Vancouver B.C. | A fine day for an epiphany

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Yes, I bought china in Chinatown

The main gate into Chinatown. That's me in the blue coat...

So in honor of Chinese New Year, I thought I’d take you along on our recent visit to Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For two gloriously quiet nights (we left the kids with my family) my husband and I snuck away north, passports in hand and umbrellas at the ready. (Yes, it rained every day we were there, obscuring the mountains but not our enthusiasm.)

Here’s a fact for the “who knew?” file: Vancouver has the largest population of Chinese people outside of, well, China. Driving through the city (whether by car or “sky train”), this becomes obvious in a hurry. The number of Chinese language storefront signs is far greater than the number of English storefronts.

The actual area of Vancouver known as “Chinatown” isn’t huge compared to the vastness that is Vancouver, but it is enjoyable to walk around, eating, buying, sniffing and experiencing all that is Vancouver’s Chinatown. You are truly in a different culture in a land where we speak the same language…to a degree. In Chinatown, proper, you hear more Chinese than English…which is not at all surprising and perfectly understandable.

We had a lovely time.

Yes...I spent a little money here.

Bird's nests, anyone? I almost would have been brave enough to try bird's nest soup...had I had several more ounces of bravery.

Inside this store, there were jars upon jars of things I've never seen before. And, though I couldn't read very many of them, I could read this: Dried Sea Cucumber, $1,100.00 a pound. And this: Dried Abalone, $1,300.00 a pound. I'm not sure how many dried abalone one gets for thirteen hundred dollars, but it better be a heck of a lot!