Downtown Vancouver is the commercial core of a peninsula spotted with several major tourist areas. Where once there was rain forest, now there is concrete jungle. But set among the remaining evergreens, with a backdrop of the harbor and nearby snow-capped mountains, even the glass and steel high-rises of this city look good.

Gastown, the city's birthplace, is a neighborhood of hundred-year-old hotels, outfitters, and warehouses born again as restaurants, stores, and condominiums. Chinatown is a contrast of aging clan-association headquarters and slick new Hong Kong-style shops. In Yaletown, spacious redbrick warehouses have become loft residences, trendy boutiques, and nightspots for hip young professionals. The West End, packed with high-rise apartment buildings and modern condominiums, is the most densely populated part of the city.

At the tip of the peninsula is the 1,000-acre Stanley Park. Sometimes called the West End's back yard, it attracts residents from all over Vancouver and visitors from around the world.

Because so many people live, work, and play on Vancouver's downtown peninsula, it stays active from early in the morning until late at night. It doesn't become a ghost town after dark, like the centers of some North American cities, so it's a relatively safe place for visitors to be.

Other parts of the city should not be ignored, though. For example, Kitsilano, a beach-side neighborhood on the south shore of English Bay, includes Vanier Park, where several museums are clustered and special events are held. Granville Island, tucked under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge and accessible from the West End and Vanier Park via small ferryboats, is popular for its public market and galleries. The University of British Columbia, which makes many of its amenities available to the public, is bordered by beaches and forests.

Vancouver's close association with its natural environment--water, beaches, forests, and mountains--is what makes the city attractive to many visitors. It is possible to ski in the morning, go sailing in the afternoon, and then attend the symphony in the evening. And, throughout the year, visitors can experience the customs of people from various countries who now call Vancouver home.

This vast range of cultural aspects gives Vancouver a broad appeal and has turned the city into something more than just another pretty place.