, mountains, streams, lakes, and wells throughout & lakes produce the front yard a popular destination for outdoor recreationists. A northward shore mountains come front yard to trio ski hills - Cypress Bowl, Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour - each in 20 to 30 proceedings of business district. Mountain rockers develop created globe-an expert trails through a in the north shore. 3 lakes - Capilano River, Lynn Creek, Seymour River - both in Twenty proceedings of business district provide chance to white water enthusiasts in the period of periods of rain & spring melting. Vancouver has above 2,700 acres (Xi km²) of parks, by owning Stanley Park being the largest. Vancouver likewise attracts cannabis-oriented holidaymaker because of the reputation of its autochthonal drug culture & high-nature and severity hydroponically-grown marijuana. A select few coffee bar within Vancouver, as a matter of fact, allow marijuana to exist as smoked inside their bulwarks.

Government and politics
Vancouver is governed per ten-member Vancouver City Council, the nine-member Board of education, & a seven-member Parks Board, whole elected for trine-season terms across an at-prominent rules. A previous elections were held around November 2002. A left-of-center Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) swept the elections, winning Octet of Ten Council seats, Septenary of Nine School Board seats & Pentad of Heptad Parks Board seats. A centre-perfect Non-Partisan Association (NPA) was reduced to Two Council seats, One School Board seat & 2 Parks Board seats. A [http://www.vangreens.bc.ca Vancouver Green Party] won One Board of education Seat.

In a race for city manager, the Coping's Larry Campbell defeated Jennifer Clarke of the NPA by a margin of 58% to 30%. All the same, Campbell indicated within early 2005 that he would non process over again therein fall's election, allowing a first of Header & a todays composition of the council inside doubt.

In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Vancouver has ten constituencies: In the 2005 provincial election, the BC Liberal Party and the BC New Democratic Party each won five seats.

In the Canadian House of Commons, Vancouver has five constituencies: In the 2004 federal elections, the Liberal Party of Canada won four seats, patch a New Democratic Party won one.

Historically, all told levels of government, a additional flush west side of Vancouver has voted along conservativist or even centre-perfect lines when a working-class eastern side of the city has voted along left-wing lines. This was reaffirmed sustaining a outcomes of the 2005 provincial election,

Municipal election
The proposal to vary Vancouver's council elections to redo in the ward basis (like virtually all major American cities) like than its todays at-big models was rejected per world around the plebiscite on October 16, 2004, possibly due to the increased costs of the ward models. It should become noted that lone 22% of city residents cast the ballot in that referendum. Likewise, a plebiscite on whether or does'nt to hang on to a 2010 Olympic Winter Games only drew 30%.

Transportation
A Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) operates a regional rapid transit models, under a auspices of the Greater Vancouver Transport Authority, called TransLink, an organization which is responsible for completely aspects of municipal transport, including roads & ferries in a GVRD. There exists frequent bus service throughout Greater Vancouver. The foot rider & bike ferry service (called SeaBus) crosses Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver, while the ii-line automated metro system, the SkyTrain, the world's longest automated lightly rapid transit models, links downtown to the suburbia of Burnaby, New Westminster, and Surrey. Presently under construction is an underground/elevated SkyTrain line running off from either downtown Vancouver to Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport by 2010, (see Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Line) as well as an at-grade lightly rail transit to Coquitlam and Port Moody.

A West Coast Express, a commuter rail train service Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, and Mission. These services own an integrated ticketing technique, making public transportation cheap & effective. Additionally, personal corporations work leisure-oriented rider ferry services, in the area of False Creek. HarbourLynx provides passenger-only convenient-ferry service from either Vancouver harbour to Nanaimo harbour on Vancouver Island.

Bus company operates throughout a area. Virtually all buses come wheelchair accessible & the prominent total carry bike racks, a cappella to carry ii wheelchairs & bike severally. A bit of buses which work from either overhead electrical trolley car wires don't carry bicycle racks. These are worth noting that Vancouver is among a survive of two or three cities around Northward Usa which however own trolley buses operating on their streets. Certain diesel commuter buses which travel to the suburban area keep around bicycle racks, wheelchair lifts, & comfortable high back Greyhound-style seats. Frequency inside Greater Vancouver ranges from either each couple minutes within the City of Vancouver to two to three trips a day to Maple Ridge and Aldergrove.

There exists an extensive network of bike paths that provide east/west & north/south routes from either a single prevent of the city to the more. From each one of the major bike paths has signal control to permit wheeler convenient crossing of major arterial roads. A select few of the bike paths get on streets that use at times extensive traffic calming measures such as circle. Neighbourhoods are encouraged to plant & care for the circles & avenue and add public art along bike routes. A Stanley Park seawall is also the popular unpaid wheel route.

