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FEATURE: Swiss couple fall in love with Taiwan

Emil and Liliana Schmid, who hold the world record for traveling on the longest journey by car (23 years), smile in front of their car on Thursday. The 157 nations they have visited so far are listed on the side of their vehicle. PHOTO: FLORA WANG, TAIPEI TIMES

When Emil and Liliana Schmid, a Swiss couple who hold the world record for the longest journey by car -- they are in their 23rd year -- started planning their trip to Taiwan while in Sarawak, Malaysia, they were looking forward to having a close encounter with local culture in Taiwan.

They chose Taiwan rather than China as their next destination following Malaysia and Brunei because they did not see China as a tourist-friendly country.

"China is very difficult [for tourists]," Emil Schmid told the Taipei Times during an interview on Thursday.

PROHIBITIVE

China had required them to submit their itinerary at least three months prior to their arrival and was charging US$3,000 once the itinerary was approved, Emil said.

"Once it [the itinerary] is approved, you have to follow it. And for that, they assign you a guide at the border who follows you all the time until you leave the country," Emil said.

"I call it supervision," Emil said, adding that the Chinese government also charges a daily fee of between US$100 and US$500, which could add up to a total expense of US$10,000 for a one-month stay.

Countries visited by the Schmids, by continent Europe (45) North/Central America (27) South America (13) Africa (34) Asia (37) Australia/Oceania (1) Source: www.weltrekordreise.ch

"As we cannot afford China, we decided that the next best thing [to experience Chinese culture] was Taiwan," Emil said.

"Taiwan is as good as China, its people are more or less the same, as are its culture and language. But in the end, Taiwan is better," Emil said.

SOVEREIGN

On their Web site, where they post details of each of their visits, Taiwan is listed as the 157th country visited over their 23 years of traveling.

"Taiwanese wanted to tell us about the beauty of the nation. You can see that people are proud of their homeland ... We found much more than we expected about everything. It's the friendliness, it's the landscape and it's the culture."

Liliana and Emil Schmid

Among categories such as "sovereign countries," "dependencies of sovereign states," "territories claimed in Antarctica," "disputed territories" and "other territories" listed in alphabetical order on their Web site, Taiwan appears under the "sovereign state" category.

The Web site says that two adjustments had been made to the list, but Emil Schmid told the Taipei Times that Taiwan was not one of them because it had been included in the "sovereign country" category from the very beginning.

"The question of Taiwan -- whether it is sovereign or not -- that's a matter of personal opinion," Emil said.

"I think it is an independent country because it once was. At least until 1971, everybody recognized Taiwan as the Republic of China and then somehow this was changed as the main power emerged over there [in China] and the world forgot about Taiwan," he said.

"I don't think that's right," he said. "So I look upon Taiwan as another country, even if it's not a member of the UN," Emil said.

BEAUTY

The Schmids arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 2, first traveling down to Kaohsiung where they picked up their Toyota Land Cruiser and kicked off their two-month journey around Taiwan.

Before sitting down with the Taipei Times on Thursday, the Schmids had already been in Taiwan for one month, visiting Kaohsiung, Kenting (墾丁), Taitung, Taroko Gorge and Puli Township (埔里) in Nantou County.

Of all the new experiences they have had in Taiwan, it was nature that touched them most.

"Taiwan has the second-highest population density in the world. I was so surprised to find so much untouched nature here," Liliana said.

"All the butterflies in Kenting fly from blossom to blossom. You rarely see this type of butterfly," she said. "You see, the cities are very crowded, but as soon as you are outside, it is so different."

The scale of untouched nature in Taiwan was the very opposite of what they expected.

Before their arrival in Taiwan, they had thought people would be "all over the place," Emil said.

ENGLISH

What made their journey far more rewarding was the willingness of Taiwanese to communicate with them in English.

"We were in Japan in 1999, but Japanese people had the disadvantage of not wanting to speak English. If you talk to Japanese or ask a question, they will act like an oyster. The conversation is finished before it's even started. So you don't get anything out of them," Emil said.

The response they received in Taiwan was much more positive, he said.

"All over the nation, from Kaohsiung to Kenting to Taipei, Taiwanese were willing to communicate in English," he said, using the 30 e-mails from Taiwanese he had received over the past month as an example.

"Those 30 e-mails mean a lot, because the e-mail address was never mentioned in the TV or newspaper interviews we gave during our stay in Taiwan. This means that to get in touch with us, Taiwanese had to visit our Web site and look up our e-mail address. That's another step. It means a lot," Emil said.

"Never before had we received so many e-mails," in any of the countries we visited, he said. "We have done 57 TV interviews in 35 countries so far, as well as hundreds of interviews with newspapers, but we had never had such a response as the one we've had here in Taiwan. That is amazing."

"Taiwanese wanted to tell us about the beauty of the nation. You can see that people are proud of their homeland," Liliana said.

The couple still has about three weeks to continue their exploration of Taiwan before they leave for Hong Kong on Nov. 28.

But already, their experience in Taiwan has been an overwhelming one.

"Your first impression [of a country] is not always your last impression," Liliana said.

"We found much more than we expected about everything. It's the friendliness, it's the landscape and it's the culture," Emil said.
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