Vancouver: The Terminal City

Vancouver
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I spent most of my time in Canada in Vancouver, with a couple of days in Whistler and Victoria. They all belong to British Columbia, and it was a very nice environment. It was very similar to Alaska, just a bit warmer and with more people.

I arrived at Vancouver at night, and during our approach towards Vancouver International, I looked outside the window and saw all these bright yellowish white light in mid-air. I was so confused and I wondered that they were. I found out later they were the lights on the ski slopes, and because it was at night, I didn’t even know there were mountains over there. I stayed at a friend’s house for the duration I was there, which was in the suburbs of Vancouver. Every time we drove from her house to downtown or Chinatown, we could see how beautiful the city was. Vancouver is located right next to the Coast Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with a very neat city development. Due to its geographical location, there were a lot of locations which I could just look down towards the city, and it was extremely attractive. Houses were neatly located like grids on the map. There were mountains with ski-slope on the horizon and downtown was on the edge of the ocean. There were tons of boats in the harbors with some Cessnas taking off and landing on the water. The view was especially pretty whenever it was dusk or dawn. There was also the 1,000 acre Stanley Park, and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden in China Town, which was the only authentic classical Chinese Garden outside China. I also went to University of British Columbia to visit another of my friend. UBC was about 30 minutes away from downtown Vancouver. The campus of UBC is probably one of the most beautiful college campuses on Earth. It was located on the tip of Point Grey Peninsula, right next to the ocean, with mountains on the background, similar to Vancouver. Most of the buildings were new but there were some old ones dated back in 1870s. One of the most outrageous things in UBC is parking. Just like almost any college campus, parking is a pain in the neck in UBC. My friend didn’t have a car on campus, because of 2 reasons. First, as I said, parking is painful. More importantly was the second reason though. The parking decal for a year would cost him CA$600, which was almost US$500. Damn!

I looked outside the window and saw all these bright yellowish white light in mid-air.

The view from Stanley Park
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I am glad that my school only charges me US$40 for a parking decal!