Many involved in describing the world cities often like to label some of the planet’s most famous places as post-modern jungles. This, in fact, means that rave reviews from visitor pundits are overloaded with statements about places such as Shanghai being far more developed than any other place in civilisation. In many cases, this is not true.
Indeed, Shanghai is struggling to become a 20th century city, let alone something belonging to the future. It is still building metro links, motorways, office towers and apartment blocks. These are feats which most cities accomplished over a decade ago. However, there is one particular Canadian city, named after the British explorer Captain George Vancouver, which does catch the eye in terms of post-modernism.
Visitors rave about Vancouver, located in the south-west of British Colombia, and quite rightly so. The city is a standing advertisement to excellent urban planning and is relatively unrivalled around the rest of North America for its user-friendly walking and cycling paths with its huge dollop of natural beauty. Vancouver is blessed with the optimal geographical situation for nature lovers. It has deep ocean inlets and a massive array of parks and other immense natural green areas.
Stanley Park, a 405 hectare area of wild parkland around Vancouver, is the epitome of what the city stands for in terms of public heritage. It takes a lot of courage to tell banks and other extremely rich corporations to keep their hands off natural areas, especially when huge amounts of Canadian dollars are involved. Indeed, Vancouvan walking paths are situated where high street banks and huge shopping centres would be situated in many other ‘post-modern’ cities.
Vancouver can also boast a massive selection of foreign foods and extremely varied cuisine. It is famous for seafood, especially the big fat juicy oysters. The low prices make the cuisine more tempting than in many other cities.