Audio Guide: Vancouver Introduction Walking Tour (Self Guided), Vancouver

A bustling seaport on the west coast of Canada, Vancouver is among the country's densest and most ethnically diverse cities. It is also one of British Columbia's youngest cities. Prior to the Europeans, the Vancouver area had been inhabited – for almost 10,000 years – by Aboriginal tribes: Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard). The explorer Simon Fraser and his crew were the first known white men to set foot on the site of today's Vancouver, in 1808. Yet the first European settlement in the area – McCleery's Farm on the Fraser River – appeared only in 1862.

The future city stemmed from the spot called Gastown, which grew around a makeshift tavern on the western edges of Hastings Mill, built in 1867 by one “Gassy Jack”. This site is now marked by the Gastown steam clock. By 1870, the settlement had evolved into a townsite and was named "Granville" in honour of the then-British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Granville. Upon its incorporation as a city, in 1886, the place was renamed "Vancouver" after George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792.

The Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental railroad, extended to Vancouver in 1887, proved to be a vital trade link between Asia, Eastern Canada, and Europe, and effectively transformed the city into a major port on the Pacific, becoming the largest in Canada and most diversified in North America.

Today, Vancouver is also a popular film destination, nicknamed "Hollywood North", with thriving art-, theatre-, and music scenes. The Vancouver Art Gallery is known worldwide for its works by regional artists. Surrounded by mountains, the city is also famous for tourism, its second-largest industry. Vancouver is consistently named among the top five cities in the world for quality of life, which in turn gave rise to the term “Vancouverism” denoting a specific urban planning philosophy.

To explore Vancouver's historical, cultural, and other delights in more detail, take this self-guided introductory walk!