Historic Places

Minister Wat with Legacy Initiatives Advisory Council Co-Chairs Henry Yu and David Choi on a walking tour of historic sites in Vancouver's Chinatown on January 22, 2015. 

In early 2015, the Province launched a public nomination process through Heritage BC to identify historic places associated with the Chinese Canadian community in British Columbia. A total of 138 nominations were received for 77 distinct places. Of these, 21 places with outstanding provincial significance were recognized. These sites paint a rich picture of the contributions Chinese Canadians have made to the development and prosperity of our province since the mid-19th century.

Heritage BC created an interactive online map that features all 77 nominated sites, with expanded documentation for the 21 historic places that have been provincially recognized. The interactive map can be viewed at: https://heritagebc.ca/chinese-historic-places-map/https://heritagebc.ca/chinese-historic-places-map/

In addition to the interactive map, the 21 historic places will be added to the B.C. Register of Historic Places, which lists more than 3,400 historic places that have been formally recognized or protected by provincial, local or federal governments. As well, they will be considered for the Canadian Register of Historic Places, which currently includes at least 100 records for historic places in British Columbia with Chinese Canadian heritage values, and can be viewed here: http://www.historicplaces.ca/