BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) According to Canada's Sing Tao Daily, a new momentum has recently emerged in Vancouver, Canada's Chinatown. This summer, the reconstruction plan of 58 West Hastings Street, which costs 115 million Canadian dollars, will start; In early autumn of September, Chinatown Story Hall will open soon. The vibrant commercial flavor and strong sense of historical culture blend together, and a century old Chinatown has a "face changing" opportunity. The major driver behind this is Li Peizhen, the president of Chinatown Foundation.

Working more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Li Peizhen shuttles through Chinatown alleys, racking her brains and running around for revitalization. Walking on the streets with reporters, she saw graffiti on the walls and dirt on the ground. She frowned and said, "It shouldn't be like this. This is not the Chinatown I know. It used to be so beautiful. I want to retrieve that memory."

The Li family in Vancouver is famous and can be called the first family of Chinese Americans. Li Riru, Li Peizhen's grandfather, paid the poll tax from Taishan to Canada in his early years. He started as a migrant worker and later ran a business and school. Her father, Li Lianghan, was a famous real estate tycoon in Vancouver and once served as the supervisor of British Columbia University. Uncle Lin Zuomin is also very famous. He was the first Chinese governor of Asia Province.

Born in such a family background, Li Peizhen doesn't need to bother and work hard at all, but she doesn't want to just be a carefree princess. She originally worked in her father's real estate company, but later founded her own beauty company. When she was in her 30s, she suffered from breast cancer, giving her a new thought about life. "Life is very short. I want to do something I really like and leave something worthwhile." So in 2011, she set up the Chinatown Foundation to contribute money to revitalize Chinatown, which is full of wonderful memories of her childhood play.

Li Peizhen said, "I often think of the scene when my grandfather took my hand and walked on the Pianda Street, thinking about the days when I spent my youth walking with a group of relatives and friends in Chinatown alleys, eating, drinking and playing." She said that Chinatown is not only a place that symbolizes Chinese culture, but also represents the important contribution of Chinese to Canada. "Without the Chinese workers who built railways with their blood and sweat in those years, the east and west banks of Canada would not be connected. The Chinese workers of those years and their descendants took root in Chinatown and further contributed to Canada with flourish."

Now Chinatown is engraved with negative words such as tramps and filth. Li Peizhen said, "It has many problems, but here is our root. I believe I can do something to change it."

The Foundation has launched many projects to help Chinatown. The most notable one is that it has taken over the important heritage building of Chinatown and the Meihua Hotel with a history of more than 100 years. Meihua Hotel has rented rooms to low-income people and elderly people at a very low price for a long time. In order to let these elderly people continue to live a comfortable life, Huabu Foundation paid for the purchase in 2016, and the life of the original residents was not affected at all.

During the epidemic, the Foundation set up a gift website and held a "must eat food" activity to help businesses in Chinatown.

After years of hard work, two large-scale projects will finally meet the public this year.

This summer, the reconstruction plan of 58 West Hastings Street, which costs 115 million Canadian dollars, will start. A 10 storey building for low-income people's housing and medical services will inject new hope into the eastern district.

This is a very unique housing construction project. Not only the Chinatown Foundation and the community donated 30 million Canadian dollars, but the provincial and municipal governments also contributed respectively; With the cooperation of British Columbia Housing Authority, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Vancouver Coastal Health Bureau, a total of 230 residential units will contain different combinations to facilitate various low-income residents. Li Peizhen said, "The low-income and homeless people who have lived in Wendong for a long time need close and complete medical care, so there are 50000 square feet of medical facilities in this building that will be put into use."

Li Peizhen has been very busy with this case; On the other hand, the "Chinatown Stories" hall, which was nurtured by herself, will open in September. Li Peizhen is excited and nervous as if she were to meet the mother of the newborn baby.

The Chinatown Stories Museum is located at 168 Pianda East Street, which was the former site of the former Chinatown Branch of the Bank of Montreal. It is a century old building full of history. Each design and text link of the hardware and software equipment in the museum is a masterpiece that Li Peizhen has repeatedly pondered. Under the "old buildings in the old land tell the past", she hopes that the museum will "undertake the prosperity of the past and the present".

The exhibition contents of the museum include Chinatown history, cultural relics and interactive videos. The themes include immigration, ethnic relations, community building and social welfare; The museum also includes "Chinatown Revitalization Center" and "Education Center" to create a good platform for economy and education.

In the coming season, the two major projects will come on the scene in style, but the difficulties and setbacks over the past few years are inexplicable. Because the four words "Revitalizing Chinatown" involve extremely complicated differences and interests, it is no wonder that Li Peizhen's father repeatedly asked her, "Do you really want to do it? Is it worth it?"

She said that she was lucky that her parents gave unconditional love and many people gave countless supports, which made her believe that everything is possible. "Now may be the time when I have the least sleep and the most tired body in my life, but it is the happiest time in my heart, because I believe that what I do can make Chinatown look different."