RICHMOND

RICHMOND

Is a large city, located at the southwestern end of Fraser River, right south of Vancouver.

Part of the Metro Vancouver area, its history and origins date back to 1862, when Hugh McRoberts purchased a farm and doing so he named the property, Richmond View, after a town in his native Australia (however it is unclear which one it is since there are about 5 Richmonds in Australia). During the late 1800s, a salmon cannery opened in the neighboring community of Steveston and at its pinnacle, it had 49 canneries and by the 1950s, also attracted many Japanese Canadians. In 1889, Richmond was connected to the mainland by a bridge (The Marpole Bridge, replaced in 1957, by the Arthur Laing Bridge) and when the 20^th century began, it was linked with other communities by a railway link.

The Vancouver International Airport, located in Richmond on Sea Island, opened in 1931 and has since become the biggest airport of all of western Canada, in terms of handling both domestic and international flights.

After the Second World War (WWII), many Chinese immigrants began to inhabit a large portion of Richmond’s population and because of this Aberdeen Center, built in 1990, became the first of several shopping centers to cater to the Chinese community.

Richmond’s climate is similar to that of Vancouver’s, but receives less amounts of rain (about 30% less to be exact than Vancouver), due to it been further located away from the mountains than Vancouver, although during the winter months, most of the precipitation falling in Richmond more the form of snow and is more vulnerable to fog because of its location near the ocean and the Fraser River. On the other hand though, the summer months, however are more are more milder and warmer with temperatures that exceed +20 degrees Celsius  (sometimes +30 but very rare).

In the 1950s, most of the land was protected from outpouring of flooding by a system of dykes due to the city being close to a delta and thus preventing the city from being especially susceptible and prone to massive flooding in particular when the ocean and river are both at high tide.

Richmond is considered a suburb of Vancouver and with neighborhoods such as Lulu Island, Burkeville, Sea Island, Steveston and Lansdowne just to name a few, it occupies most of the southwest corridor of the Lower Mainland and it ranks as the 4^th largest populated city of all of British Columbia and 25^th largest in all of Canada, and was incorporated as a city on November 10^th, 1879 but reincorporated again in December, 111 years later. Its economic base includes fishing, agriculture, manufacturing and warehousing.

In 2009, Richmond became an important and viable transportation hub for residents who travel to Vancouver to work, when the new Canada Line Rapid Transit System was built, thus cutting down travel time from at least 1 hour on the bus or car to downtown Vancouver to an easy 25 minute commute during the times of the day when traffic in Vancouver is at a complete standstill.

Richmond’s population: 174,461