Lin Pei-ju (林珮如), director of Chiayi County Livestock Disease Control Center, on Saturday unfurled a “Taiwan, Asia No. 1” banner upon reaching the peak of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, to promote Taiwan’s success in animal disease prevention.
Lin said she climbed the peak to promote Taiwan becoming a leader in Asia for eradicating infectious diseases affecting livestock, such as African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever.
The county official said she aimed to complete the “Asian Trilogy Peak Challenge” of Taiwan’s Yushan (玉山, 3,952m), Mount Kinabalu (4,095m) and Japan’s Mount Fuji (3,776 m), to promote Taiwan’s success in livestock disease control.
Photo courtesy of Lin Pei-ju
The climb up Kinabalu was much more difficult than her summit of Yushan three years ago, she said.
“We began on Friday at the starting point, the Timpohon Gate at 1,866m, climbing to Laban Rata Resthouse at 3,273m. So we covered about 6km of the trail, taking us six hours, going up 1,400m in elevation,” Lin said.
She said they awoke at 2:30am the next day to hike the final 2.5km, climbing about 820m to reach the peak. They then returned to the rest house to eat brunch before climbing down the same route.
From the peak to the starting gate, was a descent of about 2,200m on the 8.5km trail, she said.
“Climbing the trail to go up in the dark was quite exhausting, but God had blessed us. The weather forecast had it as a cloudy and rainy day, but when we reached the summit, the sky opened and the sun came out. So despite being exhausted and breathing quite heavily, we were able to change outfits and unfurl the banner,” she said.
Taking the photograph with the banner at the peak was her way of promoting the success of Taiwanese health authorities, industry and academics in preventing livestock diseases, Lin said.
“This year we are aiming for international recognition of Taiwan as a country free of the three major swine diseases, so it is worthwhile to tout to the world our success,” she said.
In 2022, when outbreaks of African swine fever were reported in many countries, Lin climbed Yushan and displayed a “You and I together to safeguard Taiwan hogs” banner.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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