Municipal bye law & geographics use at times protected Vancouver from either a spread of urban freeways, and a lone throughway in city limits is Highway 1, which passes through the eastern edge of the city. Entirely more limited-access routes typing a city (Highway 99, Knight Street, Grant MacConachie Way, the Lions' Gate Bridge, etc.) promptly cease existence superhighway when it enter Vancouver's city limits.

Vancouver is served by Vancouver International Airport, located in Sea Island in the City of Richmond, immediately south of Vancouver. A airdrome (YVR) a 2nd occupy within united states & one of a occupy international aerodrome on the West Coast of Northerly America. Plans come presently afoot to build a third SkyTrain line connecting Vancouver to Richmond & a airdrome (sustaining first extension even to Tsawwassen) (the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Line, or RAV) within time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which are then scheduled to require place in Vancouver. The heliport and seaplane dock on Burrard Inlet hyperlink downtown directly to Victoria and YVR. Vancouver is as well served by two B.C. Ferry terminals, one to the northwest near the village of Horseshoe Bay, and one to the south, at Tsawwassen (the flagship terminal), linking the mainland to Vancouver Island and other nearby islands.

Rankings
Vancouver systematically ranks within the top 5 in worldwide rankings of quality of life. Last, a city ranked number 1 ([http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2299119.stm 2002], [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4306936.stm 2005]) around the worldwide quality of life survey conducted per Economist Intelligence Unit. Within the similar survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Vancouver ranked second [http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/03/cities030303 (2002, 2003)] & third (2004). Vancouver has attached for number 1 by using a cities of Salzburg and Oslo among the UN chosen cities for highest dwelling standards a endure Four years heading. A city typically ranks number 1 once in comparison its American & U.S. peers.

Sites of interest
Notable buildings inside a city include Christ Church Cathedral, the Hotel Vancouver (now section of a Fairmont chain), the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (with the globe-class collection of Native Western art including operate by Bill Reid), and a Vancouver Art Gallery (notable collections include several paintings by Emily Carr). There are many striking modern buildings in a downtown front yard, including the Vancouver Law Courts & surrounding plaza called Robson Square (Arthur Erickson, architect) & a Vancouver Library Square (Moshe Safdie, architect), remindful of the Colosseum within Rome. Presently topping a listing of tallest buildings in Vancouver is One Wall Centre at 150 m & 48 stories. This is eclipsed by many fresh skyscrapers[http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100997&bt=2&ht=2&sro=1] in a coming years, including the freshly 196 m tall, Sixty story Residing Shangri-La tower[http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=176375], presently under construction. Nevertheless, traditional restricts in tower height also while hard see cone restrictions stand ensured that there come no existent buildings are remarkably tall when likened sustaining more American cities (Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal all have taller skyscrapers).

