A Taiwanese couple is embarking on a cycling trip that will take them to four continents in 30 months to promote the centenary of the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwanese products and environmental awareness.
Lin Hsiau-kai (林孝鍇), 37, and his girlfriend Yen Yi-hui (顏怡慧), 27, began their 55,000km trip on Wednesday by flying from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok, Thailand, where the cycling began. They plan to complete their trip in October 2012.
“Ever since I was a high school freshman in 1986, I’ve dreamed about taking this trip and it has finally come true, but the road is long and there are big challenges ahead, “ Lin said in an interview at the airport.
During their journey, they will cycle across Southeast Asia, Oceania, Central Asia and Europe, before flying across the Atlantic Ocean to the US and then Japan, the final stop.
Lin, who worked at the technical department of the Cloud Gate dance troupe with Yen before the two quit their jobs, said this has been a dream of his since he read about the story of Hu Jung-hua (胡榮華), the first Taiwanese to cycle around the world in the 1980s, and was greatly inspired.
He said, a coincidence made the trip possible.
“My landlord told us a couple of months ago that we had to move out because he had decided to sell the apartment. I thought about taking a break from work before coming up with the idea to turn the break into an around-the-world cycling tour,” Lin said.
He thought this year would be a good time to make the trip because preparations are getting underway to celebrate the ROC’s centenary next year and cycling is a good way to promote awareness of climate change and alternative energy.
Yen joined without hesitation even though she has no previous cycling experience. Lin has been a cyclist for a long time, cycling across Australia in 1996. Yen said she wanted to go out and see the world, and cycling is just one transportation option.
Yen and Lin said they would like to dedicate the trip to the ROC, which was established in 1911, as a birthday present to the country.
“I guess we’ll be somewhere in Australia on Jan. 1, 2011, to celebrate the first day of the centenary. And maybe we can get married on Oct. 10, or National Day, somewhere in Europe,” she said.
Lin drew up the travel itinerary after consulting an experienced cyclist, who advised them which countries to avoid.
The pair will cycle between 60km to 120km on average each day, Lin said.
With a budget of about NT$2 million (US$63,000), Lin said, the trip would not be possible without the sponsorship of several local bicycle companies, which provided them with bikes priced at NT$200,000 each, and the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which asked for support from Taiwan’s overseas offices.
Cloud Gate founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) also encouraged the couple to make the trip and made a donation of NT$100,000.
“Mr Lin jokingly told me that I would have to pay him the money back if I give up,” Lin Hsiau-kai said.
A certified historical sites guide in Taiwan, Lin Hsiau-kai said he believes that he will be able to share Taiwan’s stories with foreigners and “show Taiwan to the world” during his trip.
“About 90 percent of our equipment was made in Taiwan. We would like to tell people these products are very well made in Taiwan,” he said.
Cycling is an ideal way of travel, Lin said, because it makes connecting and communicating with local people possible.
Looking ahead to the trip, Yen said the place she would like to visit the most is Lijiang (麗江) in China’s Yunnan Province, because of the difficulty of the route, which is 2,800m to 3,000m above sea level.
However, Lin Hsiau-kai said it was very possible that the trip would turn out differently than originally planned because of weather conditions, accidents and various situations in different countries.
“We might have to change our plan along the way, “ he said.
No matter how the trip turns out, the couple said they plan to document their dream trip every step of the way via photographs and videos. They also plan to regularly update their blogs and Facebook pages to keep in touch with friends and family.
The first leg of the trip, which began on Wednesday and ends on April 28, will take them from Thailand to Malaysia and Singapore.
After that, they will travel to Australia and New Zealand, as well as making stops in China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus before entering eastern and central Europe in the second half of next year.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater