They said it best...
"You’re gorgeous, baby, you’re sophisticated, you live well...Vancouver is Manhattan with mountains.
 It’s a liquid city, a tomorrow city, equal parts India, China, England, France and the Pacific Northwest. It’s the cool North American sibling." – The New York Times

"Vancouver is a city unlike any other. Wherever I look, I see water or mountains -- or both. And everyone looks so healthy." – The Daily Telegraph (UK)

Gastown is a national historic site located in Vancouver, British Columbia, located at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside.
Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Geordie seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon.
Gastown found new life as the centre of the city's wholesale produce distribution until the Great Depression in the 1930s. It also was centre of the city's drinking life (there were 300 licensed establishments the twelve-block area of the former Granville, B.I.)
After the Depression Gastown was a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline and disrepair until the 1960s.
Gastown's most famous (though nowhere near oldest) landmark is its steam-powered clock, located on the corner of Cambie and Water Street. Built to cover a steam grate, part of Vancouver's distributed steam-heating system, the clock was built as a way to harness the steam and to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather. Based on an 1875 design, the Gastown Steam Clock was the first steam-powered clock in the world. 

Don’t miss the statue of “Gassy” Jack and stop by the quirky Gastown Steam Clock, where 5 enormous brass whistles play Westminster Chimes every 15 minutes!

Chinatown in Vancouver, British Columbia is Canada's largest Chinatown. Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction, and is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America. Between 1890-1920, early Chinese immigrants settled in what was known as Shanghai Alley and Canton Alley. By 1890, Shanghai Alley was home to more than 1,000 Chinese residents. Much of the community's activities and entertainment evolved around a 500 seat Chinese theatre built in 1898.
Chinatown is one of the city's earliest commercial and residential districts, containing a remarkable collection of buildings from Vancouver’s boom years at the turn of the last century.
During Vancouver's prosperous years between 1897 and 1913, Chinatown grew as Chinese merchants invested in new properties.
They extended Chinatown south along Carrall Street, west to Shanghai Alley and Canton Alley, and eventually east along Pender Street to Gore Street.
During the Great Depression 1930s the Vancouver Chinese community lost 6,000 people, half of its members. 
The Province also recognized Chinatown's special history and architecture by designating it a historic district in 1971, together with the neighboring Gastown.