Vancouver is a great coastal city, major seaport close to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Captain George Vancouver was a British explorer and this is where the name of the city comes from.

Population in metropolitan area was over 2 million people in 2007, but it is growing fast, especially with a large number of Asian immigrants who chose Canada as their new homeland. Vancouver developed from a small lumber mill town into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway. Continue reading »

A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada occupies most of northern North America. By total area, it is the world’s second largest country and shares borders with the USA to the south (Alaska to the northwest).

British and French expeditions discovered the land inhabited for millennia by various aboriginal peoples. Canada is today a federation of ten provinces and three territories. With a high-tech industrial society, Canada maintains a diversified economy, technologically advanced and industrialized. Continue reading »

Vancouver is probably the only place in the world with such a beautiful view on landing to the international airport. Where else can you find such a big city just between the ocean and high mountains?

If you go to Vancouver, you must see Grouse Mountain, Stanley Park and take a drink in Robson Street. Vancouver is the only place where you can be sitting on Kitsilano Beach and 30 minutes later snowboarding on the Seymour Mountain. The transportation is not so bad, compared to other big cities in the world. Continue reading »

If you ask someone what he likes about Vancouver, chances are he will tell you “the weather” (see the video). What he dislikes? Also …the weather! Truth is in sunny days Vancouver is gorgeous, temperatures are usually in the 20 degrees and the air is great to breath. But when it starts raining, it may continue like this even for a couple of days in a raw, it gets boring and depressing.

It rains mostly in the winter, but because of the rain, people may seem more quiet and depressed. Continue reading »

The 2004 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting established a ranking with Best Cities to Live in for Expatriate Workers. Five out of first six cities are Canadian, with Ottawa, the national capital, topping the list. It is followed by Vancouver and Calgary.

As expected, countries open to a large number of immigrants (such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand) performed best. From Europe, a special mention for Germany (with five cities in top 20). From US, only Honolulu appears in the list. Ranking is based on a derived index, in which both the quality of living index and the cost of living index have been included. Continue reading »