As part of Mersey Basin Week 2008, October 9th saw the start of the 3rd annual Manchester Oriental Organisations Alliance (MOOA) Canal Walk. The weather was beautiful and we had a great turnout, with 20 Chinese Elders attending.
We all met at the Chinese Arch in the city centre and after a quick health and safety talk by Sarah Flynn and a few photos (with the addition of a local policeman!), we set off towards Canal Street.
Beside the canal, Freya Cheshire gave a brief talk on the Rochdale Canal’s history, helpfully translated by Kin Cheng. We then set off along the towpath stopping at key points for Freya to give information about Manchester’s history and the significance of the canal in shaping it into the world’s first modern city.
Most of the information used in the talks was taken from the recently launched Hear Manchester website (www.hearmanchester.com) which contains 10 audio files designed to be downloaded and listened to whilst walking alongside the canal. The audio files include interviews with local experts and cover different aspects of Manchester’s fascinating and varied history.
As the sun shone, we came to Dukes’ 92 in Castlefield where we were lucky enough to see a canal boat being transported through the lock. Everyone stood and watched as the boat entered the Bridgewater Canal and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the locks working.
After a brief rest, we took a slight detour around the Grocers Warehouse arm of the Bridgewater Canal and then rejoined the Rochdale to make our way back towards Oxford Road.
After the walk, we had all worked up an appetite so we walked to Tai Wu on Oxford Road and sat down to the most delicious Chinese meal containing lots of traditional dim sum dishes. It was a brilliant end to a thoroughly successful walk.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Bev Mitchell for helping to organise the walk and to Kin for acting as our translator, and thank you to all the Elders who attended, it made it really enjoyable.
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