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Victoria got Binged

August 9, 2010 at 9:50 pm | In victoria | 3 Comments

A couple of days ago I came across a link for Bing Travel‘s Walking Tours in Great Cities, which features 15 great world cities. The series starts with Chicago, and for some reason I didn’t (still don’t) see a list of all the cities (nor can I find a starter page). So it wasn’t until this evening, while I clicked through every single city, that I saw my very own Victoria BC listed as Nr. 7, wedged between New York (Nr.6) and Rome (Nr.8).

That’s quite the feather in the city’s tourism industry cap!

Word of caution, though: don’t take the blurb literally, it’s full of predictable cliches as well as outright bloopers (apparently, you can visit the site of “fur-trade-era Fort Vancouver [sic]” right here, in Victoria, oops…):

The old world and the new meet in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, which has a decidedly English air while celebrating its own local history. Start at the Fairmont Empress hotel — especially known for its afternoon tea — and the Parliament Buildings on Victoria’s scenic Inner Harbour. Head east on Belleville to the Royal British Columbia Museum and the totem-pole-filled Thunderbird Park, then cut back west on Humboldt to Government Street, where you’ll find the site of fur-trade-era Fort Vancouver. Head left at View Street to visit Bastion Square, then north to Pandora Avenue and Fisgard Street, where you’ll find one of the oldest Chinatowns on the continent.

The route laid out on the map (slightly different than what the blurb describes) is conventional – from the general vicinity of the Inner Harbour’s Causeway and Empress Hotel to Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown – but it’s picturesque enough. An added bonus: the mapped route includes a jog (geographically-speaking) around St. Ann’s Academy and through the Humboldt Valley area.

List of Bing cities, in order:

1. Chicago

2. Paris

3. San Francisco

4. Washington DC

5. Prague

6. New York City

7. Victoria

8. Rome

9. Charleston, SC

10. Hong Kong

11. Boston

12. Buenos Aires

13. London

14. Montreal

15. New Orleans