The Oldest Chinatown In All of Canada

Monday morning, I had to make one of my infrequent trips into downtown Victoria.  The store I was going to just happened to be a block over from Victoria’s historic Chinatown.  It was another beautiful day and I had my trusty Canon G10 with me, so I walked over, browsed around a bit, and took a few pictures(hover on image for caption).

 

The first Chinese immigrants came to Victoria in 1858 because of  the gold rush.  None of them intended to stay permanently in Canada.  They figured on striking it rich and going back to China.  Some did – most did not.  Initially, they set up tents and shacks along a ravine, now Johnson St., and as more Chinese people arrived, the community expanded to include stores, tailor shops, theatres and schools.  By 1880, Victoria’s Chinatown formed the largest Chinese Community in all of Canada.

Gradually, the community expanded north a few blocks to what are now Cormorant and Fisgard streets. This area was operated as a separate town. The Chinese originally referred to it as "Huabu" meaning "Chinese Port", unlike non-Chinese people who called the same area "Chinatown". Eventually the name "Chinatown" was adopted by both the Chinese and non-Chinese communities in Victoria.

Chinatown's “Fan Tan Alley” was a network of alleyways and courtyards hidden behind the street fronts. It is undoubtedly the most famous place in Chinatown and for years was known as “The Forbidden City” and was open only to Chinese people. Among other things, it housed gambling and opium dens that featured elaborate escape routes in case of police raids. 

In my early teens, I used to go down to Chinatown at lunch break, with a few friends from school, and we would dare each other to run the 200 ft. through the mysterious, dark and narrow Fan Tan Alley.  We were allegedly afraid of being snatched into a hidden doorway never to be seen again.  In reality, we were just ignored by disinterested Chinese gentlemen who barely seemed to notice us.

Chinatown today is a great place to shop for fresh vegetables and fruit from local farms.  Delivery trucks still pull up to the curb and unload their produce right on the sidewalk in front of the stores.  If there’s no curbside parking, the truck drivers just park right in the middle of the street.  The police never seem to interfere in this, preferring to let the locals figure it out.

The “Gate of Harmonious Interest”, or “Tong Ji Men”, is the symbolic entrance to Victoria’s Chinatown.  It was built in 1981 through the combined efforts of both the Chinese and non-Chinese communities.  The stone lions, on each side of the Gate,  act as guardians protecting Chinatown and were donated by Victoria's sister city of Suzhou in the People's Republic of China.

There are also bells hung from the corner of the gate, and when these chime in the wind, Buddhists and Taoists believe they ward off evil spirits. There are two time capsules buried in the red pillars of the Gate with one to be opened in 2081 and the other in 2096 – I can’t wait to see what’s in them!!

Victoria's Chinatown is now a popular area for locals and tourists. The focus is the 500-600 block of Fisgard Street, the old Chinese School and a small selection of historic buildings, restaurants and other Chinese businesses. Many historic buildings have been well preserved in Chinatown and the district is a designated National Historic Site.