Vancouver's Chinese food markets have become tourist destinations for overseas travellers.

Local groups are offering two- or three-hour walking tours of Chinese markets in Vancouver's Chinatown and suburban Richmond that show off diverse Asian food and beverages.

Edible British Columbia, a Vancouver-based company that co-ordinates culinary-based travel experiences for tourists, corporate customers and event planners, has launched a Chinatown tour this year after starting the "Richmond Night Market Experience," which shows off Richmond's night market, last year.

Stephanie Yuen, a food writer and cooking enthusiast, takes visitors on both tours, which include visits to shops, restaurants and tastings, and participation in cultural rituals, for $55 per person in maximum groups of eight.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
Vancouver's Chinese food markets have become tourist destinations for overseas travellers.

Meanwhile, Vancouver's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is offering tours of Chinatown every Sunday night until the end of September for $10 per person. Local historian John Atkin walks visitors past stalls along Keefer Street, where operators peddle food and other merchandise.

"A lot of people have a strong desire to look at Chinatown below the surface," says Yuen. "At least we can actually make their stay much easier."

She estimates 50 per cent of her travellers are from Europe and the U.S., while the remaining 50 per cent are from Vancouver and its surrounding suburbs.

"I haven't actually gotten any Asians so far, because I don't think they would find it necessary to come on my tour," says Yuen.

But she believes the Chinese markets still attract many Asia tourists because shopkeepers speak their language and know their likes and dislikes.

It's surprising what the uninitiated diner can learn as Yuen conducts a brief tour featuring many sights, sounds, smells and tastes along Keefer Street up to Gore Street, back down Pender and along parts of Main.

For example, many Vancouverites probably don't know that Superior Tofu at 163 Keefer contains a tofu factory as well as a restaurant and take-out counter.

During a stop at the Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Co. Ltd. shop at the corner of Keefer and Main, Yuen explains that purple clay is considered the best type of clay for making teapots.

Florence Wong, a supervisor at Ten Ren, believes the tours will boost tourism - and business - in Chinatown.

"We have so many tours that come here," says Wong, adding tour groups from the U.S., Europe and Asia, led by other organizers, have been visiting the shop for 11 years. "Some people like to drink tea and they want Chinese tea."

A visit to Sun Fresh Bakery on Keefer between Main and Gore leads to an explanation about vegetable and meat-filled buns, while a brief visit to Chinatown Supermarkets results in the discovery of winter melons and bitter melons that look like cucumbers.

Stopping at Maxim's Bakery Ltd. further up Keefer, Yuen explains how Europeans influenced Chinese baking, resulting in "cocktail buns" filled with shredded coconut and peanuts, and relates how Chinese wedding cakes, which include red beans and nuts, have been used as dowries, but are also sold as snacks.

At the corner at Keefer and Gore, workers unload a truck full of live, floundering ling cod and take it into a market. Yuen touts the perceived health benefits of lizards that are sold on sticks that make them look like a fan.

At Dollar Meat Market Ltd. on Pender between Gore and Main, pressed duck and Chinese sausages hang on the wall. (Yuen advises that the best way to cook pressed duck is over steamed rice in a rice cooker.)

At the final stop at the Kuo Wah Trading Ltd. dry goods store at 512 Main, she points to bottles containing shark fins, which sell for $688 per pound, and sea horses, which are considered good for the lymph glands.

She also holds up a giant lingzhi mushroom that is said to promote balance, prevent the spread of cancer cells, beautify skin, slow aging, improve sexual ability and improve heart health.

Dried crocodile meat is also sold as being good for the lungs.

A native of Hong Kong who came to Canada more than 30 years ago, Yuen hopes the tours represent the "vibrant multiculturalism of B.C."

The response, she says, has been huge, with many previous tour-goers providing referrals.

"It's definitely something I have a lot of passion for, because I want people to understand Chinese food (and) Chinese culture - and, of course, we all know food and culture go side by side," says Yuen.

The treks are part of the growing field of culinary tourism, whereby tourists base their travel decisions partly or completely on the types of food and beverages available in a given locale. The sessions are marketed mainly by word of mouth and the Internet. Tourism Vancouver is also promoting them via its network.

"We get a lot of visitors to Vancouver who are interested in culinary tourism," says Wendy Underwood, a spokeswoman for Tourism Vancouver. "Maybe they don't even know they're interested in culinary tourism. They just know food is an important part of the places they visit."

Most culinary tourists are just regular travellers who look forward to a good dining experience in addition to whatever else they are doing.

But some do travel to a specific place just because of the meals that it offers, according to the Portland, Ore.-based International Culinary Tourism Association. Underwood says the Chinese-market tours are also part of a shift in tourist habits.

"As opposed to looking out the window and looking at things wherever, (tourists) actually want to take part," says Underwood.

She says the sessions demonstrate Vancouver's cosmopolitan flavour, and increase the range of things visitors can do.

"It's been going really well," says Edible British Columbia founder Eric Pateman, about the Richmond tour that launched last year. "We've run about 10 of the groups, and they've been selling out."

He estimates local residents make up about 60 per cent of all tour-goers, while the remaining 40 per cent hail mostly from the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to offering tours of Chinese markets in Chinatown and Richmond, the company also conducts culinary tours along Commercial Drive and at Granville Island.

"We definitely are a niche," says Pateman. "Not everybody is willing to spend $40-$80 to go on a food tour."

Edible British Columbia has also opened a store at Granville Island that offers cooking demonstrations by "food artisans" from across B.C., and sells more than 400 products from small producers across the province. Items range from Fraser Valley cheeses to Okanagan wines.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)