Views of Vancouver: Multicultural metropolis boasts matchless vistas and attractions

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Situated on the broad delta where the Fraser River flows into the Pacific waters of the Strait of Georgia, it is named for Capt. George Vancouver of the British Navy, who landed there for one day in 1792 and established the king's claim.

Despite the stunning setting, nestled between the mountains and the sea, nearly a century elapsed before the city took root. The discovery of gold in the Fraser River Valley in 1858 attracted thousands of fortune hunters to the area, but Vancouver's primary engine of growth was the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1884, its executives decided the area's two well-sheltered, deep-water bays would make a good Western terminus for the transcontinental line they were building. In 1886, they renamed Granville, a small village on the water's edge, after Capt. Vancouver. The first train from Montreal rolled in the following year.

Since then, spurred by constant commerce, immigration and development of its abundant natural resources, Vancouver has enjoyed steady, and occasionally even exponential, growth. In the five years between 1987 and 1992, its population grew by 17 percent, as thousands of people from Hong Kong sought a safe haven before Britain turned the colony's sovereignty over to China. Real estate prices soared as construction cranes hoisted girders and glass over downtown, and residential neighborhoods expanded in all directions.

With a metropolitan population of nearly 2 million, Vancouver has a reputation as a great place to live, boasting Canada's mildest climate, as long as you don't mind the steady drizzle of winter. Set against peaks that are still snow-capped in April, the city is fringed with a dozen fine beaches, some with hearty palm trees growing on them. With plenty of excellent urban green spaces, the city offers an amazing array of outdoor amenities.

As I rediscovered during a weekend visit there for a conference of travel editors last month, Vancouver's version of low-key, low-rise West Coastness encompasses a hip, hearty, healthy sophistication and multiculturalism that can on the same weekend stage a Sun Run 10K that attracted nearly 50,000 participants and host a unique, mass audience colloquy between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Both events were, by the way, overshadowed in local importance by the NHL playoffs.

Most Vancouver visitors these days tend to be passing through, spending a day or two, or even just a five-hour, cruise ship port of call, on their way to someplace else. Its location makes it the perfect jumping-off point for flights to the Far East, cruises to Alaska, transcontinental rail trips, ski trips to Whistler, and adventures in the BC interior or Vancouver Island, the other significant geographical feature named for Captain George.

But as most of its residents realize, Vancouver is a worthy destination in and of itself. Despite its size and recent development, Vancouver still seems small and accessible, built on a human scale, at least compared with older Eastern cities.

Its downtown area is an orderly grid of wide, neat, straight streets spread across a narrow peninsula, with Stanley Park, one of the world's great urban green spaces, at its tip. At 1,000 acres, Stanley Park is North America's second-largest, after Golden Gate in San Francisco.

Rather than lawns and ballfields, Stanley Park is mostly semi-wild Northwest woods and wetland, laced by quiet walking trails. Six miles of paved pedestrian paths run along its perimeter with the sea. Even the steady flow of traffic up to the Lions Gate Bridge at the peninsula's tip can't disturb the tranquillity of the park.

Downtown Vancouver is divided into half a dozen distinct neighborhoods, each with its own characteristics. Its Chinatown is the third-largest in North America. Apart from plenty of great eating and shopping, the Chinese Cultural Center and the adjacent Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden are sufficient reasons to visit.

Granville Island, built on flat lands reclaimed from derelict shipyards and slums, has become the city's main people place, a more or less permanent pedestrian mall. There's a microbrewery and a public market with throngs every day, but especially on a weekend when 50,000 runners are in town.

The Gastown area is a more recent reclamation effort. Well sprinkled with restaurants, galleries and other attractions, Gastown developments are considerably less authentic and resident-oriented, targeted more at tourists and cruise visitors.

Storyeum is the most recent example of this engaging but ersatz entertainment. Vancouver's newest visitor attraction is taking shape beneath a parking garage on Water Street, Gastown's main drag, several blocks from the Canada Place terminals for cruise ships and float planes.

It aims to tell the entire story of Canada's West Coast history in an 80-minute, nine-chapter walkthrough that combines an impressive, high-tech procession of elevating theaters, historical stage sets and theatrical lighting, special effects and wandering historical interpreters, from early geology to the arrival of Steam Locomotive 374 on May 23, 1887.

