2010: Make it Vancouver

(conclusion)

CEBU, Philippines - Mid October, Cathay Pacific sponsored a familiarization tour to Vancouver, British Columbia, for a group of Cebu travel trade and media friends. Despite the limited time, we were able to appreciate this paradise pocket of Canada.

For our last two days, Tourism Richmond was our host. Overnight, we were billeted in individual rooms at the plush Radisson Hotel Vancouver Airport. At breakfast, we met the soft-spoken Yas Yamamoto – Business Development Asia Pacific head of the 250+-member tourism board. Mr. Yamamoto shared some remarkable tips about his lovely city.

With a population of 188,100, Richmond has a 60 percent Asian mix (predominantly Chinese from Hong Kong, Japanese, South Asian Indian and Filipino communities). It earned the gold for Healthy Living in the 2007 International Awards for Livable Communities with a life expectancy of 83.4 years among its elderly citizens. Richmond outranks Japan who topped the World Health Organization list. Home to the Vancouver International Airport (rated by Conde Nast travel magazine as #2 worldwide and by UK’s Skytrax as Top Airport in North America and #8 worldwide), as well as the official city of the 2010 Winter Olympics Games, it is next to the US border so that Richmond is considered the Gateway to North America.

Here is another important tip: cruise ships for the Alaska routes dock in Vancouver’s world-class ports. One early spring in the 1990s, my family stayed in Richmond and savored the verdant magnificence of the 400-hectare forest of a park in Stanley and the offerings of downtown Vancouver. Its Chinatown, dating back to the 1800s (during coolie labor era in the building of the railroads), is the 3rd largest in North America – after that of New York & San Francisco. Then, we boarded our Royal Caribbean cruise to the Inner Passages of Alaska. Very convenient!

It was a wet morning when we visited Steveston, a thriving fishing village south of Richmond, located where the Frasier River joins the Pacific Ocean. This is Canada’s answer to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. One can take whale watching or wildlife tour from here, April till October, where one can almost touch orcas, porpoises, sea lions, as well as look up to glorious bald eagles. However, since we only had some hours, under the coaxing supervision of our fun and informative Harvest Tour guide Alan Ngai, we only browsed through the alley of shops selling interesting curios and souvenir tees.

Another highlight of the tour was the visit to Whistler Resort Town, through the breath-taking picturesque Highway 99, popularly known as Sea to Sky Highway. Whistler Resort Town (now composed of three villages) was earlier known as Alta Lake, but in 1975 got its name from the nearby Whistler Mountain. The locals (First Nations aborigines first came here to hunt and fish, then the Caucasian trappers and gold miners followed in the mid-1800s) named the mountain Whistler because of the clear calls of the Western Hoary Marmots (rodents like the woodchuck) that inhabit its alpine slopes.

The Garibaldi ski lifts started in 1964-65, and Norwegian resident Franz Wilhelmsen established a ski hill on Whistler Mountain with hopes of hosting the 1968, then the 1976 Winter Olympics. Both bids failed. Meantime, the higher Blackcomb Mountain opened for skiing in 1980. By 1996, both peaks were incorporated, now known as Whistler Blackcomb. For the 2010 Games, the $52 million Peak 2 Peak Gondola ( to be launched this winter) will link the aerie slopes of both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. This is a cable car with the longest continuous lift system (2.73 miles) and the longest unsupported span (1.88 miles), straddling the valley between the two mountains and combining 8,171 acres of first class skiing terrains. Peak 2 Peak, within 11 minutes, connects Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler with the Rendezvous Lodge on Blackcomb – two splendid rest hubs 4.4 kilometers apart, “as the crow flies.”

The Canadian hosting of the Winter Olympics has been a long time coming, but the wait is well worth it. Everything seems to be in place; Canadians are all excited.

Let the games begin!