I wanted to say, what I wrote above is certainly what we'd call a "mass generalization". Obviously it's not all like that. But it is interesting, for example, stopping off for lunch in Chilliwack and truly feeling like you're out of the city, and not seeing one Asian person. Or driving through Langley and noticing all these massive trucks. A friend of mine who's originally from the state of Kansas in the USA loves Langley because it reminds her of home - it has all the chain restaurants and big box stores you don't normally find closer to Vancouver. I guess I was thinking more of the Willowbrook area of Langley when I was thinking "big box stores", although they exist in abundance out in the Fraser Valley, of which both Langley and Chilliwack reside.

By the way - "The Wack" is a pretty common nickname for Chilliwack that locals have been using for generations. You'll soon learn that every city has its nickname, favourable or otherwise.

Just don't confuse it with this:

No, no not yours! I was talking about the aerial views. Too bad about "The Wack" thing. It's almost as bad as when some idiot media person came out with 'Nucks, for the Canucks. Unfortunately, that caught on too. Oh well, I'll continue to say Chilliwack, though. Though Sardis is my prospective home town - shorter to say

Lychee, I really used to enjoy that band, and looking at that picture reminds me how old I am!!

We spent a month in Chilliwack back in summer 05. We home exchanged with a lovely family. We really enjoyed our time there, it's a nice town with a strong local community feel. It came across as being quite religious, but I think the Fraser Valley as a whole has the same reputation. We liked that it was close enough to Vancouver for a good day out, and a good midway point between there and the scenic inland BC area of places like Kelowna etc. Cultus Lake was our favourite spot and we headed down for a swim most days. I think it would be an excellent place to settle. It has most of the facilities you'd want from a town (pretty good supermarkets and department stores, a cinema, restaurants etc). You can see the mountains close by too.

I'm sorry to say that Chilliwack is pronounce "Chill'a'wack" not "Chill'i'wack" as it is spelt. Still cool name - just not as cool.

I did my first engineering project for work in Chilliwack and still get teased today for pronouncing it like chilly.