Painted brick blocks with recessed balconies line Pender Street, and produce and dried goods sit out along the sidewalk.
What Chinatown looks like
Two to four storey painted brick buildings line to the edge of the sidewalk. Recessed balconies run along the upper floors behind decorative cornices, and a separate door at street level opens onto a narrow staircase leading to the offices and rooms above the shops. Ground floor ceilings run high, with mezzanines built into the space above the storefronts.
The on West Pender Street holds the Guinness World Record for narrowest commercial building, completed in 1913 with a ground floor only 4 feet 11 inches deep behind a wall of storefront glass. Produce and dried goods sit out in bins and crates along the sidewalk in front of the grocers, under awnings that run block after block.
The spans Pender Street at the neighbourhood's western entrance, a carved stone archway flanked by red lamp posts topped with gold dragon figures. Shanghai Alley, a narrow service lane, runs off behind the .
The sits behind a walled courtyard on Carrall Street, enclosed from the sidewalk by its own perimeter wall. Most of the surrounding blocks are held under a nine storey height limit, rising to fifteen storeys along the busiest sections of Pender and Main.
Shot in Chinatown
Deadpool filmed a scene along Keefer Street at Gore Avenue, where Wade Wilson follows his girlfriend down the sidewalk before revealing his disfigured face. The production shot the real Vancouver Chinatown rather than dressing it as another city. The Flash, the CW series, shot along Carrall Street between Keefer Street and Expo Boulevard as one of several stops the show has made in the neighbourhood.
Legends of Tomorrow
Played the street exterior for a physical altercation between two characters
Legends of Tomorrow filmed a scene just outside Keefer Street, where Rip Hunter gets into a drunken altercation with Kid Flash. The source names only the street, not a specific building.
What Chinatown can double for
International District in Seattle, Washington
iZombie is set in Seattle but filmed its exterior Chinatown shots in Vancouver's Chinatown rather than Seattle's own International District. Brick storefronts and awning covered sidewalks read the same on camera. The International District's King Street Station clock tower is a recognizable skyline marker Vancouver's Chinatown does not have, so a wide shot that reaches for the skyline breaks the illusion. Try searching awning covered sidewalks now.
Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California
Always Be My Maybe filmed a scene on Main Street in Vancouver's Chinatown to stand in for San Francisco, with brick storefronts and stacked signage reading the same way Grant Avenue's blocks do on camera. Grant Avenue's pagoda topped rooflines and steep hill grade are not present here, so a wide shot needs a flat block rather than a rise toward the hill. Try searching brick storefronts and stacked signage now.
Northwest 4th Avenue in Portland, Oregon
No production credit ties Vancouver's Chinatown to Portland's Old Town Chinatown, but the two share a similar scale of two to four storey brick buildings with ground floor shops and single room occupancy hotels above. Portland's blocks carry cast iron fronts rather than recessed balconies, so a shot that lingers on the upper storeys gives the difference away. Try searching single room occupancy hotels now.
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