Vancouver British Columbia's Stanley Park A Popular Tourist Destination

Vancouver British Columbia's Stanley Park

A day in the life of Vancouver's Stanley Park

Stanley Park Vancouver British Columbia

The city’s scenic location makes it a major tourist destination. Visitors come for the city’s gardens, Stanley Park and a combination of mountains, ocean, forest and parklands surrounding the city. The city's numerous beaches, parks, waterfronts, and mountain backdrop, combined with its cultural and multi-ethnic character, all contribute to its unique appeal and style. Over a million people annually pass through Vancouver en route to a cruise ship vacation, usually to Alaska.

Stanley Park is a 4 km² (1 000 acres) urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The park features many huge Douglas-fir, Western Redcedar, and Western Hemlock trees. These trees can be up to 100 metres (300 ft) tall and over a hundred years old. It is estimated that 8 million people visit the park yearly. The Project for Public Spaces ranked Stanley Park as the sixteenth best park in the world and sixth best in North America

On September 27, 1888 the park was officially opened, where it was named after Lord Stanley, Governor General of Canada at the time. The next year on October 29, Lord Stanley himself, the first Governor General to visit British Columbia, officially dedicated the park.

In 1908, 20 years after the first petition for the lease, the federal ministry of defence renewed the lease of Stanley Park to Vancouver for 99 years, renewable (till 2007).

Vancouver is a Canadian city in the province of British Columbia. It is the largest metropolitan centre in western Canada and the third largest in the country. Vancouver is one of the cities of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and of the larger geographic region commonly known as the Lower Mainland of B.C. The Port of Vancouver is significant on a world scale, and Vancouver is the third largest film production centre for US-based productions in North America after Hollywood and New York, giving it the nickname of Hollywood North.

Vancouver will be the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2007 Memorial Cup and the 2009 World Police and Fire Games. Swangard Stadium, just across the city line in Burnaby, will host some games for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Attractions of Stanley Park

Construction of the 8.8 km (5.5 mile) trail around the park began in 1918, but not declared finished until September 26, 1971. James "Jimmy" Cunningham, a master mason, dedicated 32 years of his life to the construction of the seawall from 1931 until his retirement in 1963. Even after he retired, Cunningham kept coming down (once in his pyjamas) to keep an eye on the wall's progress, until his death at 85 on September 29, 1963.

Since then many more additions to the walkway have been built. The current unofficial Seawall starts at Canada Place, runs around Stanley Park, along English Bay beach, around False Creek, and down to Kitsilano Beach in the south. This is a favourite destination for walking, running, cycling, and inline skating. There are two paths, one for inline skaters and cyclists and the other for pedestrians. The section around the park is one-way for cyclists and inline skaters, running counter-clockwise.

The seawall is a popular destination for tourists as it gives them a great vantage point of Vancouver and it's surrounding suburbs. The seawall is a popular place for bike tours, walking tours and for getting some excersise by jogging, walking, and even roller-blading. City tours of Vancouver British Columbia almost always include Stanley Park among the highlights.

Deadman's Island is a small island to the south of the Stanley Park in Coal Harbour. The naval station/museum, HMCS Discovery, is stationed there. Also, training for RCSCC Captain Vancouver is on this island during Wednesday evenings and sometimes Mondays, along with NLCC Captain Rankin on Friday evenings.

Vancouver has over 2,700 acres (11 km²) of parks, with Stanley Park being the largest. The municipality also has several large beaches, many flowing into each other, with the largest groups extending from the coast of Stanley Park before reaching False Creek, and on the other side of English Bay, starting in the Kitsilano neighbourhood all the way to the University Endowment Lands, which are separate from Vancouver. The 18kms (11 miles) of beaches that surround Vancouver include English Bay (First Beach), Jericho, Kitsilano Beach, Locarno, Second Beach (Stanley Park), Spanish Bank East, Spanish Bank Extension, Spanish Bank West, Sunset, and Third Beach (Stanley Park). The coastline provides for many types of water sport, and the city is a popular destination for boating enthusiasts.

This information is taken in whole or in part from Wikipedia. This information falls under the GNU Free Documentation License

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