Downtown Vancouver

Published on: 04-Oct-2015
Posted by: @lm!ng
Sources: wikipedia

Downtown Vancouver

Travel Date:

Tuesday, 25th August 2015

It was wonderful to be able to visit the downtown area in Vancouver again. This trip is the last stop of my #CanadaRevisited2015 series, but I do hope that this won't be the end and there would be more adventures.

First we took a stroll around the pier at Canada Place where I found a lot of photo-ops of the city. Canada Place is a location that is used to host to many events (like the Canada Day Burrard Inlet Fireworks Show) and is free to explore. It is also the home of Vancouver's World Trade Center, and FlyOver Canada (a virtual flight ride).

I noticed something special was going on on that day. As we walked to Canada Place, I saw a lot of people dressed in white, with foldable chairs and tables, picnic baskets on their hands. Then I was asking myself, "are they going to their first communion?", "is it a mass wedding?" or "is it a white party theme?". Out of my curiosity, I asked on of the attendees, a lady in white. I inquired,"may I know what is the event?" and she replied "Dîner en Blanc". I didn't get it at first then I tried to analyse it, tables and chairs.. oh dinner! Blanc is empty or white! Oh got it!

It's a yearly picnic, where all attendees must register in advance, and they are all required bring their food, wear white including table cloth and chairs must also be white. The location is always a surprise to the attendees because it will be announced the last minute. According to an article in vancitybuzz.com, there were 4,500 people attended on that day. Since it was a rare opportunity for me, I've taken as many pictures as I could.

Further down, we went to one of the Olympic legacies -- the majestic Cauldron, which first lit during the 2010 Winter Games. Since then this 32.8 ft (10 m) tall structure became a permanent landmark on the Jack Poole Plaza, and it continues to attract visitors both local and international. By the way, the square was named after Jack Poole, a Canadian businessman responsible for achieving the bid for 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics to Vancouver, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2009.

We proceeded our stroll to West Building, which is adjacent to the Canada Place where I saw a large area of convention space, an array of retail shops, restaurants along a public waterfront promenade.

Altogether, Canada Place from the east side where the Cruise Ship Terminal and the Pan Pacific Hotel are also placed, the West building and the Jack Poole Plaza, they called it Vancouver Convention Center.