The Lion Dance mural, Ottawa, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

The Lion Dance mural is a piece of street art at 726 Somerset St W in Ottawa's Chinatown, painted by local artist Dan Metcalfe. It shows a northern-style lion dance costume in a night scene of fireworks and lotus flowers, and it adds colour and culture to the neighbourhood.

The story behind it

The mural was commissioned by Ottawa's Chinatown Business Improvement Area (BIA) to bring more colour and cultural identity to the district. Metcalfe chose a northern lion dance costume as the central figure and set it in a night scene with fireworks and lotus flowers.

The lion dance is a traditional performance in Chinese culture and in other Asian countries, in which dancers move inside a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. It is most often seen at Chinese New Year. In northern China the dance is often performed by a pair of lions, one male and one female. The lions may have a gold-painted wooden head and shaggy red and yellow hair. A red bow marks the male, while a green bow, or sometimes green hair, marks the female. The mural also reflects how Ottawa celebrates cultural diversity through street art.

What to look for

• The lion itself, the main design element, with its shaggy hair and the colours that mark a northern-style costume.
• The bow on the lion's head, which in the northern tradition signals whether the lion is male or female.
• The night setting, where fireworks fill the sky and recall the celebrations the lion dance is performed at.
• The lotus flowers, which add a softer, calmer note to the festive scene.

Tips for your visit

• The mural is on a public street, so you can view it from the pavement at any time without going inside anywhere.
• A few minutes is enough to take in the details and take photos, though you will want longer if you explore the rest of Chinatown.
• Daylight shows the colours best, and the painted night sky looks especially vivid in good light.
• Somerset Street West is lined with shops and restaurants, so it is easy to combine the mural with a meal or a browse. Check current opening hours for any place you plan to visit.

See it on a quest

Ottawa: In the Eyes of a Street Artist is a good way to see this mural, because you reach it on foot as one stop on a longer route through the area. The app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle right in front of the artwork, so you look at it far more closely than you would on a quick pass. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no set departure time.