A German and a Guatemalan yesterday set out on a month-long “running” journey around Taiwan, carrying the national flag to express their love for the country.
“We’re really excited and really looking forward to this,” said Sebastian Ang of Germany, adding that the excitement was so overwhelming that he did not go to bed until midnight the previous night.
Ang, 34, and 32-year-old David Vega had originally planned to embark on the 1,100km trip to raise funds for their mobile application development start-up, but later decided to do the run without financial aid.
Photo: CNA
Throughout the 30-day trip, one of their employees will accompany them on a bicycle carrying basic necessities.
The two men set off at 7:15am from their office in Taipei, heading to Tamsui District (淡水), New Taipei City (新北市), on a clockwise run around the nation to promote the beauty of Taiwan, and are scheduled to return to Taipei on July 30, their Web site said.
Due to the heat, they will only run in the early mornings and late afternoons, Ang said, adding that they will use the rest of the time to update photographs, videos and anecdotes from each day of their run on their Web site, taiwanrun.com, which is available in Chinese, English, Spanish and German.
Over the month-long trip, the three plan to spend as little money as they can, and to see if Taiwanese will provide them with accommodation. They are also carrying a tent.
Any help is welcome, Ang said, adding that running along with them would be a great way to show public support.
“This is definitely a challenge for all of us, but it will bring us close together at the same time,” Ang said, adding that “the extreme hardship” will also serve as a great opportunity for team building.
It will be a tough journey as the first leg of the trip, to Tamsui, which is about 24km from their starting point, already exceeds the longest distance they had run before, the German said.
“The excitement will lead us through,” said Vega, who is not used to running and only began training two weeks ago.
Some of their friends also showed up in the early morning to cheer for them.
“I’m sure they’ll be much more tanned and slimmer when they return,” said Yannick Schwab of Germany, who has known the two since 2010, when they were studying for their MBAs at National Chengchi University.
Schwab called them crazy, but praised their courage, saying that it will be a great life experience for them and will create a shared memory.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods