☰Chinatown

The oldest Chinatown in Canada and the second oldest in North America, founded in the 1850s when Chinese miners arrived for the Fraser River gold rush. It is small now — a few blocks centred on Fisgard Street, marked by the bright red Gate of Harmonious Interest — but worth wandering for Fan Tan Alley, supposedly the narrowest commercial street in Canada, where opium dens and gambling houses once hid behind unmarked doors. Today the alley holds bookshops, boutiques and a couple of good noodle places.