Peggy Revell
After a whirlwind tour of China last spring, a local woman is excited to make a return visit there this spring.
“I’m so looking forward to it,” enthused Carole MacKintosh, who was one of two local residents who travelled to China last May 27-June 13.
MacKintosh and Pat Basaraba, both members of the local Tai Chi group, participated in the trip, which Thunder Bay’s Tai Chi Master Peng Youlian has a hand in putting together each year.
“Because we had been involved with the Tai Chi, I became interested in the culture,” explained Basaraba, who won’t be heading back again this spring but remains enthusiastic about last year’s excursion.
“When you go to China, there’s so much history there,” she noted. “It’s so different that it’s not like going to any other place.
“You’re going to see things and do things that you would never, ever have the opportunity to do,” she reasoned.
This time around, about eight people from the Fort Frances area are heading off May 12 for a similar trip to China, noted MacKintosh.
And while crossing items off her “Bucket List” means she normally wouldn’t want to head back to the same location, MacKintosh said she wanted to re-visit the country so her husband—the now-retired Dr. Angus MacKintosh—also could see the sights.
“My husband didn’t go on the last one. He was still working,” she explained. “But everywhere I went, [it was], ‘Oh, I wish Gus was here. Oh, I wish he could see the Terra Cotta warriors.’”
Last year’s group wasn’t exclusively for those involved with Tai Chi, added MacKintosh, noting she and Basaraba were joined by another 20 or so people with Master Peng from Thunder Bay, and then another 20 people also travelling out of Vancouver.
But they did have the opportunity to practise the martial art while visiting China—even ending up on Shanghai television at one point.
MacKintosh and Basaraba also took a Town of Fort Frances flag along with them in order to get a photo of it on the Great Wall of China.
“It was just a fantastic trip where they could pack in everything they could—historical, cultural, geographical, shows, entertainment,” MacKintosh enthused.
“The Great Wall was impressive,” said Basaraba, citing one of the highlights of the trip for her.
“There you are at one of the Seven Wonders of the world,” she noted, marvelling at the detail and thought that was put into the construction of the wall as a defensive system against invasions.
“That’s the high point,” agreed MacKintosh.
The contrast between new and old was another highlight, Basaraba added, such as taking a ride in a rickshaw but then also travelling in a Maglev train which would go 300 m.p.h.
“We were going from ancient to ultra modern,” she remarked.
“For me, actually, I think the Yangtze cruise was stunning,” MacKintosh said about the four-day cruise which showed them the river and the dam.
Alongside other sites such as Tiananmen Square and cottage industry factories such as ones producing silk, the pair also had the chance to catch the World Expo and visit the Canadian pavilion there.
