Check out our printable 1-page brochure format Vancouver FAQ in PDF Format!

Vancouver's the third-largest city in Canada, it's becoming a commercial metropolis of all kinds of activity from its booming film industry to an interesting artistic and cultural scene (well, a million scenes actually).

Here's some random and interesting facts about Vancouver:

• The culture is very fresh and west-coast, the people are friendly, open, relaxed, have cool interests and careers etc.
• This cosmopolitain city set against a beautiful, natural backdrop, and imbued with a chilled, hippie west-coast vibe.
• It's surrounded by some of the most fantastic wilderness in the world - rainforests, snowy mountains, lakes etc, and the natural surroundings can be enjoyed all year 'round.
• The local government and political situation is quite progressive.
• It's the second most multicultural city in Canada, right after Toronto, which is the most multicultural city in the world.
• About 20% of the population is of Asian heritage.
• Super-cheap, quality fine dining. Plus, you can get super-cheap sushi everywhere. (Check out this Google Local map ↑)
• The transit system ↑ is great.
• It's got a rad gay scene, which will warm the hearts of queer and straight people alike. The whole downtown segment of Davies st. is a kind of gay district, with cool restaurants, clubs, shops etc... in all colours of the rainbow.
• It's packed with a cool local fashion scene, a rad indie rock scene, and a vibrant electronic scene.
• Vancouver may be one of the mot beautiful cities in the world. Looking out from any hill in downtown, you can see the mountains, the ocean and stunning architecture. In general, the residents are open minded, the city is safe and clean and has all the amenities of a world-class city its side.
• Like most large cities, Vancouver has its shady areas to avoid, the main one being the East Hastings & Main area. It's the inspiration for the term "skid row," and is a fantastic living anti-drug advertisement.
• It's safe in terms of not getting assaulted on the street, but there are a lot of break-ins. Residents of Vancouver complain of frequent burglaries. Never leave anything valuable in your car!
• It's going to be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics ↑, the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship ↑, the 2006 United Nations ↑ World Urban Forum and the 2007 Memorial Cup ↑.
• The University of British Columbia is a fantastic university the size of a small city.
• The UN considers it one of the best places to live (along with Salsbourg and Oslo).

Some cool Vancouver links we've found:

Flickr is a great online photo-blogging site. And here's a link to all the pictures that have been tagged with "Vancouver" ↑ as one of the keywords.

A great, artsy set of Vancouver photos ↑