The people who came out include: @mojaveband, @gusf, @russbystarlite, @abc4, @gusgreeper, @staciebee, @rott1058, @bluey037, @emmerogers, @trishussey, @raincoaster, @hummingbird604, @dale42, @atomicfez, @jonjennings, @tofufighting, @anthonyfloyd, @owlex, @jpadamson, @johnbiehler, @mdiane_rogers, @JenniferPriest, @faustsid67 and @petequily. Also, @thedarkerside and @operagal19 joined us later at the Irish Heather (@theirishheather). (I’m sure we’ve missed someone… sorry!)

Image by John Biehler. Some rights reserved.

Rather than duplicate the work of others, we’ll just point you to what others are saying about the tour. Hummingbird604, a fantastic local blogger, has already posted his impressions, along with a great little video. Dale McGladdery and Corrina Carlson have also posted his thoughts and included a number of great photos from the event.

Stacie Biehler,  John Biehler,  Ian A. Martin, Jon Jennings, and Corrina Carlson have all uploaded photosets from the event to Flickr.

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic event! I look forward to seeing you all at the next one.

(This post will continue to be updated as additional blog posts or photosets come online from our Tweetup. If you know of something we’ve missed, let us know in the comments below.)

Next Thursday (June 4) at 6:00 PM, we’ll be hosting a special tour for our twitter friends, digging a little deeper and being a little braver than usual as we show off the newest iteration of our naughty little tour.

There will be an open house from 4:00-6:00 PM at the museum and then we’ll head out on our walk. Everyone is welcome to the open house, but you have to reserve a spot for the walk. (30 spots available for now but I’m going to try and get some of our other guides to come out, then we can take more people.)

To reserve your spot, please comment below with your Twitter ID and whether you’re bringing a guest. (I’ll update this post as additional spots become available, but don’t be shy about adding your name to the list if we’re past 30 already.) We’ll confirm with everyone through email or Twitter early next week.

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Part-Time Employment Opportunity

Sins of the City Walking Tour Guide

Are you an outspoken heritage interpreter who can tell a story (and a joke), handle a heckler or two and engage a group of 30 tourists on the sidewalks of Vancouver?

Our ideal candidate will be able to work independently, have experience giving tours, a quick wit, and an interest in learning and sharing the history of Vancouver’s naughtier side.

Tours run May 9 to September 31, 2009, are two hours long and run several times a week. Workload and hours are flexible—most tours are in the afternoon and on weekends.

Closing Date: April 9, 2009

If you follow this blog, you already know about our Sins of the City walking tours; they’ve been one of the more popular things we’ve launched in the last few years. They’ve now grown enough that we need additional help to deliver them. Please help spread the word about this fun, and unusual, job. The detailed posting can be found here.

Come join our team!

The next day, we received a phone call from someone who said they’d seen the interview on TV and were wondering if we’d like some more information about her father. Turns out, her father was Detective Ricci and she had boxes and boxes of newspaper clippings about her father’s incredible career as a police officer.

Ricci was no ordinary officer; he was a minor celebrity in Vancouver, mentioned in the newspaper once or twice a week for another one of his exploits busting the gambling dens, opium houses and brothels in Chinatown.  (See our previous blog entry Stalwart Defenders of the City’s Morals go Beyond the Call for more information on Ricci and his partner Det. Sinclair).

Over the next few months, we’ll be pouring through those newspaper clippings and other personal information; many of these stories will be added to the Sins of the City tour this summer, for sure! Down the road, you might even see a book published from this.

Hidden Places (Photo: Aki Mimoto)

Frequently, at the end of the Sins of the City tour, I’ll ask participants about their favourite part of the tour. The top answers are usually pretty predictable:

• opium dens
• the old brothel district
• Blood Alley
• the ping pong ball
• the tunnels under Chinatown

Bricks (Photo: Aki Mimoto)

Each one has a special place in my heart (especially the ping pong ball!) but it’s the tunnels under Chinatown that seem to engage the most people. Everyone’s heard the stories about the extensive secret network of tunnels that run from the water all the way to the heart of Chinatown. Used for smuggling people, booze, drugs and other contraband between the opium dends, gambling houses and mysterious warehouses, these sound like amazing places that any urban explorer would be thrilled to poke around. (Maybe someone should start a guided tour and sell tickets! Hmmm….)

Secret Spaces (Photo: Aki Mimoto)

Hundred-year-old newspaper headlines like “Getaway is Under the Ground” or “Police Explore Chinese Tunnels” (both of which are discussed on the tour) reinforce the excitement, as do stories of the police taking a pick-axe to the sidewalk at #10 E. Pender to gain access to the opium den underground. And then there are those purple glass tiles in the sidewalks…

So what IS underground in Chinatown? Telling too much would ruin the tour, of course, but we photo-documented one of our recent adventures and you’ll see the pictures to the right. My good friend Aki Mimoto (http://www.disconti.nu/) took these pictures. There are other photos, as well, but I’m saving those for next year’s tour.

Underneath (Photo: Aki Mimoto)

(For those who came on the tour this year, remember to take a look at the satellite view in Google Maps to see that hidden treasure in Chinatown I told you about…)

Through the winter, we’re going to take many more pictures of some of the cool places hidden in Chinatown and Gastown and we might post some of them on this blog, or on his website.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/mysterious-chinese-tunnels.html

I’ll post soon about the “truth” behind our own tunnels…