The city most people only see from the SkyTrain
Richmond sits between Vancouver and the airport, built on an island in the Fraser delta. It's flat, it's about sea level, and it has the densest concentration of Chinese restaurants in North America. Most visitors pass through it on the way to somewhere else.
I grew up here and moved back in 2018. This site started in 2021, when I got tired of sending the same list of restaurants to friends.
Three reasons to stop
The food
Not the tourist version. Regional Chinese cooking across half a dozen traditions, at prices Vancouver stopped offering years ago.
Steveston
A working fishing village at the south end, with boats selling off the dock and a cannery museum that is much better than it sounds.
Flat cycling
The dyke trail runs most of the way round the island. No hills anywhere. Unusual for this part of the world.
Short answers
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Is it worth a night? | Yes if you're flying early or want the food properly. A day works too. |
| Do I need a car? | No for the centre. Yes for Steveston unless you like buses. |
| Best time? | May to September. The night market runs summer only. |
| Near the airport? | Ten minutes. Some hotels run shuttles. |
| Downtown Vancouver? | About 25 minutes on the Canada Line. |
What to expect
Richmond is suburban in layout — big roads, malls, and blocks that take longer to walk than they look. The interesting parts are clustered: the Golden Village around No. 3 Road, and Steveston at the south end. Between them is a lot of driving or a long bus.
Signage in the Golden Village is often in Chinese first. Plenty of small restaurants have menus only in Chinese, and staff who speak limited English. That's not a problem to solve, it's the reason the food is what it is — point at what the next table has, it works.