Calgary History Tour – Chinatown Virtual Cache

Welcome to this edition of the Calgary History Tour, caches designed to give people a little snippet of history on the web page and then direct them to a real place that was part of that history. Calgary doesn't have a very long history, but as you will see, it certainly is interesting and often pretty colourful!

Located at the centre crossroad in Calgary, where the North, South, East and West quadrants of the city intersect, the small three block radius known as Chinatown can be found. This virtual geocache will allow you to see some of the many interesting locations that can be found in one of Calgary’s oldest and most important historical areas.

There can be little argument made of the importance of Chinese immigrants to Canada. Because one of the conditions of British Columbia joining Confederation in 1871 was to build a cross Canadian railway, and because Sir John A. Macdonald insisted that costs to build that railway be minimized through the use of Chinese workers who could be paid half the wages of local workers, Chinese immigration began to significantly increase in Canada. After the railway was built, many of those workers made their way to the heart of the west. Calgary’s first Chinese community, located near where the Glenbow Museum now resides, grew quickly until a serious fire and lack of space forced multiple relocations after which several wealthy Chinese merchants bought land where the current Chinatown resides and a permanent home was developed.

There can also be little argument made that Chinese immigrants to Canada endured harsh living conditions, discrimination and poor treatment once they arrived, assuming they could even afford to come. In 1885, the government of Canada levied an increasing “Head Tax”, originally set at $50 and soaring to $500 before being abolished and replaced with an outright ban on all Chinese immigration in 1923 that lasted for 24 years. Although the Calgary Herald called Chinatown a “festering sore” in 1910, City Council had the foresight to reject the public call for a segregated Chinese community, recognizing the need for all Calgarians to find a way to coexist. At that time, Chinese immigrants were often men who couldn’t afford or weren’t allowed to have their families join them and it was only after the Chinese Exclusion Era ended that immigration in Calgary sharply increased, nearly doubling within a decade because families could be reunited. Many of these families chose to live outside of the limited Chinatown area.

It is because these early Chinese immigrants endured such brutal hardships upon coming to Canada that we even have Chinatowns spread across the country to this day. These settlers needed to build inclusive communities that could provide a safe space to survive, prosper and celebrate their vibrant cultural heritage in a country that wasn’t always hospitable to it. Thankfully, times have changed and Calgary is richer for it.

Begin your tour of Calgary’s Chinatown in the heart of its commercial district, full of shops and restaurants. Part of the fun of geocaching involves figuring out how to find an interesting location you may not have visited before, like the one at the coordinates listed at Site #1, which illustrates China’s Journey to Modernization. There is only one entrance.

Question 1: How many Chinese family names are on the mural at the end?
Question 2: What is the word written across the railway ties?

Site #2 will take you to one of the original parks in the area, ever-so-creatively named “Chinatown Park”, as per the Chinese writing on the arch.

Question 3: How many Chinese characters are on the arch?

Moving under the arch and along the pathway will take you towards Site #3, the largest and newest park in Chinatown, Sien Lok Park, created through the efforts of the Sien Lok Society of Calgary, one of the Chinese community organizations whose motto is that “happiness comes through good works”. It honors those of Asian heritage who came to Canada from China between 1858 and 1947.

Question 4: How many Chinese labourers were recruited from the US and China to build the Canadian Pacific Railway?

Head south out of the park towards Site #4.

The highlight of the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre is the impressive Cultural Hall, with its 70ft high ceiling modelled after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which was built in 1420 and used exclusively by Emperors to pray for bountiful harvests. It was 22 Chinese artisans who created the exquisite paintings on the ceiling which include 561 dragons and 40 phoenixes, with spiral, walking and flying dragon designs ornamenting the inner surface. The four seasons are represented through the four central columns which support the dome, each hand-decorated with genuine gold, and the twelve posts along the middle circle represent the twelve months. The blue tiles on the outside of the roof symbolize heaven and sky and were fabricated and shipped from China to Calgary.

Question 5: Of the Cultural Centre’s four Imperial lions located outside of its two main entrances, what is under the paw of the northwestern one?

In order to log this cache, you must message the cache owner with the answers to all five questions. Do not post the answers on your log; however, feel free to post a picture of yourself in Calgary’s Chinatown.

Virtual Reward - 2017/2018

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.