Gastown & Chinatown: Bricks, Steam & Gold

The stops

1. 01
   Komagata Maru

   The Komagata Maru incident refers to the 1914 arrival in Vancouver of a steamship carrying passengers from British India who were denied entry under Canada’s exclusionary immigration rules.

2. 02
   Port of Vancouver

   The working waterfront where the city’s trade networks widened beyond the gold rush, tying Vancouver to Pacific shipping, labor, and imported goods.

3. 03
   Canada Place

   A modern waterfront landmark built over layers of port history, linking old trade corridors to the city’s continuing role as a Pacific gateway.

4. 04
   Gastown

   The origin point for Vancouver’s urban story, where the gold-rush-era settlement took shape around trade, timber, and waterfront commerce.

5. 05
   Woodward's Building

   A major downtown landmark whose heritage brick shell and later reuse speak to Vancouver’s cycles of boom, decline, and reinvention.

6. 06
   Chinese Canadian Museum

   Located in the historic Wing Sang Building (built 1889), honoring Chinese railroad workers and early pioneers.

7. 07
   Chinatown

   The city’s most important surviving Chinese cultural district, shaped by migration, exclusion, labor, commerce, and resilience.

8. 08
   Sam Kee Building

   This famously narrow structure captures Chinatown’s entrepreneurial ingenuity under exclusionary conditions and the dense commercial history of the district.

9. 09
   Sun Tower

   This early skyscraper rises from the brick-and-stone boom era that followed Vancouver’s rapid growth after settlement, resource trade, and railway expansion.

The narration at every stop is in the app — this is the map of where it takes you, with a line on each stop.