Interesting places
Occasionally easily-known neighbourhoods & more interesting wharehouses in a city include a ensuing: the downtown peninsula, including: Burrard Street is at home to high fashion retail, swish hotels, &—interestingly plenty—a Financial District. There exists an underground SkyTrain station touching a prevent of the street, in the midst of the Financial District. Canada Place, a convention centre, cruise ship terminal, & an Imax theatre built on top a harbour Chinatown, including the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen classical Chinese garden, the Chinese Cultural Centre, shops, eating house, & open-air markets. A SkyTrain station is located less than ii interferes from either Keefer Street inside Chinatown the Downtown Eastside Gastown, with brick streets & original buildings reflecting Vancouver's history, house to Storyeum Granville Mall, a pedestrian street, characterized by blazing neon signs & the 24/7 urban scene in the centre of business district occurs as hip to front yard of dance clubs, blocks, theatres, concert halls, shops, & eating place. These are besides a independent transport region for several of the TransLink buses and has its have underground SkyTrain station. The "pot block" of 300-prevent of West Hastings, page to the BC Marijuana Party, [http://pot.tv/ Pot-TV], the [http://www.urbanshaman.net/main.html Urban Shaman], & a Museum of Psychoactive Substances. Robson Street, a hip & fashionable looking & dining district Sports arenas BC Place Stadium and GM Place, home to major sports teams such as a BC Lions and the Vancouver Canucks as well as major road concerts & gatherings. A Chinatown-Stadium SkyTrain station is the nearest rapid transit access. the West End, one of the virtually all densely urban area of North America, including access to English Bay, Sunset Beach, and Stanley Park including the Vancouver Aquarium Yaletown and Coal Harbour neighbourhoods (previously industrial areas, today reclaimed by owning high-prevent residential high-rises, dance clubs, restaurants, & blocks) False Creek, one of Vancouver's first planned condominium neighbourhoods, on a places of what was the big lumber mill in the city. Kitsilano, including Greektown, Kits Beach and a Planetarium Kerrisdale, a tea cozy, relaxed front yard in the southwest, sustaining sushi-blocks galore. West Point Grey, a westmost front yard of Vancouver in which professional people could relax in one of a numbers of beaches. Queen Elizabeth Park (the greatest point around Vancouver) called Little Mountain. the park was at in one case a crushed rock quarry. A Bloedel Conservatory and a Quarry Garden are placed touching a peak. VanDusen Botanical Garden, a Xxii-hectare garden midmost of a city sustaining guided tours offered day-after-day, major cases include a each year garden indicate & the wintertime Festival of Lights. Granville Island, including artist galleries & the bustling clean food market. Petite rider ferries called a "Aquabus" attach Granville Island to the downtown core. Commercial Drive ("The Drive") for Little Italy, arts, eating house, coffee shop, & "multi-ethnic" concidering; as well a nexus for the Millennium & Expo Skytrain lines (Commercial Drive Station & Broadway Station) Dickens, a little community inside East Vancouver that stradles Kingsway between Fraser and Knight Streets. the vicinity is unfeeling diverse & is known for a culinary art that is equally varied, fantabulous & inexpensize (especially Vietnamese & Chinese). Main Street from either in 6th Ave to 14th Ave, & 25th Ave to 30th Ave come areas of coffeehouse, vintage haberdashery, 2nd-h& & antique shops, and creative person' lofts, popular by using Vancouver's hipster community. the Punjabi Market/Little India along Main Street around 49th Ave, for South Asian savours & treasures The University of British Columbia campus and adjacent parklands, including clothing-optional Wreck Beach, the vast Pacific Spirit Regional Park, the Museum of Anthropology, and a UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. A University of British Columbia also operates the TRIUMF particle/nuclear physics laboratory. The Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) grounds, located in Hastings Park, is a site of the annual fair of the equivalent title held at the prevent of August. It besides has exhibition buildings & a Amphitheatre, utilized for concerts & in which a Vancouver Giants play Playland, sharing its location with a PNE, is the city's amusement park and operates from April to September every year Science World, built for Expo 86.

Colleges and universities
Vancouver & its adjacent communities come a house of triplet major universities, a University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), when well as ii community colleges & a British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). BCIT will bring polytechnic education and grants degrees in many fields. Both one institutions has the little campus in downtown Vancouver to complement their main facilities. Vancouver Community College (VCC) and Langara College also serve a region's post-secondary education needs sustaining career, trade, & university-transport computer software. Vancouver is likewise front yard to Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Professional sports teams

Former professional sport teams

Media

Miscellaneous topics

Other names
A City of Vancouver besides has nicknames Lotus Land

Sister cities
A City of Vancouver was one of a 1st cities to ever enter into an international twinning arrangement when, inside 1944, it twinned by owning Odessa, which at a period was section of the Soviet Union. This was according to aiding a so allied larboard city. Since so a City of Vancouver has created favorite arrangements for ethnical, social & economic advantages using a as a consequence cities: Edinburgh, Scotland Guangzhou, People's Republic of China Los Angeles, United States Odessa, Ukraine Yokohama, Japan

Nuclear weapons free zone
Within 1983, the City of Vancouver was one of a number 1 cities in the globe to declare itself a "Nuclear Weapons Free Zone". City Council has amended its policies & erected signage to this consequence [http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20030731/csb1.htm]. This is mostly a emblematical declaration, when the City has there is no jurisdiction above camping ships in the harbour.

Municipalities in Greater Vancouver
There are Xxi municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). When every one has a separate municipal government, a GVRD oversees most common services inside the area like a water supply, sewerage, housing, transport, & regional parks.

Surrounding municipalities
| breadth = 35% align="center" | Northwest: West Vancouver, Lions Bay, Squamish | breadth = 30% align="center" | Northward: ,
City of North Vancouver,
District of North Vancouver | breadth = 35% align="center" | |- | breadth = 10% align="center" | West: Strait of Georgia, Greater Vancouver A, Nanaimo | breadth = 35% align="center" | Vancouver | breadth = 30% align="center" | East: Burnaby, Port Moody, Anmore, Belcarra, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Mission |- | breadth = 35% align="center" | | breadth = 30% align="center" | South: Richmond, Musqueam 2, Delta, | breadth = 35% align="center" | Southeast: New Westminster, Surrey, White Rock, Langley, Abbotsford |}