Vancouver, Canada - The Pacific gateway

[Metro-One]

Hello! I have spent my entire life growing up in Vancouver (in fact i am the 5th generation born in Vancouver, so when asked what my heritage is i say CANADIAN!) and i love my city. I want to share with you some pictures i have taken, since i have seen so many of your beautiful pictures, of the Vancouver area throughout the last few years. Please Enjoy! (and please come visit!)

Let's start with towers.

My favorite tower downtown is this one, the One wall Centre



The good thing about winter in Vancouver is the snow stays where it belongs, the mountains, not in the city.



In the business district



Crowd (just a section of the 400 000 people) getting ready to watch the summer fireworks



Old residential in New Westminster, suburb of Van



Water front condos



And their view (towards Stanley Park)



Shangri-la Base



Shangri-la, almost done



Hotel Vancouver



Bental 5 tower with other Bental towers in reflection



New Fairmont Hotel under construction



Old Vancouver tower



Office towers in Burnaby (suburb of Van)



Vancouver from the ferry



There are many road bridges in Vancouver, i only have pictures of a couple
First the Alex Fraser



This is the new Golden Ears Bridge almost done. It is one of many cable bridges currently under construction in the area.



Here is another cable bridge (the Pitt River Bridge) also opening next year



Here is the sky-train bridge (sky-train is our expanding metro system) with other bridges behind it.



And here are some more transit pictures
Sky-train entering a station in New Westminster. This is one of the older trains but they are now outnumbered by new train cars.



Here is a station entrance downtown



And this is our heavy rail commuter train the West Coast Express at Waterfront Station Hub.



Now time for some randoms
The North Vancouver skyline (looking across from downtown)



The tram going up Grouse Mountain where tourists can get great pictures of the city



The ocean looking from the sea to sky highway (the highway connecting Vancouver to Whistler)



And yes the south coast of British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver and Victoria) is warm enough to grow palm trees. No joke. Canada eh?



Thank you for looking!

[AZ KID]

AMAZING! I love this city

[Metro-One]

Thanks, these pictures are also taken during various times of the year (winter, spring, summer and fall)

[OhioGuy]

Nice photos! I hope you'll take more photos and share them in the future.

[mSeattle]

Supernatural BC

[dvdmsy]

A city whose beauty is unmatched. Does that glass "patch" on the corner of Shangri-La perplex anyone else?

[wisla_krakow]

very clean! I wish more people could take pictures of New West, such an amazing city.

[SLO]

Very nice pics. Thanks for the tour

[excel]

great pics man. thanks for sharing.

[skyline]

Holy Crap, I'd never imagine a palm in Canada.....seriously???

[Metro-One]

Yup, in fact there is a palm tree in front of my building too (not as tall as those ones though) Vancouver and most of Vancouver Island's climate is mild enough to grow palm trees, (Average winter temperatures are around 5°C/42°F) in fact there are also banana trees in many peoples yards and in public gardens. Some people shelter the banana trees during the winter but the palm are exposed all year long. also that pic was taken in early march, flowers, palms and sun!

[agrant]

Originally Posted by dvdmsy

A city whose beauty is unmatched. Does that glass "patch" on the corner of Shangri-La perplex anyone else?

You must be referring to the three (I think its three) private suites on the corner. They are the only ones to have a double height ceiling, I think. It would make for a very broad viewing angle of the city.

[ambiguoustraveller]

Beautiful! And I agree, I'd love to see some more New Westminster photos. There are so many historic areas (by west coast standards) there.

[Rocket1964]

Palm trees can grow with a sustained min. temp of 45 degrees.
Vancouver is beautiful in your pics.

[Metro-One]

I have many more new west pictures that i will add to this thread, i just need to find them.

[L.u.v.]

Please do! I mean it when I say I can't get enough of Vancouver. It's actually my dream to settle in Vancouver one day, so consider yourself very lucky indeed Metro.

[ltsmotorsport]

Awesome shots of an amazing city.

[Blake]

Just for clarification: Our climate is mild enough to support palm trees, although they do not grow naturally here.

That said, they are very rare here. Some Vancouverites could probably help me out here in a list of all the locations of palm trees around the city:

- English Bay
- Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby
- Grandview Corners shopping centre in South Surrey
- Dundarave / Ambleside in West Vancouver

Anywhere else?

[vanman]

Tsawwassen has quite a few.

Metro one your pics are awesome and the quality is excellent. What camera do you use? I would also be interested in seeing more New West pics so dont forget to post em up!

[Metro-One]

Start looking around for the palm trees blake, you will start seeing them everywhere, they are often in peoples yards, in front of businesses, car dealerships love em! I could take up two pages on this forum listing their locations. They actually did a Palm Tree count in Victoria just to annoy the rest of Canada a few years ago and at the time there were over 3000 in that city. I will give some examples for metro Van

- In front of Blenze on Denmen
- In front of the high school on Denmen
- In front of my condo tower in Burnaby
- Many along Columbia St. in New West
- Many along the river front wharf in New West
- The biggest one i have seen so far is in front of a house in New West along 8th ave
- A bunch in front of the Chrysler dealership on Terminal (you can see them from the sky-train) They are a little younger
- The greek restaurant on Kingsway near Edmonds must have about 20 of them!
- many office towers downtown will have 1 or 2 near their entrances, such as the one directly across the street from waterfront station.
- The few roundabouts in the west end have palms in the middle of them
etc...

I use a cannon SLR, i have always used Cannon, i feel they have the best lenses.

PS - It's impossible to take bad pictures of such a beautiful city The city did all the work, i just snapped some pics