Victoria's Chinatown gate.

Chinatown is a neighborhood in Victoria, British Columbia. It was the first Chinatown in Canada and second in the world (after San Francisco). It began to form in 1858, with the discovery of gold in the Caribou Mountains. Many Chinese citizens trace their ancestry to south China, mostly in the Guangdong Province. With the Gold Rush on the rise, many Chinese men who immigrated due to famine, drought or war in their homeland sailed across the Pacific Ocean to Victoria which then was the major metropolitan in British Columbia en route to the Barkerville area. Some came from California, where the previous gold frenzy had taken place. A later attraction for Chinese immigrants was the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mainly men immigrated, but if they made enough money, they would pay for their family's fare to Victoria. Originally, Chinatown was about the same size as it is today but, from 1890 to 1910, population swarmed. In 1911, Victoria's Chinatown housed 3,158 people and covered roughly six city blocks. The arms of Victoria. ... Chinese New Year celebrated in a Chinatown in Paris New York City is home to three of the largest Chinatowns in North America. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The City by the Bay; The City That Knows How; Golden Mountain (historic Chinese name) Location Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates , Government City-County San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Geographical characteristics Area     City 600. ... Caribou Mountains are located in Caribou Mountains, Alberta, Canada Caribou Mountains, Idaho, United States This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; Pinyin: GuÇŽngdōng; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Postal System Pinyin: Kwangtung or Canton Province, Jyutping: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... A California Gold Rush handbill A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers into the area of a dramatic discovery of commercial quantities of gold. ... A famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country are so undernourished that death by starvation becomes increasingly common. ... A drought or an extreme dry periodic climate is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ... The United States detonated an atomic bomb over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, effectively ending World War II. The bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima (on August 6) immediately killed between 100,000 and 200,000 people and are the only known instances nuclear weapons have ever been used in war. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages none stated in law; English is de facto Flower Pacific dogwood Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6 Area Total  - Land  - Water    (% of total)  Ranked... Barkerville was a gold rush town in British Columbia, Canada and is currently preserved as a historic town. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR; AAR reporting marks CP, CPAA, CPI), known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. ...

Features

View into Fan Tan Alley.

Sign at entry to Fan Tan Alley.

A large attraction in Chinatown is its ornate gate which was built in Suzhou, one of Victoria's sister cities. Another feature is the famous Fan Tan Alley, originally a private walkway full of Opium Dens, Fan Tan Parlours and Brothels, it is now a popular shopping area. There are several souvenir shops, one of them the famous "Neverending Store". Many of Chinatown's most historical and important places are hidden, for example, the Tam Kung Buddhist Temple (the oldest Buddhist temple in Canada) so it is important to snoop around while sightseeing in Victoria. Look up gate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Suzhou (Simplified Chinese: 苏州; Traditional Chinese: 蘇州; Pinyin: Sūzhōu; Wade-Giles: Su-chou; sometimes seen transliterated as Su-chow, Suchow, or Soochow) is a famous city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu, China. ... Opium is a narcotic analgesic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum). ... Fan-Tan, or fantan (Simplified Chinese: 番摊; Traditional Chinese: 番攤; pinyin: ) is a form of gambling long played in China and among Chinese immigrants to America and other countries. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Tam Kung (譚公, literally Lord Tam) is a sea deity worshiped in Hong Kong and Macau. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... The Buddhist temple Wat Chiang Man, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which dates from the late 13th century Buddhist temples and monasteries, sorted by location. ...