Although Storyeum was far from finished when we toured the facility, its visionary creator, Danny Guillaume, promised that everything will be ready for its June 1 opening. Based on the success he is having with a similar venture, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, in his Saskatchewan hometown, he's confident this ambitious undertaking will be a hit. All the artifice of historical recreation notwithstanding, it should be a reasonably accurate synopsis.

Fans of public transportation will be in heaven in Vancouver, with its superb system of buses, both LPG and electric-powered. The harbor bustles with sea taxis and passenger ferries, and the float planes that take off all day long provide an exotic touch. Skytrain, a shining example of modern light rail, has four downtown stations, all unfortunately underground. But it's still worth taking a ride down the line, both for the views and to see how well a transportation system can run.

Downtown Vancouver's prime institutional attractions include Canada Place, the huge pavilion erected along the waterfront for Expo '86, and Harbour Centre, which at 40 stories is among the tallest buildings in town. For a real thrill, take its Skylift elevators, which jet up the outside of the building to the observation tower on top, with a stunning 360-degree panorama of the cityscape, framed by sea and mountain. Since admission is good all day, you can come back at night to check out the lights. (Pittsburgh could certainly use an attraction like that on top of the U.S. Steel Tower.)

The Vancouver Art Museum, in the restored courthouse, holds an interesting collection of mostly modern pieces, and the Vanier Park complex just across the Burrard Bridge in the Kitsilano neighborhood houses four smaller collections that are perfect for a rainy day. The Vancouver Museum tells the history of the land, the Maritime Museum tells the history of the sea, and the MacMillan Space Centre and Observatory covers the sky.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the nearby West Fourth Street, which meanders out to the University of British Columbia and the world-class collection of West Coast antiquities in its Museum of Anthropology, was as pleasant a place to shop, dine and dawdle as I could remember.

If you have some time and are up for a unique urban adventure, head across the Lion's Gate Bridge to North Vancouver and up toward the Grouse Mountain ski area.

Just five miles from the center of downtown, Grouse Mountain ranks high among North America's most accessible ski slopes, as well as one of the oldest, dating to 1929. The peak-top resort is served by two gondolas, the largest in North America, each of which can whisk 100 passengers up the 4,100-foot peak in six minutes. In the colder months of the year, skiers can choose from 25 runs, half of which are lit at night. The rest of the year, the resort offers many miles of hiking trails, including one known ominously as Grouse Grind, which leads up for 1.8 miles at a 56 percent slope, or 30 degree angle. Hikers post their times up the precipitous path, and there's a grueling race each September.

There's a truly matchless view of the entire Vancouver area from its Observatory Restaurant (weather permitting, of course). If that view isn't good enough, adventurous visitors can sign up for a short helicopter tour of the peak or a considerably longer tandem paragliding trip down the mountain.

Another unique aspect of Grouse Mountain is its Refuge for Endangered Wildlife. Offering a home for bear cubs orphaned in the wild that previously would have been destroyed, the five-acre, peak-top preserve was begun three years ago. The snow was still several feet deep on top the afternoon we visited. The refuge's two residents, 3-year-old cubs Grinder and Coola, had just emerged from hibernation and were eager to get out of their small, cleared yard and into the woods.

But leave enough time on your trip down from Grouse Mountain to stop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a half-mile away. Strung for some 450 feet across the 230-foot-deep gorge, the first bridge was erected in 1889 by a local entrepreneur who wanted to harvest timber on the opposite side. The bridge quickly became a major attraction for hikers who made their way up to totter across.

Several incarnations and owners later, the Cap Bridge still ranks as Vancouver's top tourist magnet. Although it's only a short bridge, it clearly impresses visitors who pay the admission price ($21.95 Canadian) and venture over the chasm to the opposite side, where well-interpreted paths loop through several acres of native Douglas fir and ferns. To augment the attraction, this year the bridge's owners have completed Treetop Adventures, a series of seven shorter suspension bridges strung between tree platforms as much as 80 feet above the forest floor. While not as thrilling as the gorge itself, Treetop Adventures does make it possible to tell the trees from the forest.