Richmond

Richmond is a city of islands. Built on the flat delta where the Fraser River meets the Strait of Georgia, it spans roughly 129 km² across Lulu Island, Sea Island, and a scatter of smaller islands — almost all of it sitting at or near sea level and ringed by more than 80 kilometres of dyke trails. To the north across the Fraser's North Arm is Vancouver; Delta lies to the south across the South Arm, and New Westminster sits to the east. Vancouver International Airport occupies most of Sea Island, putting one of Canada's busiest gateways inside the city limits. Home to roughly 210,000 residents according to the [2021 Census](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/), Richmond is one of the most ethnically diverse municipalities in the country, with a large and long-established Chinese-Canadian community alongside generations of other immigrant and multi-generational families. That diversity shapes daily life — from the dense Asian shopping centres clustered along the No. 3 Road corridor in City Centre, to the historic fishing wharves of Steveston Village, to the suburban retail nodes at Ironwood and Terra Nova at the eastern and northwestern ends of Lulu Island. Incorporated in 1879 and now governed by the [City of Richmond](https://www.richmond.ca/), the municipality is anchored by the Canada Line SkyTrain, which connects four Lulu Island stations and three Sea Island stations to downtown Vancouver in under half an hour. The neighbourhoods that follow range from the high-rise density of City Centre to the heritage cannery streets of Steveston and the quieter, family-oriented pockets in between — each with its own rhythm, walkability, and relationship to the river.