Truth or fiction, the story goes that in efforts to reach Asia, European explorers travelled east and sailed across the Atlantic and up the St. Laurence river. Landing on a south eastern section of the island, explorers called the area Lachine (la Chine), French for China, mistakenly thinking they arrived in the far east.
Lachine is a borough within the city of Montreal and on the Island of Montreal.
Check out Ziva's Inferno to see who else contributed to today's photo challenge. Today's theme is China.
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| Where the Lachine Canal and St Lawrence divide |
The Lachine Canal was built so that ships would be able to bypass the rapids on the St. Lawrence without having to trek over land. The canal was the port of entry that linked the Atlantic to the heart of the continent. It was one of the factors that made Montreal the centre of the Canadian manufacturing industry.
It feels like we're on a slow boat to China with this challenge. And then to find we ended up in Montreal? We're never going to get there!
ReplyDeleteIt's like we are halfway across the ocean but we have to turn around because we forgot a warm sweater.
Deletelolz @ Paula!
DeleteThose guys should have had a map. They probably wouldn't stop to ask for directions, I bet.
ReplyDeleteI mean, didn't they have a Magellan GPS?
DeleteThey tried, bless them.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks for the history and geography lesson.
ReplyDeleteLooks like China to me. :)
Well, if you scrolled to the left, and magnify 20x, you may get a glimpse of Chinatown.
DeleteI didn't know that. Thanks for the history lesson. I hate getting lost. But at least I've never ended up on the wrong continent.
ReplyDeleteThe worst I did was going to the wrong city.
DeleteSo Lachine is a mistake. Clever.
ReplyDeleteDepending on who you ask, in more ways than one.
DeleteDid not know any of that... beautiful picture of Montreal which is definitely not China.
ReplyDelete:-)
Traci
Or so we think...
DeleteI wouldn't mind getting on a ship right now and ending up in Montreal...
ReplyDeleteSure! We could go to Cafe Ellefsen. And I can give you a Kukko.
DeleteAwesome! Also, if I didn't know what a Kukko was, that might sound really dirty...
DeleteWow! I learned something today. I felt like I was sitting in History class. Is there a pop test?
ReplyDeleteThat's a beautiful picture.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the history and geography lesson!
I want a Kukko!
ReplyDeleteWait, I have no idea what that is.
Nice bit of history, Shawn.
Did they land there and the next day say, "Ummm... my bad!" HA HA!
ReplyDeleteYour watermark looks like it's having fun in the rapids.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photo and an interesting picture.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that! A really interesting take on 'China'! And wow, look at that turbulent river.
ReplyDelete