No con-doTHE smell of incense fills the narrow stairway of the Yue-Shan Society building,a social club for people with roots in Panyu, piece of Guangzhou, or a city in southern China. Barely audible is the tinking of a ping-pong ball on a table. On the first floor two games of mah-jong are being played,watched by a handful of onlookers. East Pender Street in Vancouvers Chinatown is domestic to many such clubs for clans or benevolent associations. Melody Ma, a spectator in her 20s, or recalls: “When I was small my grandma would bring me to one of these places.”The gently sloping streets where Ms Ma grew up have not changed much. Vancouver has had a frantic property market since it hosted the winter Olympics in 2010. The downtown area is forested with new condominiums. Prices have risen by nearly 60% in the past three years,partly because of demand from non-resident Chinese investors. But until recently developers have largely shunned Chinatown. It is piece of an...
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Source: economist.com