Canada -> British Columbia -> Vancouver skyline from Stanley Park by A Hoang

Vancouver is a coastal city located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The largest metropolitan area in Western Canada, Vancouver ranked third largest in the country and the city proper ranked eighth respectively. The city of Vancouver has a population of just over 578,000 and its Census Metropolitan Area exceeds 2.1 million people. It's residents are ethnically diverse, with 52% having a first language other than English.

The Chinese are by far the largest visible ethnic group in the city, and Vancouver has a very diverse Chinese-speaking community, with several dialects represented, including Cantonese and Mandarin. Neighbourhoods with high concentrations of single ethnic groups, include the Punjabi Market, Little Italy, Greektown, and (formerly) Japantown.
In the 1980s, an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong in anticipation of its transfer from the United Kingdom to China, combined with an increase in immigrants from mainland China and previous immigrants from Taiwan, created one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Chinese residents in North America. Other significant Asian ethnic groups in Vancouver are South Asian (mostly Punjabi, usually referred to as Indo-Canadian), Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian, Korean, Cambodian, and Japanese. Despite increases in numbers of Latin Americans coming to Vancouver in the 1980s and 90s, immigration from Latin America and Africa has been comparatively low.

The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics will be held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler.