2021 - Vancouver - Chinatown - Hang Loong Herbal Products Inc.

            Explore 08 October, 2021

This is the herbal floor of Hang Loong Herbal Products Inc at 242 East Pender Street in Vancouver's Chinatown.  

In a walk around the neighbourhood I located 14 herbal stores of various size.

The roughly dozen ornate herbal medicine shops lining the arteries of Chinatown are one of the last remaining cultural gateways linking present day to the century-old settlement by Canada’s early Chinese immigrants starting in 1890.  

By 2016, over 30% of Chinatown herbal sties had closed and the trend continues.

How Chinatown’s architecture and culture are preserved will determine the future of the community’s herbal shops.

Development won’t guarantee support for herbal medicine shops because the clientele will be different. Newcomers moving into Chinatown seem to prefer lattes over herbal soup.

In Chinatown, history runs deep. In the late 1800s, Chinese labourers settled in the area, forming one of the largest Chinese communities in North America.

By the 1990s, however, many Chinese immigrants and their families were moving to other areas such as Richmond and Burnaby, and the next generation declined to take over family businesses, triggering a gradual hollowing out of the  area.

Vancouver property values began to soar, and with them the lease rates for Chinatown shops and restaurants, many of which have sat empty for years. 

At the same time, the Downtown Eastside’s illicit drug crisis deepened and spread into adjacent Chinatown, creating the perception that it was no longer safe, which further alienated businesses.

Maintaining these old businesses has proven to be a significant challenge. According to a 2017 Hua Foundation report, 50 per cent of Chinatown’s fresh food stores — greengrocers, fishmongers, barbecue meat shops and butchers — were lost between 2009 and 2016.   And trend continues today.

Thirty-two per cent of Chinese dry goods stores and 56 per cent of food service retailers also closed during that period.

Chinatown businesses are faced with crippling lease rates, high taxes and other costs — and because of their small size and low profit margins, many can’t stay afloat.

The Chinatown BIA is doing what it can to revitalize the area but it’s a patient on life support IMO.

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Taken in: Canada / British Columbia / Vancouver / Chinatown de Vancouver (show map)

Taken on: September 12, 2021

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Camera: Nikon D750, f/11.0, 1/30 sec, 28mm, ISO 320 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D750
Lens:	AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	28mm
ISO:	320
Exposure Bias:	+1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Other
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Luminar AI
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