Fan Tan Alley

View into Fan Tan Alley looking south from Fisgard toward Pandora in the distance

Fan Tan Alley is an alley in Victoria, British Columbia's Chinatown. It runs south from Fisgard Avenue to Pandora Avenue in the block between Government Street and Store Street. It was originally a gambling district with restaurants, shops, and opium dens. Today it is a tourist destination with many small shops including a barber shop, art gallery, Chinese cafe, apartments and offices. It is the narrowest street in Canada. At its narrowest point it is only 0.9 metres (35 in) wide. It was designated as a heritage property by the local government in 2001.

The building on the western side is currently undergoing renovations and seismic upgrades.

The ghost of a 17-years-old killer, known as Chan Ohan, was reportedly witnessed since he committed suicide in his prison cell. The backstory occurring in 1889, Chan was an Asian man who fell in love with a woman, Yao, who he saw sitting at her window. Yao was very poor and had to live in the house of a mentally ill man. Chan was making beds and cleaning rooms in a hotel and for several days, he shared his passion and love for her. On one day, he proposed her for marriage, and the girl realized he was not making jokes, as she thought. Yao told Chan she couldn't leave her house since her owner abused her and would hunt her down and kill her if she did. Chan tried to give her a poison sample and told her to pour it on the foods kill the boss and his wife so she and Chan could be together. Yao was shocked to see his kind of seriousness and knew the penalty for murder, so she told him to go away and never come back. Chan was already penniless, and felt publicly humiliated and laughed at when returning home by the streets. After two days, he crept around the buildings with a friend and spied her with him. His counterpart grabbed Yao by the hair, making her scream. Chan chopped her head off with a butcher knife. He fled through many alleys and escaped through the back of the hotel from Chinatown's owner, Tommy, who he passed nearby.

Chan missed two days of work. Tommy saw a missing reward with $150, "wanted for murder in Chinatown", describing Chan perfectly as what he glimpsed when Chan ran nearby. Tommy went to the police to find Chan. The police found him hiding in a coal bin, his clothes covered in blood, in the American hotel's basement. Chan was arrested and jailed. Prior to two days, Chan hanged himself with his shirt. In encounters, Chan's ghost typically makes footstep noises approaching, passes through the alley with bloody clothes and a butcher knife and pushes witnesses when running by or people blocking his way without seeming aware of them, then fading away. The story was featured on Creepy Canada, in the 13th episode of season 3.

See also

• Mårten Trotzigs Gränd: A narrow street in Sweden
• Parliament Street, Exeter: A narrow street in the United Kingdom
• Spreuerhofstraße: A narrow street in Germany
• Strada sforii: A narrow street in Romania

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons