Kaohsiung plans educational boat trip to Philippines

The Kaohsiung city government is sponsoring a yacht voyage crossing the Bashi Channel to the Philippines to offer the nation's Aborigines and Kaohsiung citizens an opportunity to get a better understanding of the ocean and Austronesian culture.

The trip, slated for April 2-8, will be overseen by the city's Commission for Native Taiwanese Affairs, with Liu Ning-sheng (劉寧生), a veteran yachtsman who skippered an 877-day round-the-world voyage that ended in 2001, providing consultations during the trip, said Taibang Lesale, executive director of the commission.

Even though Taiwan is an island country, few people here know much about the culture of the ocean or have the disposition of magnanimity and toleration that the ocean demonstrates, according to Taibang Lesale.

For the April yachting voyage, the 10 participants will embark from the southern port city of Kaohsiung to Batan Island, the northernmost island in the Philippines, to experience an ocean voyage that was taken by the ancestors of Taiwan's Aboriginal people, Taibang Lesale said.