Veteran team swimmer Wang Han (王瀚) plans to conquer the Taiwan Strait later this year.
The cross-strait swim will be Wang's first attempt in nine years since he and his team swam across the Messina Strait in June 1998.
Between 1986 and 1998, Wang and his team swam across 12 channels or straits around the world.
Wang, 55, said at a news conference that the cross-strait swim will be attempted by swimmers from both sides of the strait in three stages between this August and August 2009.
He lamented that despite economic prosperity, Taiwanese are not familiar with the oceans surrounding their island and that maritime leisure activities have never been popular.
He said he was once asked which channel or strait in the world he considers the most difficult to swim across. After a thoughtful pause he said that the Taiwan Strait poses the biggest challenge.
He saidd that he began to plan the cross-strait swim in September 2005, although concrete action did not start until last month after the cooperating party on the other side of the strait was finally determined -- the Exchanges Department of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council.
Twenty-five swimmers led by Wang will launch the first round of the swim between August and October this year, depending on the weather and prevailing currents.
The swimmers plan to swim from Tamsui, Taipei County or Nanliao, Hsinchu County to Pingtan in China's Fujian Province in a relay fashion, with each swimmer in the water for one hour.
Wang said that although the shortest distance between Taiwan and Fujian is 170km, it is more like 250km in terms of swimming.
The second round of the swim is scheduled to be launched between next April and May, also departing from Taiwan's Tamsui or Nanliao for Fujian's Pingtan, Wang said.
He said that for the third round, the 25 swimmers will depart from Pingtan for Tamsui or Nanliao, scheduled for between July and August of 2009.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS