Channel-crossing teams from Taiwan and China are planning to come together to attempt to swim across the Taiwan Strait, a challenging task even for seasoned swimmers, a Hong Kong source reported yesterday.
The Hong Kong daily Ming Pao reported that Chinese swimmer Zhang Jian (張健), a lecturer with the Beijing University of Physical Education, has contacted Taiwan's renowned channel-crossing swimmer Wang Han (王瀚) several times in recent years with the idea of initiating a crossing attempt of the Taiwan Strait by swimmers from both sides.
The plan to swim across the Taiwan Strait has become a more and more feasible idea recently with the steady increase in the frequency and acceptance of cross-strait private exchanges despite the political impasse between the two sides, Zhang told the Hong Kong newspaper.
According to Zhang, who last August swam across northern China's Pohai, a gulf located on the Yellow Sea, and who is scheduled to take on the English Channel this July, Wang has set the autumn of 2002 as the time when the planned joint crossing by Wang and Zhang and their two teams of swimmers will take place.
Zhang told Ming Pao that crossing the 210km-wide Taiwan Strait alone is physically and politically impossible for any swimmer in the world to complete because of the unpredictable sea conditions as well as the political stalemate between Taiwan and China. He added that relay swimming would be a viable way of making the crossing.
Wang, who was also interviewed by Ming Pao reporters, said that technically, the Taiwan Strait crossing becomes a 400km crossing when the seasonal currents (which change once about every six hours) are factored in to the actual cross-strait swimming distance.
Wang noted that a point between Taoyuan County and Hsinchu County would be a good location from where to set out on the long-distance swim, adding that the ideal spot on the Chinese side has yet to be decided.
The northeastern monsoon season, from October through April, is not a suitable time for an attempted crossing of the Taiwan Strait, Wang said, adding that water temperature, sharks, physical exhaustion and seasickness are other factors that must be overcome for a successful crossing.
None of these physical factors, however, is as challenging as the political impasse across the Taiwan Strait, he lamented.
Wang, the first swimmer from Taiwan to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar and the first to conquer the English Channel, said he has been planning to challenge the Taiwan Strait for 10 years.
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